Political Lipskip

Government Will Bankrupt America – Socialism Favored Among Young People

The public servants we elect who also have access to spend the money collected from our taxes are bankrupting our country. Some countries like Britain and Germany are putting the brakes on spending. The U.S. on the other hand, believes we haven’t done enough in the name of Keynesian economics. Of course it’s more about transforming the country into a socialist country than about creating wealth and jobs.

I had to laugh at Nancy Pelosi’s idiotic comment the other day about unemployment benefits being a job creator. FoxNews reported:

Unemployment benefits are creating jobs faster than practically any other program, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. “It injects demand into the economy,” Pelosi said, arguing that when families have money to spend it keeps the economy churning. “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.”

Is it any wonder that our country is in decline? How can someone like this get elected? How can she be so ignorant on economics? Has her push to get us socialized demented her mind?

This is statist thinking and one that I believe is permeating much faster in this country than we could believe. There is a rise for fiscal responsibility and Constitutional adherence as seen in the Tea Parties, but the social welfare proponents are going to continue to drag this country down.

The kids growing up and attending imperial government schools are being taught less about liberty and self-reliance and more about what the government can do for them. Take the time to read comments the under 25 year olds say on the various opinion blogs. In general, they truly believe that government is the answer. They admire Maxists and Communists. They are far more interested in identifying with Che than George Washington. They admire Mao. They like social welfare. It is scary that they have never properly learned the history of these killing regimes. We may turn the tide in November to more conservative leadership but I fear it will be short lived. The momentum is for statist rule in this country. For some reason the majority of the people in this country favor government controlling their lives. I believe it has to do because they are afraid for their future. The government chokes the future with their spending and control, which further scares people into despair thereby creating reliance on the government. It’s a circle jerk that only benefits those in power. And the lazy.

Bill Bonner talked about the debt in yesterday’s Daily Reckoning. He has it nailed in an aptly titled piece called Gold and Goverment Debt: The Only Two Things Going Up:

Yesterday, a film crew caught up with us on the banks of the Thames and posed the question:

“What’s the big deal about debt? The US had as much debt after WWII. The next years were among the best the country ever had…”

We sat at a sidewalk eatery near the river, with a camera focused on us. People walked by and stared. They figured we must be somebody. They looked disappointed when they couldn’t place us.

“The big deal is that we’re going broke,” we explained. “Until very recently debts of this magnitude were always associated with war. From time to time countries went broke. But they almost always did so because of emergency expenses driven by war. In other words, they were spending money for what looked like a very good reason – self preservation.

“For the first time in history, almost all the developed nations of the world are running regular, structural deficits. They’re going deeper and deeper into debt, as though there were a war…but there is no war.

“We have emergency budgets, but no emergency. You may think that they are fighting the emergency of a recession or the threat of a depression, but you would be wrong. Most of the deficits have little to do with stimulus or bailout efforts. They are just the ordinary results of social welfare programs that have gotten out of control.

“For the first time ever, countries are going broke just in the normal course of business. Without an emergency.

“The nice thing about WWII is that it came to an end. But there is no victory in the fight against old age. The pension burden won’t go down. It will go up. There is no VE day for national health programs. There are no tickertape parades…the troops are never de-mobilized and sent home…and the spending never goes down.

“We can never pay off the debt, in other words, because the debt never stops growing.

“National leaders at the G-20 conference over the weekend pledged to bring their deficits under control. Some governments are taking this seriously. The government of Britain, under David Cameron, seems to have the right idea. But we are still waiting to see what happens next.

“The modern welfare state was only invented about 150 years ago. The Romans tried it and it didn’t work out very well. The modern version is still an experiment.

“And currently, in America, there are more people getting money from the government than there are people paying taxes. Forty million people get food stamps. Millions more depend on federal tax credits and so forth. Still others have jobs that are either paid directly by the government or by a contractor for the government.

“All these people have the right to vote. Which is a shame. Because they are likely to vote for more social welfare spending. Then, governments will go broke. “

I believe that over time people, and in particular the young today, will favor more social welfare spending. It will destroy this country. I am not sure what we are going to be left with. I am not so sure that the under 25 people will not be the final nail in the great experiment that is/was the United States. Their mistrust and mostly hate of capitalism and a curious desire for socialism and glamorizing Marxism will surely destroy us. And we have Pelosi, Reid, Obama and their ilk leading these children to their promise land. November 2010 will be fun but I fear it will not be enough.