Even a modest understanding of political science suggests that Dr. Pieder Beeli’s maxim
Grow the free market,
Shrink the government
is on target.
No government has taxed itself into prosperity.
If the Ogden government wants to increase revenue, instead of raising taxes, it should
- Reduce local regulations (barriers to enter the marketplace, what you can do on your property). How much of a regulatory burden is it to build
- a second story on your home?
- a second floor deck?
- A first floor deck?
- A mother-in-law unit?
- build out your home closer to the sidewalk?
Reduce the red tape! Reduce the cost! Eliminate the need for many engineering studies! Let people own private property!
- Fight national, state and county regulations (although the Ogen city council does not directly control these regulations, like DEI quotas and the like, the city can undertake a legal and political marketing effort to highlight the immorality of these regulations and to discuss nullification)
- Reduce taxes (yes, a reduction in some tax rates often leads to an increase in the tax revenue, see the Laffer Curve)
- Perform a survey to see what it would take to get more businesses in Ogden
- Perform or demand an analysis to determine the cost of every government entitlement and every government property. Ogden City is full of politicians’ ideas of what they would like to see, but they do a terrible job in answering the question, “At what cost does Ogden make the decision to incur more debt?”
- Get out of competing with the free market. It is an immoral overstep of authority for the City which has rules for Thee, but not for me to compete with the free market.
- Ogden city owns numerous residences to flip the property. This is immoral and uneconomical
- E.g., Ogden city purchased 742 East 30th Street in 2016 and, nine years later, no improvement has been recognized. Such examples abound [see page 3 of this document].
- Reduce punitive taxes
- Property taxes should be based on the lot value, not the property value (which the county assesses). But taxing on the basis of the property value disincentivizes residential property improvements. Ogden could lead the state in having a saner property tax calculation.
- Stop HUD projects. HUD projects brings a more criminal element to Ogden which
- Increases the burden on the police department (and your property taxes)
- Increases the price of goods (because of increased shoplifting)
- Decreases the probability of a retail business’s survival
- Increases the probability that Ogdenites will be a victim of theft or worse
- Exasperates those formerly lower income people who, by virtue of hard work and not being a recipient of social services, have worked their way out of the hood. To bring the hood then to these people is to mock their moral and financial accomplishments.
- Puts a cloud over Ogden’s future
I do not wish to increase Ogden’s revenue to grow the government. I wish to increase Ogden’s revenue to cut the tax rates for Ogden’s citizens and prune the scope and practice of Ogden government to its proper size. I wish to decrease the burden of Ogden government on the Ogdenite. The above revenue enhancing and cost-cutting proposals will facilitate
- A decrease in property tax rates
- An increase in property value
- An increase in the average Ogdenite’s financial freedom: To do something funded by a windfall gain in property value
- More local investment opportunities
Instead of a tax and spend approach that has characterized Ogden municipal government for over the past couple of decades, I want to reduce tax rates and decrease Ogden spending. But more spending on the roads!
What are the implied principles governing the City?
Obviously Ogden City government, like every city government, has some principles, like when they hold meetings, some allowance for public attendance (both in person and remotely)….
But, based on the behavior of the government, in its rule over the community, is the City choking off economic opportunities for its residents by
- competing with its residents for economic opportunities?
- imposing burdensome business regulations that thwart free enterprise and wealth creation?
- owning unnecessary property?
- demanding that the council’s cosmetic taste for historic sites be funded on the backs of the tax payer?
- imposing burdensome residential regulations that thwart home improvement projects and a modest side business?
- having a property tax structure that punishes residents for adding value to their neighborhood?
In case you didn’t know, the answer to all these questions is a depressing “YES!”
Vis-a-vis these principles, one does not see Ogden adhering to sane government. Rather one sees the City violating basic moral principles.
When the city–who has the police force and regulatory force on its side–competes with individuals who are subject to the city’s forces, the city has an unfair and immoral advantage. Clearly the city can more easily change or violate the regulations involved in its work than the citizen can change or obtain an exception to regulations.
Ogden residential property taxes are based on the property’s valuation. So if one makes an improvement on one’s property, even though said resident has improved his neighbors’ property values, for doing this favor one is likely to have his taxes increased. In this way, property taxes incentivize not making improvements.
If instead of taxing on the basis of the property’s valuation, the tax was assessed on the basis of the lot size and location, this alternative approach would avoid disincentivizing property improvements to Ogden communities.
The City of Ogden owns a bunch of property, and continues to buy homes and flip them, often to a more criminally inclined population (i.e., HUD housing). Moreover, this approach competes with Ogden home flippers, denying Ogden residents their natural right to create wealth.
When the city of Ogden buys properties, the property is not managed economically. The city employees’ paychecks are not dependent on how many days nothing was done to improve the property.
In contrast, when a private citizen takes on the financial responsibility he performs a more economic transformation of the property.
But my main point in this scenario is not merely that the private individual typically does a better job than the inefficient and poorly motivated government, but rather that it is immoral for the government to compete with private enterprise.
Government competing with private enterprise is immoral because
- It is not in the nature of government to create wealth
- It is not in the nature of government to be in competition with her citizen’s natural right to engage in commerce
- The government adjudicates regulations for its citizens, and tends to give easier regulations for itself than for the citizen.
- The government has the power of the gun. The police will do the bidding of the government against the citizen and take the gun to the head of the citizen.
- The government has the power of tilting the scales of justice for itself and against the citizen
This is why it is immoral for the government to compete with its citizens in the marketplace.
Moreover, no government has taxed itself into prosperity.
Governments are parasitic. Governments perform some management over an economy wherein the government creates no wealth. It is best for this government to not over-manage. All wealth is basically created by the free market.
What are the alleged explicit principles governing our city?
Mayor Ben Nadolski’s “Ogden Way” is a misguided proposal
One should not be too surprised then when the Mayor’s road map, The Ogden Way, gives pre-eminence, not to the Ogden taxpayer, but to the Ogden employee.
At the heart of The Ogden Way is our mission for Ogden’s employees
The essay prominently states this in bolded text
This is not only wrong-headed, but immoral.
Implicit in this statement, is a lack of appreciation for those whose hard work creates the wealth, the fuel, on which Ogden City runs. When a city transfers its center, its “heart,” from its citizens to its employees, it has doubled down on governing on the basis of its parasitic nature and declared itself to be indistinguishable from a criminal cartel.
One should recognize that in the free market, doing honorable business–-where the service to others is outstanding, and the self-sacrifice is clear-–is a boon for profit [2]. Such businesses are what create wealth. Not government.
The Seven Pillars for Human Success that the Ogden Mayor outlines for the city deserves to be scrutinized.
These statements are vague and in-actionable. They are on par with Pollyannaish wishes for “world peace.” Everyone wants the result of these seven pillars, but what actually makes a difference is the means to these goals. And if we violate the means to these ends then we insure that the desired end will not come to pass.
As Professor Thomas Sowell tells us, it is not the intentions of a policy that matter, but the incentives of that policy that carry the day.
Let’s go through the Ogden Mayor’s principles one by one.
- “Safety.” One way to achieve better safety is to not incentivize and subsidize a criminal culture to make Ogden their home. Dear Mayor, just say “goodbye” to section 8 housing.
- “Education and lifelong learning.” Presently, “public” education is neither “public” nor is it primarily about “learning.” My wife and I homeschooled our children from birth through high school. On the whole, they have done far better than even the average of the top 10% of “public” educated kids. If government school education was actually “public,” one could sell his interest in this entity. A sane investor would short government education like the Titanic. To extract, at the point of an Ogden police/SWAT officer’s gun, property taxes to subsidize government school education for a third party from the homeowner is immoral. Doubly immoral when the government schooling teaches kids that gender mutilation and rebellion against “Nature and Nature’s God” is beautiful. Government education is a racket for the teacher’s unions and contributes to the demise of our social power. It is not a coincidence that teachers and teacher’s unions vote to promote deficit spending and elective abortion. They care for children like a termite cares for your house.
- “Stable Neighborhoods” don’t just appear like pixie dust in a Disney movie. Stable neighborhoods are created where businesses can thrive, where regulations are held at bay and where criminality is prosecuted. Ogden businesses are closing because of shoplifting and section 8 housing are supplying the thieves. Section 8 housing is incompatible with “Stable Neighborhoods.” Ogden City can’t have it both ways.
- “Vibrant Economys [sic].” Given our observation above noting that profit, in the honorable marketplace, is the result of service to others and self-sacrifice, to glibly say follow the “Vibrant Economy” with the following–”A robust, diverse and dynamic economy that supports businesses and workers now and in the future”–is a wish list or an ideal without revealing the means to obtaining the ideal. Instead, the objective of a “Vibrant Economy” would be better buttressed by a pithy remark about reducing regulations and protecting businesses from shoplifting.
- “Strong Infrastructure.” What is the median Ogden household cost for road quality per dollar paid in taxes? Ogden has the highest property taxes (0.67%) in Weber County. I wish to make Ogden’s property taxes the lowest in the nation.
- “Healthy Lifestyles: Access to physical, spiritual and mental wellness, and recreation opportunities, including trails and open space.” Are “trails” spiritual but “saving one’s self for marriage” merely religious? How about instead “Healthy Lifestyles: We promote saving one’s self for marriage and marriage as a lifelong compact as the best environment to raise children?” That is the gold standard for romance and the creation of social power. Boom!
- “Meaningful Connections.” Given our remarks above about honorable wealth creation being the result of service to others, “meaningful connections” are a natural by-product to capitalism. Promote capitalism and virginity, dear Mayor and City Council, and you will promote “meaningful connections” automatically. Instead you promote “meaningful connections” as an artificial after-the-damage afterthought.
With these seven objectives, one does not see a cost explicitly indicated. This is pixie dust politics. The City budget likewise does not breakout various expenses as a financial cost to the median Ogden homeowner.
Dr. Pieder Beeli’s Proposal for a Vibrant Ogden
Instead of importing criminality into Ogden via Section 8 HUD housing and the like, Ogden should instead welcome the free market. With no Section 8 housing, the taxpayer would not need to pay as much to the police force.
Ogden City should better incentivize businesses to come to Ogden and serve the community.
How could Ogden do this?
Grow the free market,
Shrink the government
There are a number of steps Ogden could take to grow the free market and shrink the government.
One way to do so is to reduce governmental regulations.
Nationwide, businesses like Target, Walgreens and Walmart are leaving Democrat-controlled cities, like San Francisco, Oakland, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta. The reason is because theft has gotten out of hand.
Sample Approach
Were I to be elected, and the city of Ogden were to undertake a survey and find that businesses (like South Fork Hardware on Harrison and 20th) have shuttered because of shoplifting, I would propose something like the following.
Ogden could offer Silver and Gold plans to support for businesses. Ogden could offer Silver Plans to support existing businesses. This support would look like having a sign posted outside your business that states that you reserve the right to refuse business to anyone that you wish and on any basis that you wish. One notes that criminality is not spread uniformly across all demographics and that business owners have a financial incentive to welcome as much legitimate business customers as possible. It is the unconscionable decision of a judiciary run amok to believe that business owners are not paramountly interested in profit.
The perhaps unintended cost of judicial rulings and high-minded legislation is to undermine the organic community binding forces of the free market. Our high-minded political betters believe that their legal threats produce insignificant negative results. But we see black communities disproportionately engaging in open shoplifting. It seems that the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s legal threats has produced different incentives for white store owners and black shoplifters than the 1963 “content of our character” speech. We hear of an organization that has caused billions of dollars in vandalism and theft that call themselves “Black Lives Matter.” The idea that “Black Character Matters” is apparently a distant afterthought.
Our high-minded political betters believe that the negative impact of their legal threats are small compared to the intended positive results of having inter-racial communities. Yet inter-racial communities are better achieved by the free market than by their ugly legal threats.
The Silver plan would seek to grant existing businesses the right to refuse service to anyone and offer a 50% reduction in legal costs.
The Gold plan would seek to grant future businesses the right to refuse service to anyone and offer a 100% reduction in legal costs.
There are other plans that could be conceived. The point of this example is not to communicate the definitive plans that the City Council would offer businesses, but rather to get the conversation started in the right direction. Once the most impacting obstacles to business growth are identified we can work on removing them.
In Black Rednecks and White Liberals, the black scholar Thomas Sowell notes that during the Jim Crow era, private businesses in the South, particularly streetcar, bus, and railroad companies, often resisted segregation laws due to economic incentives. Sowell noted that these businesses
- lobbied against Jim Crow laws when they were being written
- challenged them in courts after their passage, and
- delayed enforcement afterward.
Sowell cites examples where company employees were arrested for not enforcing racial segregation, and at least one streetcar company president faced jail threats for non-compliance. He argues this resistance stemmed from the fact that both Black and white customers contributed to their revenue and the president wished to profit from both communities and thus to serve both blacks and whites.
Sowell has noted examples of companies that have faced many year long lawsuits involving tens of millions of dollars for claims of racial discrimination. The basis of this ugly accusation is not any actual evidence of racism, but rather disproportionate representation from the community.
But there are reasons why different demographic groups have different behavior. They have a different culture. Some demographic groups are more frugal and accumulate savings at a higher rate by forestalling discretionary purchases. While other demographic groups live lavishly above their means and tend to not have bank accounts. To blame whites for the proclivity of other racial groups without any evidence of discrimination has allowed various minority groups to engage in animalistic behavior without punishment. Politically blacks have been dehumanized by a system that does not give scrutiny to the content of their character. We are told to believe that the most murderous race is also the most victimized race. That is gas lighting. Such a narrative is dehumanizing for blacks.
The profit motive in capitalism has an inherent drive to embrace all people, regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation…. Unleash capitalism as a glue to bring a community together! We will be more connected and wealthier and have achieved this state by serving others and self-sacrifice. What could be wrong with that?
Presently the National, Utah and Ogden city regulations are so opposed to these common sense principles that a sane Ogden City government must reverse course and commit to opposing these immoral National, Utah and Ogden regulations.
Ogden government should not do the bidding of big Regulatory Government that divides people according to race, sex, sexual orientation and handicap only to add risk to entrepreneuralism and wealth creation. That would be a lose-lose. Rather Ogden government should have the backs of our present and future entrepreneurs.
I am your man for such sanity.
My trade off preferences
In contrast to the mayor’s plan for Ogden, I propose the following tradeoffs
- Which option will better ensure Ogden’s success?
- A: Have the government take a large amount of money from some in the community and give it to others?
- B: Develop a community of Ogdenite entrepreneurs who experience the joy of wealth creation, financial freedom and the natural interdependence that this work creates?
- Which is a better gesture of love?
- A. Affirming the current decision regardless of negative personal and external consequences.
- B. Encouraging direction change to a more life and soul fulfilling paradigm and helping them do it.
- Would you like your property taxes to be
- A: The highest in Weber county?
- B: The lowest in the country?
- Would you prefer Ogden to be known for
- A: its history with prostitution, gang culture, housing crises, and general illegality?
- B: having strong families where the gold standard of romance–couples saving themselves for life-long marriage–provides a fulfilling and enduring platform which populates a productive and entrepreneurially oriented Ogden?
If you answered “B” to these questions, it may be time to Beelieve that voting for Dr. Pieder Beeli (Ph.D., Physics) is good for Ogden.
About my competitors
The reason why I jumped into this race is because I did not see either of my two opponents fighting for the principles that will build Ogden’s social power.
I’m running against a proven 14 year tax and spend politician in Bart Blair and tax and spend democrat in Kevin Lundell.
As a City Councilman, Bart Blair has never voted against an increase in the budget [3]
Either of my tax and spend competitors would be a better fit for the tax and spend City Council than me.
But that’s the problem! I’ve had enough of tax and spend weepublicans and tax and spend democrats grinding our cities into the ground.
I’m running for City Council not to roll over for their agenda, or with mayor’s agenda, but to fight their tax and spend policies.
Even the language of the Ogden Government, the Mayor and the City Council is different than my own.
To these people, “Economic Development” is code-speak for increasing the tax burden on the Ogdenite. This is Orwellian.
Conclusion
We have looked at both principles that destroy and principles that build civilization. Unfortunately, relative to the City of Ogden, we have seen many strongly embraced principles of civilizational destruction.
“The heart of The Ogden Way” message–by Ogden’s mayor and City Council member accomplices–abandons the moral virtue that is the American Way, the way of free enterprise in an honorable business.
Central planning did not work for Mao, Stalin, Lenin or Pol Pot.
Central planning has not worked for Ogden.
Obliviousness to “Nature and Nature’s God” did not work for Mao, Stalin, Lenin or Pol Pot.
Obliviousness and rebellion to “Nature and Nature’s God” has not worked for Ogden.
As your councilman, I will work to elevate Ogden by putting Ogden’s government into its place. Ogden government must minimize central planning and submit to–instead of rebelling against–“Nature and Nature’s God.”
Dr. Pieder Beeli, Ph.D. (Physics)
Ogden Resident
PiederForOgden.org
[2] See Wealth and Poverty by George Gilder
[3] 8/8/2017 Ordinance 2017-29 was passed by a 7-0 vote
8/7/2018 Ordinance 2018-24 was passed by a 6-0 vote. Only Councilman Hyer was absent for the vote.
Dr. Pieder Beeli for Ogden City Council 