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What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
American Thinker ^ | 18 Jul, 2023 | Richard C. Lyons

Posted on 07/18/2023 4:32:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Since Theodore Roosevelt broke Standard Oil and Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Reserve, our government has invaded our once “free enterprise” system with consistently disastrous results.

I caught a song on the radio yesterday, from one of my favorite vinyl efforts by the Doobie Brothers, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. A great album, fitting for a generation that took to the vices of drinking and smoking cigarettes among other things… The same generation found such habits are hazardous for one’s health, and are a lot harder to get rid of than they were to attain. Governments are like the people who compose them, they are subject to bad vice and habits

Our federal government has had a certain vice for over a century now, since Theodore Roosevelt broke Standard Oil and Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Reserve, our government has invaded our once “free enterprise” system with consistently disastrous results. For instance, when the Doobie Brothers were just hitting the road, our federal government invaded the health care sector through the Social Security Act, creating Medicare and Medicaid; and has since been on the march to nationalize the whole industry. At every step of the takeover, government interference has meant skyrocketing healthcare costs. At every step, this takeover has meant much higher taxes for taxpayers. Both higher prices and higher taxes are direct consequences of the growing government bureaucratic “control” of America’s healthcare sector.

As a matter of habit, the Administrative State formed Fanny and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants which now underwrite 90% of all home mortgages in America. This government interference in our once free enterprise system first led to skyrocketing home prices, then it led to the housing and stock market crash of 2008. Today, the government “commands and controls” 100% of the home mortgage

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: bigbrother

1 posted on 07/18/2023 4:32:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 07/18/2023 4:32:49 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

What were once vices are now virtues.


3 posted on 07/18/2023 4:48:05 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

That’s true


4 posted on 07/18/2023 4:48:37 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: dfwgator

What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits

I had the cassette.......


5 posted on 07/18/2023 4:49:29 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

It’s a great album.


6 posted on 07/18/2023 4:54:42 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Off the top of my head I seem to recall “Another Park, Another Sunday” is on that album


7 posted on 07/18/2023 4:55:36 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: dfwgator

Indeed it is.

L


8 posted on 07/18/2023 4:55:47 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: SaveFerris

Yes it is, and so is Black Water.


9 posted on 07/18/2023 4:56:40 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: MtnClimber
IMHO, the problem with monopolies is not the exercise of free markets, but at least in our system, the ability to buy influence with legislators and regulators such that government does the dirty work on behalf of the monopolies to crush any burgeoning enterprise that could compete with them.

As GK Chesterton said, “Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists.”

10 posted on 07/18/2023 4:56:57 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack
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To: dfwgator

[Black Water.]

Flipped on the car radio and that eventually came on.

I had to sing along. Heh.


11 posted on 07/18/2023 4:59:40 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: MtnClimber

Teddy Roosevelt - our first progressive president. He is certainly not my favorite. Ahhh yes, his famous charge up San Juan Hill, after a black regiment first cleared it and made it safe.


12 posted on 07/18/2023 5:00:47 AM PDT by redfreedom (Joseph Stalin: "It does not mater how anyone votes, how votes are counted is what matters.")
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To: redfreedom

Ah yes another war started on false pretenses.


13 posted on 07/18/2023 5:05:40 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: MtnClimber

Freedom is hard.

People no longer willing to do the hard work freedom requires make life easy for Deep State.


14 posted on 07/18/2023 5:09:12 AM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
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To: MtnClimber

Drinking and smoking were popular long before the era of the Doobie Brothers.


15 posted on 07/18/2023 5:43:32 AM PDT by eclecticEel ("The petty man forsakes what lies within his power and longs for what lies with Heaven." - Xunzi)
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To: Taxman

ping


16 posted on 07/18/2023 7:37:30 AM PDT by Taxman (SAVE AMERICA! VOTE REPUBLICAN IN 2023 AND 2024!)
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To: MtnClimber

TR didn’t get rid of Standard Oil, he defended Standard Oil. Taft did.


17 posted on 07/18/2023 11:57:03 AM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA! AMERICA FIRST! DEATH TO MARXISM AND GLOBALISM! )
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