Jack Kemp passed away Saturday at age 73. Here is an excerpt from the page“Jack Kemp in his own words”.

This commentary in particular is crucial to understand at this point in our history in the U.S. and the world.  Politicians worldwide are using the mantra of “saving the economy” to extend their power base and little more.  For example, the current administration today is seeking to penalize tax havens through the tax code instead of seeking to become a tax haven!

Jack Kemp saw through that and, for a time, helped America to see it. Would that we could understand and put into practice what he had to say again.

My condolences to his family. May he rest in peace.

Liberate America’s Other Economy

June 12, 1990

In 1984, Mario Cuomo of New York electrified the Democratic Convention with his tale of America as two cities, one rich and one poor, permanently divided into two classes. He talked about the rich growing richer and the poor becoming poorer, with the conclusion that class conflict, if not warfare, was the only result, and redistribution of wealth the solution.

With all due respect to Gov. Cuomo, he got it wrong. America is not divided immutably into two static classes. But it is separated or divided into two economies. One economy — our mainstream economy — is democratic and capitalist, market-oriented and entrepreneurial. It offers incentives for working families in labor and management. This mainstream economy rewards work, investment, saving and productivity. Incentives abound for productive economic and social behavior.

It was this economy, triggered by President Reagan’s supply-side revolution of tax cuts in 1981 that generated 21.5 million new jobs, more than four million new businesses, relatively low inflation and higher standards of living for most people. This economy has created more jobs in the past decade than all of Europe, Canada and Japan combined. And according to the U.S. Treasury, federal income taxes paid by the top 1% of taxpayers has surged by more than 80% to $92 billion in 1987 from $51 billion in 1981.

There is another economy — a second economy that is similar in respects to the East European or Third World socialist economies. It functions in a fashion opposite to the mainstream capitalist economy. It predominates in the pockets of poverty throughout urban and rural America. This economy has barriers to productive human and social activity and a virtual absence of economic incentives and rewards. It denies black, Hispanic and other minority men and women entry into the mainstream. This economy works almost as effectively as did hiring notices 50 years ago that read “No Blacks — or Hispanics or Irish or whatever — Need Apply.”

The irony is that the second economy was born of desire to help the poor, alleviate suffering, and provide a basic social safety net. The results were a counterproductive economy. Instead of independence, the second economy led to dependence. In an effort to minimize economic pain, it maximized welfare bureaucracy and social costs.

But if you ever find yourself complaining, here is a man who is thankful for his time in a Soviet concentration camp. Thought provoking…

It was granted to me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience: how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts…. That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: “Bless you, prison!” I…have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!” (The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, Vol. 2, 615-617)

Another obituary at the BBC 

This man certainly had an entrepreneurial spirit… but was being buried in a Pringle’s can taking things a bit too far?

From the Cincinnati Enquirer

Dr. Fredric J. Baur was so proud of having designed the container for Pringles potato crisps that he asked his family to bury him in one.

His children honored his request. Part of his remains was buried in a Pringles can – along with a regular urn containing the rest – in his grave at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Springfield Township.

Dr. Baur, a retired organic chemist and food storage technician who specialized in research and development and quality control for Procter & Gamble, died May 4 at Vitas Hospice. The College Hill resident was 89.

He developed many products, including frying oils and a freeze-dried ice cream, for P&G. The ice cream was patented and marketed, but didn’t catch on. “Basically, what you did, you added milk to it, put it in the freezer and you had ice cream,” said his son Lawrence J. Baur of Stevensville, Mich. “That was another one he was proud of but just never went anywhere.”

But the Pringles can – a tube-shaped container designed to hold the salty, stackable, saddle-shaped chip – was his proudest accomplishment, his daughter said. He received a patent for the package as well as the method of packaging Pringles in 1970.

To our valued agents:

It is with the most profound sorrow that I share with Cognigen’s family of agents, employees, customers and vendors news of the passing of Kevin Eric Anderson, Founder of Cognigen Networks, Inc.

Kevin died Saturday afternoon at his villa in Chapala, Jalisco, México in the arms of his beloved Laurel and beside his daughters Megan and Erin.  He was walking from his office toward the swimming pool when he became ill and then collapsed. His close neighbor and personal physician rushed to his side and with the assistance of paramedics tried valiantly to revive him, but he did not regain
consciousness.

Kevin had been in ill health for several years, and recently suffered increasing symptoms to which he finally succumbed. Despite his infirmities he continued to work diligently on behalf of Cognigen.  He called me late Thursday afternoon to share with me his latest ideas for increasing opportunities for our agent
network.  His always impressive intellect and brilliance were focused to the very end on the company he and Laurel founded and loved so deeply.

Life can often be a very fragile existence, and our tenure on Earth but a fleeting moment.  A person’s worth is not ultimately measured by wealth accumulated, but rather by the goals one is fortunate enough to accomplish and the benefits one produces for humankind.  In all of these respects Kevin Eric Anderson was an exceptionally worthwhile person.