"...you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus"
Posted on 08/26/2002 7:31:13 AM PDT by B. A. Conservative
We have all heard about the bubble in the stock market and the developing bubble in the real estate market. Are there other bubbles in the economy and what is the largest of these bubbles?
Government is a bubble and it is a bubble that is expanding rapidly. When I use the term "government", I mean government at every level- city, county, state and federal.
Look at the indicators for yourselves, and rather than provide the data myself, I will leave the data extraction, tabulation and verification to those who would take issue with my claims. As indicators, I recommend comparison of each government's budget with the population size of the population governed. Note carefully the comparisons between the government's growth in revenue and expense and the numerical growth of the population served. Also compare the growth in in the area's GDP, and the growth of the individual persons' served income and expense or compare government to local household income and expense.
Next compare the growth in the number of government employees to the area population growth. Be sure to include the local public school system and break it down not only by households but by numbers of children to be served as well. Now compare revenue and expense per child. How much bang are you getting for your buck? Try bringing in historical performance levels using test results for the children on one axis and cost per child on the other axis. Lines that are parallel or diverge, regardless of a positive or negative slope are informative. Lines that cross, and these lines will cross, should be eye-popping.
The next indicator is debt. Look at historical debt levels of each governmental unit. Now look at the debt levels of the populations being served. Governments are destroying the net worths of their citizens by forcing the served to use debt to fund ordinary living expenses. Worse the government's debt is a mortgage on the income of your children's future. Government is spending your net worth and that of your children as well.
What are we getting for this rape of our own balance sheets and that of our children's balance sheets when they become income producers with children of their own to raise? Show me the current benefits! Are we safer? By what objective measure? Are we better served? By what objective measure? Is the environment better? By what objective measure and what real role did government play? Who corrupted the environment and how? What was the real price paid and what were the unintended consequences? Yes, we clearly have saved the bald eagle from extinction for the time being, but millions of third world inhabitants including millions of women and children have died from the resulting explosion of malaria. You now have termite problems where homes treated for termites with DDT are termite proof for 5,000 years. Would the environment have been cleaned up or would the environmental goals been achieved without government coercion? Which is the more effective, government coercion and regulation or public exposure and condemnation. Which is the more effective and arguably the more powerful, a government bureaucrat, a politician, or an informed public dealing with a responsible business or even an engaged public dealing with an irresponsible or abusive business?
How will this all end? I suggest you project the growth of Social Security revenues and payments into the future. Now project the growth of Medicare, Medicaid and other government health care programs into the future. The United States will be bankrupt in less than two decades. It is not possible to fund the growth in benefits that have already been legislated. It will not be politically possible to bring the revenue side of government and the expense side of the government obligations into balance. The United States will cease to exist before 2016 because the financial realities and the political realities cannot be resolved. Secession of one or more states is inevitable. I sincerely hope that some of you out there will rise to the challenge and provide us all the data that proves that the opinions expressed here are completely wrong. A word of caution is in order here. Be careful of your data sources, government and political accounting make Enron and Arthur Anderson look good.
Is there another alternative? Is this alternative realistic, doable, and how and who could achieve this miracle in the short time span required?
Let me note, that I favor a scuttling of the DC centric nation-state in favor of a few traditionalist outposts in this great land-- that is a stark contrast to B.A. Conservatives noble goals of saving the Republic.
Unfortunate but true. I know several families personally that due to circumstances beyond their control have been forced into this predicament.
It sickens me to hear our political leaders defend the growing national debt caused by pork barrel spending. These Representatives and Senators start spending taxpayer’s money (obtained through threat of confiscation or incarceration) from day one after election on their and their party’s re-election. If campaign finance reform was ever needed it is need in Congress. Take the dam* checkbook away from these political Mafiosi.
I wouldn't say 2016 necessarily however secession is inevitable. As much as Hamiltonians around here might wish it otherwise, it will come. Probably from the Southwest first. And if it does, then let it. As long as the respective governments of each state pass legal declarations of secession within their state houses I see no problem or issue with it. Most of the financial problems this nation of states faces internally come from the centralization of a powerful government the Founders did not wish
Bill, considering the fact that the Feds are heavily reliant on states for income AND there is already a budget deficit, the Feds won't take too kindly to this.
LOL!! I know they won't. But if a block of states leaves in this day and age, it will be unlike the birth of the Empire when information took days even weeks sometimes to get to its destination. The instant transfer of information will work in both aspects here. Can you imagine the outcry if an invasion force were to occupy what would formerly be the Southwest United States?
The GAO report of a couple of years ago, when congress was flush with funds, showed that the debt would be paid off within a decade. Completely paid.
Now the situation is completely different. Running the numbers based on the present conditions would probably give a date of paying off the debt of NEVER.
Doesn't mean government is a bubble.
I personally hate frivolous debt, but if I can borrow for 1 year cheaper than I can invest that same money, then the debt is worth it. However, it does come at a cost--worry.
JG, But, that is the objective of those who would have the government centralized at the global level. So much easier to control by the U.N.'s standing army and other sycophants. Peace and love, George.
I am willing to stomach the anti-market policies of a Pat Buchanan, having been 'reached' by the writings of Murray Rothbard on the Hard Right, but at best he won a few primaries.
The next challenger of the establishment will likely come from the ranks of Jared Taylor and the racialists. The Libertarians are finished nationally with Harry Browne's failure and apparent corruption; Howie Phillips represents nobody and will probably see his party taken over by Jared Taylor's people in 2004. Steve Forbes' failure, while hardly a populist, spelled the end of supply-side politics.
Alan Keyes represented an amalgamation of disaffected libertarian Conservatives which equals about all 10,000 people who come to this site.
No, I think politics is a lost cause, but if we are to participate we should turn our attentions beyond left and right and look to revive states rights as a party issue.
BINGO!
"...you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus"
Well, not in 2002 dollars, no...
"The United States will cease to exist before 2016 because the financial realities and the political realities cannot be resolved."
While all things come to an end, 2016 sounds a bit early to me. Perhaps the United States will only end as we know it today, i.e. there might be an unrepublican change of regime. A sick and crippled caricature of the U.S. might limp along for a while.
I do agree that when the end comes, people of the time will be surprised at its rapidity. Future historians will not be.
"FreeRepublic can dramatically effect the results of the election in November."
Doubtful, IMO, but worth the effort.
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