Richard Kelo Discusses John Locke

John Locke was a seminal thinker in human history.  His writing represents one of the first times a philosopher examined economic questions.  Locke looked at questions like property rights: who owns what and what represents legitimate ownership?

Rick Kelo

Even in 2018 a lot of modern political topics still center on the same questions Locke examined.  As Rick Kelo points out that the "1%" and wealth inequality are just one example.  Who owns what, and was the wealth of the 1% acquired by exploiting the 99%?  Is it a legitimate function of government to redistribute wealth in order to correct for this?

Rick Kelo points out that many of these questions are answered if we take the time to read Locke's analysis and apply it.  For example, in his Second Treatise on Government, John Locke examined property rights and ownership:

"The labour of his body and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever, then, he removes out of the state that Nature hath provided and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with it, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property." 

~ John Locke, Two Treatise, Book II, Chp 25, Sec 27

That statement forms the basis for original property rights, or what many philosophers call the "Homesteading Principle."  When a person combines his labor the product he owns.  The exception is when someone has entered into a contract to sell their labor for a fixed price.  Since most of the 1% are business owners, Rick Kelo mentions, their property is their own.  That includes if they improve it, and that includes if they enter into a contract and pay someone else a fixed sum of money to improve it.

Rick Kelo - Did Mankind Start as Socialists?

Richard A Kelo

Rick Kelo, a prominent Classic Liberal thinker, weighs in on a common claim by advocates of government control of society.  Socialists often claim that the human race begin in Socialism as its natural state.  Socialists imply that because small tribes began as socialist that mankind should return to our natural, preferred method of organizing ourselves.

Surprisingly, Rick A Kelo agrees with the Socialists on this point: their claim is truthful.  "Humans began as what economists call autistic economies, which is a term that refers to an economy where only 1 will governs.  The tribal economy is an example, and so are the Crusoean economy, the slave economy & the household economy.  They are all proto-command economies," says Kelo.

However, Rick Kelo notes that there is one crucial difference between the tribal economy and the Socialist economies of the 20th & 21st centuries: no division of labor.  In a division of labor economy there are only two types of command economies that can exist:

1) Socialism: state control of production in a division of labor by state ownership of all producer / capital goods.
2) Fascism: state control of production in a division of labor by state regulation of all producer / capital goods

Richard Kelo goes on to point out that if we want to be technically specific Socialists are actually conflating communalism with communism, but the different is nuanced.  Kelo briefly addressed the structure from tribal economy forward to advanced division of labor economy and this exact point in this article: Human Freedom: The Untold Cause of It All.

Rick Kelo - Property from the Ground Up

Have you ever considered how you come to own something?  How do we decide who owns what?  Property is such an integral part of who we are.  Even a little kid playing with another in a woods full of sticks will reply, "Hey, that's mine!" if the other child takes the stick he's using.

All of the choices we make about what we're going to do rest ultimately on who owns something.  When we say you have freedom of speech, for example, that really means freedom to speak at a place you own.  You can't go to the front of a movie theater and start giving a speech during a movie, but if you rent a conference room at a hotel you can do so.  Why?  Because you first acquired an ownership right (through a contract, a form of property) to use the hotel conference room, but not the movie theater.

Rick Kelo

Rick Kelo is a well-educated, hard-working businessman, but also a noted Classic Liberal thinker.  He describes the system of laws that would constitutes a property right in a free market economy by considering first that all private property rests upon a legal pattern of ownership follows:

Labor: self-owned
Land: owned by homesteading
Goods: owned by producing
Labor, land, goods: owned by contract (as in the case of employment)
Gift: owned by unilateral transfer
Exchange: owned by bilateral transfer

Rick Kelo – Paul Simon

One of Rick Kelo’s favorite musicians, Paul Simon has most definitely stood the test of time. Paul Frederic Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey on October 13, 1941. His parents were Hungarian Jews.  The family moved to the New York City suburb of Queens when Simon was four years old. Looking back on his childhood, he stated, "I was a ballplayer. I'd go on my bike, and I'd hustle kids in stickball…I used to listen to [baseball] games with my father. He was a nice guy. Fun. Funny. Smart. He didn't play with me as much as I played with my kids. He was at work until late at night...Sometimes [until] two in the morning."

In sixth grade, at the age of eleven, Paul Simon met another young boy, Art Garfunkel. Two years later, the duo began to sing together. They idolized the Everly Brothers and Woody Guthrie. At college, Garfunkel majored in mathematics and Simon in English.

Originally, Simon and Garfunkel performed together as “Tom & Jerry”, releasing a few singles. Simon wrote the songs (more than thirty between 1957 and 1964). Finally, in 1964, the two were given an audition at Columbia Records, which promptly signed them to a contract. Their previous moniker lapsed into obscurity, and they recorded and played under their real names. Their first album was release that same year; it was titled Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

Simon then spent some time in the UK, playing gigs at small venues and writing songs that would become classics. One such song was “Homeward Bound”. He also recorded a solo album.

One of the tracks from Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. started to receive increasing airplay. This was “The Sound of Silence”. The song gained in popularity until it reached Number 1 on the pop charts. Simon returned to the United States, recorded more albums with Garfunkel, and provided the soundtrack to the seminal ‘60s film The Graduate.

With on-and-off battles with Garfunkel, Simon pursued a largely solo career after the early 1970s. His 1986 album Graceland was a smash hit, and the video to the track “You Can Call Me Al” featured comedian Chevy Chase lip-synching to the song while Simon looked on.

In 2015, Simon toured Europe with Sting. Now seventy-five years old, not having performed with Garfunkel in years, Simon has stated that his most recent tour will be his last.

Rick Kelo – What TaxScout Can Do for You

For small businesses, and large businesses for that matter, there are few things more important that correctly managing finances. When just starting out, the scale of a business’ financial structure is typically such that the average individual can handle the organization and filing on their own. As the business grows, however, it becomes increasingly important to bring in a professional. This is for two reasons. The first reason is the sheer volume of tasks that must be handle as they relate to a company’s finances. This is not something that one single person has the time to do on his or her own. Second, as a company grows and becomes more complicated, so too do the taxes and other financial matters for that company. The consequences of incorrectly filing your taxes or making a mistake in the record keeping for your company can result in fines or even jail time. That is why for any business that has its feet underneath it and is starting to develop serious revenue and a serious client base, it is important to find an expert who can help you manage your assets.

Experts such as Richard Arthur Kelo exist for just that person. Richard Kelo is a tax specialist, economist, and Executive Recruiter for TaxScout, the largest tax professional placement service in the country. What TaxScout does is bring together the highest quality financial experts and places them with companies in need. They consider many aspects of both ends of such agreements and works hard to make sure that each company is given an expert with the necessary experience and possibility to fit in with the preexisting company’s culture.

Richard Kelo is an example of one such professional who is in charge of these placements. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a degree in General Engineering, he continued his studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he received his MBA in Finance, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Ever since receiving his MBA, Rick Kelo has been using his expertise and experience to help bring companies in need together with tax professionals. Experts such as Rick Kelo are the reason that TaxScout has one of the highest retention rates of placements (70%), nearly double that of other firms.

Rick Kelo’s blog shows his passion for the United States economy and finances. On his personal blog, as well as on many other blogs, he writes articles related to the United States tax codes, economy, and political structure. If you feel that you or your business are in need of professional financial advice, call on Rick Kelo and TaxScout today.

Rick Kelo – The Structure of the Largest Tax Firm, TaxScout

The world of finance is not an industry for everyone. It is a competitive field that requires additional education, a certain level of meticulousness, and an ability to keep countless amounts of data organized and available for use. Top financial firms host a variety of employees and boast a variety of services including investment banking, brokerages, credit unions, trust companies, mortgage loan companies, tax recruitment, and financial advising. The industry of finance is as vast, if not more so, than many other industries and requires intense specialization and experience. RickKelo is a tax recruitment specialist currently working for TaxScout Inc., the largest tax professional placement service in the country. He is an example of the level of commitment that it takes to reach the top in such a broad industry.

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in general engineering, Rick Kelo and gained military experience and leadership skills through his service to our country. He later returned to his education where he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, receiving his MBA in Finance and graduating Magna Cum Laude. This leadership and educational background was crucial in his eventual success in the world of finance.

Currently, he works for TaxScout Inc., which is not only the largest firm in the country, but also boasts the highest retention rate of any tax professional placement service in the country. At 70%, their retention rate is nearly double that of other top firms in the industry. Why is this? For two reasons. First, TaxScout prides itself on hiring the most qualified employees and providing the highest quality candidates for their placement services. Rick Kelo works to ensure these standards of excellence, for example, by creating company candidate databases that comply with OFCCP, promoting diversity, developing client bases, advising on retention policies, and advising on fair market compensation. Second, TaxScout recruitment specialists continue to work with candidates and their respective companies after placement in order to ensure their high retention rates. This attention to detail and level of commitment reflects TaxScout’s standards of excellence.

As an Executive Recruiter, Rick Kelo exemplifies this quality of service. In 2008, he placed #70 out of more than 4,000 recruiters in a competition ranking tax specialists; he was the #1 finance recruiter as well as the #2 accounting recruiter globally. He was also Rookie of the Year in his first full year with the company. For more information aboutRick Kelo and TaxScout, visit their website.