He Who Opens "Can of Worms" Before Time Kills Tree of Light!


Notice to Ghanaian officials and bureaucrats devising all kinds of schemes to privatize state enterprises that the Government of Ghana (GOG) itself may owe. And to other people ill-informed about the development of western economies and their societies, and the belief that all similar size Gross Domestic Product (GDP) count equally for all, in all societies!

NOTE: There is more socialism in America for the right people and groups, than there is capitalism in Switzerland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Holland, and even in Merkel's Germany for all their peoples!

When Phillip Kobina Baidoo, now domiciled in London, United Kingdom, told us about 5 weeks ago that he was responding to a six (6) month-old essay by columnist Francis Kwarteng on Ghanaweb, we thought something didn't quite add up. We've been proven right. Since 12 June, we've seen and read a torrent of "Can of Worms" essays from Baidoo. Those articles have all been sharply divorced from reality. The one "statistics" fact does not even make sense. And as Baidoo has continued to post more of those essays, we've observed Kwarteng respond directly, but decreasingly so, possibly for the reasons we've just identified.

However, in the last "Can of Worms" series from Baidoo, we noticed Baidoo would not take a moment to respond directly to even one of several responses from Kwarteng. (Readers can check that for themselves). Again, Baidoo did not respond just once to Kwarteng's civil, and measured comments, even though Baidoo spent time responding to comments from other people. As of this writing, Kwarteng has had an essay on Ghanaweb for more than 20 hours: Phillip Kobina Baidoo is nowhere. He is missing in action (MIA)!

In our field of practice, we call that lack of reciprocity, lack of respect, and lack of decency. We are sorry to say Baidoo has proven he has little, or none of those values.

Further, substantively, all the serial postings by Baidoo with respect to economics, freedom, and the development of modern western societies, all of them abstract, theoretical, and with little value for the average Ghanaweb reader, are sharply divorced from politics and governance, and 2015-Global reality. Fact is, to the extent economics is a social phenomenon, there cannot be economics without the controlling factor, POLITICS, national and international!

Maybe, Philip Kobina Baidoo will explain to us why it is not socialist when capitalist USA has still not bothered to privatize the Hoover Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and those other electric utilities and water supply systems! Or, why Farm Subsidies worth over $7 billion are paid every year to some people to grow crops, and not to grow crops.

The copy of a 2014 essay by Peter Coy, Bloomberg Business Economics Editor, posted by Kwarteng as rebuttal in part to one of Baidoo's essays, demonstrated amply that politics (and governance) are more important to theoretical economics, or, we must truly love Anarchy and the so-called "Invisible Hand of the Market".

READ: "...“There are still many people in America who regard depressions as acts of God. I think Keynes proved that the responsibility for these occurrences does not rest with Providence,” Bertrand Russell, the philosopher, wrote in his autobiography..."


HERE IS MORE: “...The market is not God and the government is not the Devil. Despite their enormous advantages, markets are not benign and self-regulating. They create numerous social, economic, and political problems that only government can correct. Government is also not the sworn enemy of business and capitalism…Similarly, those who celebrate the achievements of business and a market economy should also acknowledge and celebrate the role government has had in those accomplishments..." (Amy, 2007).


To the point, the right-wing in the United States would want all of us to behave as though "depressions (and recessions)...( are)...acts of God". That is, shun government, unless it is government benefits to corporations and the super-rich, in subsidies, free interest rates, free wealth in property values made possible by government regulations, free-guaranteed mortgages, and no taxes (among them Social Security taxes that actually support Americans who are old, disabled, poor, infants, and/or young).


Our Phillip Kobina Baidoo joined the right-wing of the United States weeks ago, by his statements, from London!


WHITE PRIVILEGE IN BILL O’REILLY'S LEVITTOWN, NEW YORK, USA:

Funny our African and Ghana national, Phillip Baidoo has hitched his tent to American right-wingers and the like of Alex Jones and Fox News's Bill O'Reilly.

You see, during 1940s-1970s, for more than 30 years, in Bill O'Reilly's hometown of Levittown, New York, African-Americans were consistently denied Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans and could not live in Levittown, NY. In fact, this was a national practice throughout the United States; it is still the case in some parts of the US, even today.

As reported by Erik Wemple October 17, 2014, in a review of Jon Stewart's Daily Show, Bill O'Reilly the White-Male in America still did not get it:

READ:
"...Stewart dug in on O’Reilly’s home town. Of Levittown, Stewart riffed:

“It gave you a nice stable, a cheap home — there was no down payments. It was this incredible opportunity … Those houses were subsidized … It wasn’t lavish,” said Stewart.

The back-and-forth that followed is essential to understanding the Fox News celebrity:

O’Reilly: No, they weren’t subsidized. They were sold to GIs, and the GIs got a
mortgage they could afford.

Stewart: Did that upbringing leave a mark on you even today?

O’Reilly: Of course. Every upbringing leaves a mark on people.

Stewart: Could black people live in Levittown?

O’Reilly: Not in that time — they could not.

Stewart: So that, my friend, is what we call in the business “white privilege.”

O’Reilly: That was in 1950, all right.

Stewart: Were there black people living there in 1960?

O’Reilly: In Levittown? I don’t know.

Stewart: There weren’t.

O’Reilly: How do you know?

Stewart: Because I read up on it..."

Dear reader, totally lost to Mr. O’Reilly is the idea that African-American GIs (soldiers) also came back from the same war the Whites returned from. You know, the same war that was impetus for one of the government subsidies for homes Bill O'Reilly's parent were able to "afford". Further, the point about a subsidy your parents "can afford" is that government is actually under-writing most of the risks associated with the transaction so it will be "affordable" to your parents - White purchasers only, in this case. (That is in part the origin of the American Middle-Class and all much of the wealth they owned and "created")!

Problem is, in the United States, the vast majority of people, including students with advanced college degrees, lawyers, and other professionals, etc., go through school and life without a clue about these factors that significantly shape differential access to employment, housing, healthcare, and wealth.

Or they just do not care to know, like Mr. O'Reilly of Fox News.


WHAT MISSION & VALUES AS YOU COUNT GDP IN YOUR SOCEITY?:

We say that politics matter in economics! We are saying that governments matters in societies!
We are talking about the use of the power of government to shape economies, societies, and the well-being of individuals, usually unequally. As a result, we can appreciate the factors that may have led Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his CPP to clearly and scientifically elucidate what the mission of the CPP and the GOG ought to be:

“...Our aim is to establish in Ghana a strong and progressive society in which no one will have any anxiety about the basic means of life, about work, food and shelter; where poverty and illiteracy no longer exist and disease brought under control; and where our educational facilities provide all the children of Ghana with the best possible opportunities for the development of their potentialities...”

Therefore, when African and Ghanaian national Baidoo lends his voice to Fox News and O’Reilly's right-wing of America, and for unrelated reason takes a jab at African-American activist and MSNBC TV host, Rev. Al Sharpton, we are forced to conclude, charitably, that Kobina Baidoo does not know America (or the Europe he calls home, even).

ITEM: Rev. Al Sharpton and other activists, from St. Louis, Missouri; to North Carolina; to Charleston, South Carolina; to Hempstead, Texas; to Baltimore, Maryland; all of them, are fighting for legal rights (voting rights, education, employment, equal pay, freedom from tyranny by police, etc.), "loads of people" thought were long won and settled, generations ago.

Case in point!

In the US, tens of thousands of people have been killed by handguns whose manufactory, strongly sanctioned by political power, were counted as part of the US GDP when those guns were manufactured, then sold, and possibly re-sold. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that there were 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. in 2010. According to the FBI, in 2012, there were 8,855 total firearm-related homicides in the US, with 6,371 of those attributed to handguns. Each of those hand guns went into the count of the US GDP.

READ:
"... Between 2000 and 2010, the death rate due to firearm-related injuries was more than 18.5 per 100,000 among blacks, but only nine per 100,000 among whites. For Hispanics, it was just over seven per 100,000, and for all other races it was just below 3.5 per 100,000...", (Ferdman, 2014).

Sadly, we know first-hand that the art and science of how to properly count these social phenomena is not totally within the faculty of Phillip Kobina Baidoo. We found out he has no light on those "statistics" things since his other opaque and hollow "Das Kapital II" essay.

SAYS KOBINA BAIDOO: "... Now, if a police department puts out its crime figures for murder for the previous year to be 4, and the current year records 7 you can conclude that there has been 75% rise in murder cases. That statistics can be interpreted as a soaring rate of murder...", (Baidoo, 16 June, 2015).

No you can't, Phillip Kobina Baidoo Jnr!

You will have to tell us the change in population from "the previous year...to...the current year...". Population, after all, is never static, even from one year to the next. (See our comment, 06-16 09:31).

They teach that in high school!


SOCIALIST USA & CAPITALIST EUROPE - KOBINA BAIDOO TAKES ALL!:

What is the economics and "wealth" behind those homicide numbers in "socialist USA" when we compare them to the situation in "capitalist Switzerland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Holland, and Angela Merkel's Germany", Mr. Phillip Kobina Baidoo?

Politics, freedom, and economic interests!

Reckon that the African-American GIs and other civilians who were discriminated against and were never processed for a home loan in Levittown (and in numerous other cities and towns in the US) even though they had the wherewithal, had to live somewhere, likely in sub-par rental facilities. Reckon that their families effectively denied opportunities to contribute directly, fully, to the US GDP and their communities during the years they could have been homeowners. Reckon they never acquired wealth through home ownership like their fellow citizens. Reckon the middle-class escaped them thanks to government!

How much more could the US GDP have been improved, Phillip Kobina Baidoo? How about the fortunes of their children, and their childrens' children?

We will not even talk about the drug wars and prisons as economic interests for private companies, individuals, and corporations sanctioned under the full force of the laws in the United States. That, we submit, are also indicators of socialist traits with benefit to some, if only from the perspective of the use of force (i.e., State Power), race, geography, and Politics, stupid!

We further submit that no individual in the world creates value or wealth without it being underwritten by government by way of infrastructure, services, and police power! No corporation in the world creates value or wealth without it being underwritten by government(s)!

Corporations are People in the United States, after all, with "...certain rights as a person...", so the US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts has decreed!

We are guessing Kobina Baidoo will shout till his lungs hurt that it is exactly the same in capitalist Switzerland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Holland, and in Angela Merkel's Germany, even.

The problem for Kobina Baidoo is this: the last we checked, the average person living legally in "capitalist" Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Finland, Holland, and even in Merkel's Germany, will never give up the work, life, and well-being they have in each one of those countries, and freely exchange them, with "complete" information, for a life in "capitalist United States", good as the life in the United States is.

Dear reader, there is data to support what we say here! But, one must first have an open mind and a modicum pragmatism, realism, and humility, above all! Regrettably, Phillip Kobina Baidoo has shown all of us that he has none of these things.

We will further hazard that Phillip Baidoo's prescient Lord Bevan, the inventor of the "British NHIS" would have loved "capitalist USA" too. What, with all the "Freedoms" on American streets and in the markets. So, we are wondering why Lord Bevan did not create a similar system with in the UK: Maybe ensure every person registered in the "British NHIS" also got a "Freedom Gun" to go with the healthcare they received. Lord Bevan could also have ensured those same people had Freedom to also vote with their gun permits (but not with the identity cards they received from the Colleges and Universities where they go to school)!

But, wait!

Why would we even need a gun permit when we want and must have Freedoms so much?

But seriously, by whose authority and what common sense is Phillip Kobina Baidoo fooling, that the "British NHIS" is not a "socialist" system, but rather a "capitalist" system? And by whose authority and what common sense do we sing the chorus of, with a "...bigger GDP comes better standard of living for every member of the society be it the rich or the poor..."?

Did Phillip Kobina Baidoo also count the $2.1 trillion stashed away in overseas banks by US corporations and individuals in order to avoid taxes under the protection of laws, laws enacted with politics and sprinklings of self-interest and greed?

What Baidoo-nonsense!

Yes, the rub of freedoms, economics, politics, knowledge, commonsense, and humility!

Let there be light!

Let the solar light shine ever bright and brighter, Ghana/Africa!

Above all, let us recognize the sweepstakes and tyranny of geography in life. Life, after all, depends a lot on where one finds oneself and ones kith and kin: Where you were when you were weakest like a new-born baby; Where you were when you were senile like an old Woman/Man.

Note To Sweepstakes Winner Phillip Kobina Baidoo: Social Living Is The Best!

Ghana, there is more socialism in "capitalist America" for the right people and groups, than there is capitalism in Switzerland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Holland, and in Merkel's Germany, even, for all their peoples. The entire 2-dozen torrent of fetid "Can of Worms" essays and similar others by Phillip Kobina Baidoo aren't worth the electronic ink they appear in.

This is our gift of light to Kobina Baidoo!

But sorry, we do not care for, or take any "Thank you."!


SOURCES:
1. John M. Keynes Biography, http://www.biographyonline.net/writers/keynes.html

2. Amy, Douglas J. “Capitalism Requires Government.” www.governmentisgood.com. 2007.

3. Erik Wemple. Bill O’Reilly’s Levittown denialism. 17 October, 2014,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/10/17/bill-oreillys-levittown-denialism/.

4. Philip Kobina Baidoo. Nkrumahism, The Can Of Worms I Opened – Das Kapital II, Ghanaweb, 16 June, 2015, http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Nkrumahism-The-Can-Of-Worms-I-Opened-Das-Kapital-II-362723.

5. Francis Kwarteng. Maxwell Awuku, in "What Amiri Baraka Said About Kwame Nkrumah (Part 9)", ModernGhana, 12 March, 2014. http://www.modernghana.com/news/528828/1/what-amiri-baraka-said-about-kwame-nkrumah-part-9.html.

6. Roberto A. Ferdman. The racial divide in America’s gun deaths, Washington Post, , 19 September , 2014,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/19/the-racial-divide-in-americas-gun-deaths/.

7. "Sweepstakes Winner".....//...Social Living Is The Best! - Bob Marley and the Wailers...//...Burning Spear, aka Winston Rodney.