ah yes....the road to serfdom is a path that is broad, having many contrivances and diversions from the truth, with many a politician's welfare depending upon it!
Yet in the end everything will be tainted and we shall all feel the angst of our country's demise that has been instituted against us by the complete lack of wisdom of those whom we used to esteem as servants of the people but who now are merely career politicians concerned only for their own skin...and their personal fortune making of course....
A Simple Choice
Politicians do not want to discuss the economic problem in simple terms. They are the biggest beneficiaries of the welfare state which feeds their egos, desire for power and as a means to buy votes to retain office.
The golden goose upon which the horde of political parasites feeds is not immune. It grows ever weaker and unproductive as a result of the predations. A decision must be made between two options: the Welfare State or the Prosperous State. There is no third way. The choice is to continue down this road to serfdom or to make a U-turn back toward prosperity.
Advanced stages of the welfare state will lead to its eventual demise. History is replete with governments that extended themselves beyond what their populations were willing or able to support. That is the point the US has reached. The so-called economic crisis did not begin in 2009 or even 2001. These were symptoms of the disorder and maladjustments that had been introduced into the economy years before.
We can continue down the current road and never see a return to economic vitality that was experienced only a few decades ago. Poverty, jobless and continued declines in the standard of living will increase. Ultimately the economy will collapse under its own weight or civil unrest will bring it down.
Or we can repeal much of the nonsense that has contributed to this problem and return to the vitality, growth and rising incomes that characterized most of our history. That requires a massive reduction in government’s role in the economy and its spending.
These are the only choices that affect our destination. All other considerations are mere distractions and excuses. It is just that simple!
These comments are as relevant for the welfare states in Europe as they are the US.
What Happens Next
The choice above will likely not be addressed until an economic tragedy renders our economy dysfunctional.
Before that occurs, a collapse of financial asset prices (stocks and bonds) is a probable next event. The timing of such a collapse is not reasonably predictable, but current asset price levels reflect Fed-created smoke and mirrors liquidity. This reinflated bubble will collapse just as the now deflating housing bubble has. What is certain is that something as irrelevant as rising interest rates will be blamed.
Without rollbacks in confiscations of wealth, harmful policies and the removal of perverse incentives, this country must continue to decline.
Detroitification
For lack of a better term, the process the entire country is headed for is “Detroitification.” The term represents a declining if not dying economy. Higher interest rates, “slow growth,” lack of innovation, worldwide slowdown or many other variables will be used to rationalize what is coming. The tragedy results from one cause and one only — the idiocy of our federal government and its greed.
At this stage, the damage is done and cannot be undone quickly enough to avoid this crisis. Even if there were time, there is no way that politicians would willingly address the problem.
