As we continue to be bogged down with more taxes, more regulation, more nationalization of private sector enterprises, and as we drive into Obamanomics, consider the potential consequences and results of these ideas and actions. Make a concerted effort to be able to separate them from their stated intent, no matter how well-intentioned they seem.
This article, taken from the January 25th Sunday Times, discusses a dire situation in Britain, which is further along the Road to Serfdom than we are. Will this be our fate under Obamanomics?
"Parts of the United Kingdom have become so heavily dependent on government spending that the private sector is generating less than a third of the regional economy, a new analysis has found.
The study of “Soviet Britain” has found the government’s share of output and expenditure has now surged to more than 60% in some areas of England and over 70% elsewhere.
Experts believe the recession will tighten the state’s grip still further as benefit handouts soar and Labour directs public sector organisations to create jobs to soak up unemployment."
Points to Ponder
I. Government employees are parasitic tax consumers. They do not pay taxes in the same sense that someone in the private sector does. In other words, you cannot steal from people who are payed with stolen wealth. Bureaucrats, politicians, beneficiaries of government programs, and others on the government dole are permanent tax consumers. They live off the wealth created by others, taken by coercion.
II. Every job "created" by government creates a heavier tax burden on the private sector. The wages, insurance, health benefits, equipment, land, construction, etc. is all at the expense of the taxpayer in the private sector.
III. Recession is the healthy part of the business cycle. It is when the toxicity of the overexpansion and malinvestment clears out of the market. With each new government initiative to avoid recession, the toxic malinvestments' clearing is delayed. This makes the recession deeper and longer.
IV. Government that nationalize everything do not have a good track record, particularly dealing with human liberty. New Deal America, Soviet Russia, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany are good historical examples of how bad things can get.
V. Government will continue to create scapegoats as it attempts to exculpate itself for creating these messes. The scapegoat now is Laissez-faire. This was the scapegoat in the Depression and New Deal as well. The real culprit is interventionism. In Weimar Germany Jews were made scapegoats for the economic woes, which led to the rise of National Socialism. In the Soviet Union, the nobility and bourgeoisie were the scapegoats. Remember: The real culprit is interventionism by governments. Interventionism destroys wealth and liberty, which are the two key ingredients for prosperity.
VI. When government seizes control of private enterprise, fascism is achieved!
SUGGESSTED READING:
The Causes of the Economic Crisis and Others Essays Before and After the Great Depression by Ludwig von Mises
As We Go Marching by John T. Flynn
America's Great Depression by Murray Rothbard
Fascism Comes To America by Ralph Raico
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