How Awesome Would the U.S. Economy Be If...

IJ Review ^ | October 8, 2014 | Michael Hausman

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Full Title: How Awesome Would the U.S. Economy Be If It Were Set Free from Massive Government Regulations?

Imagine if the U.S.’s economy had grown an extra 1% every year since 1949 as a result from less strangulating federal regulation.

This is the thesis for a recent Forbes article by Rich Karlgaard, the magazine’s publisher and head writer. Using the concept of compound interest, along with an assertion that runaway federal tinkering and silly regulations have had a massive impact on the country’s economic growth over the decades, he gives a handful of answers to the question:

“Where would the U.S. economy be today without massive federal regulation?”

Here’s what he came up with:

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Per capita income would be $101,000, not $54,000.’

That would be nice...

[ronnie raygun]

The elitist criminals do not want competition. The regulations are for those entrepreneurs who are being sat upon and only a few are allowed to trickle thru if you play thier game and they have a stake in your program

[SamAdams76]

Many people on the "welfare for life" would be making over $100,000 a year had they been denied welfare and entered the workforce.

The welfare society kills ambition and puts a ball and chain around those who are ambitious and work hard - because they have to yield up a large part of their income to support those who are reclining at home, living a life of leisure.

I know a 48-year-old man who is very intelligent but he has spent almost his entire adult life collecting disability even though he could easily work. He was a union bricklayer and his knees gave out when he was in his late 20s. Instead of finding a different line of work, he was given the option to sit at home and collect disability. Twenty years later, his lifestyle consists of going to the gym, binge-watching shows on Netflix (he's seen them all at least once) and playing video games.

He has a comfortable apartment with all the modern appliances and all his needs taken care of. I believe he collects around $2,000 a month not to mention food stamps, free health care and other benefits. He goes to Florida and Las Vegas "on vacation" several times a year. He proudly proclaims that he never has to work another day in his life and has unlimited amounts of leisure time at our expense.

There are millions of others just like him.

[Crazieman]

Must be nice... I work until the skin is falling off my hands.

[joshua c]

I don’t buy that argument. Prices always rise to meet the ability to pay.

For instance, when we went from single wage earner households to two wage earner households, what happened?

Real estate prices went up based on the ability to pay more.

Now it is difficult for a single wage earner family to buy a house. You need two wage earners to afford it.

[Le Chien Rouge]

With all due respect, so many I see on welfare, especially those in urban ghettos near my home are virtually unemployable.

Furthermore, those on welfare in small towns in central Texas that I encounter EVERYDAY are so addicted to meth among other chemicals are also useless.

Too many in this country are a drag on the economy. Very few are going to go from welfare to six figures a year.

End welfare, let Churches initiate charity and let human nature take it’s course.

[umgud]

The problem is that the regulatory branch has become more than co-equal with the other three branches of gov’t.

[spokeshave]

End welfare, let Churches initiate charity and let human nature take it’s course.

Yeah.....and the Baptist "church" in Dallas got $190MILLION to set up housing for children flooding in across the southern border....and another $50 Million to buy a huge estate to house 600 of the illegals:

Obama Gives 'Charity' Group $190 Million To Build Illegal ...

www.thegatewaypundit.com/.../obama-gives-baptist-group-190-million-t...

Jul 16, 2014 - Obama Gives 'Charity' Group $190 Million To Build Illegal Immigrant Resorts & Offices in Six Cities ...

The Palm Aire Hotel and Suites is set to be sold to Baptist Child ... TX; Dallas, TX; Sacramento-area, CA; and Los Angeles-area, CA, ... countless children and families will receive the support they need to ...

Here is Obama and the famous Dallas Judge Jeffords at the meeting when this was announced:

[all the best]

Obama is saying that we are better off than when he came along. Whether that is true or not... The point is that we would have been worlds better off without his/the government’s interference.
The economy always comes back because people get out there every day and produce, create, trade, invest, lend, save, build, do, do, do, do.
It is government that gums up the work and holds back progress and growth. As opposed to what people do, the government is force and theft. Not productive at all.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Too bad I didn’t get the memo or I would not have spent the last 17 years of my 40 plus year career working 12 hours a day running my high stress mortgage business. I could have avoided the chest pains and sleepless nights. I could have gone on a vacation once in awhile. I’m a sucker.

[Balding_Eagle]

House prices have gone up for a number of reasons.

One of the biggest reason is government regulation at every level.

Did you know that there is a government regulation on how close together the spindles on a banister must be? How wide the footings must be for a foundation? The furnace size? the stair width? The rood decking?

The list is endless, and not cheap.

[ClearCase_guy]

Years ago, I read an interview with a Boston organized crime figure -- a fairly low-level guy. His life wasn't all that great, and it was a dangerous business. He wasn't happy. The reporter asked him, "Why don't you straighten out and just get a job?" The crook didn't consider that for a minute: "Work is for suckers."

That's a crook view of life.
It's a welfare view of life.
It's a government view of life.

You and I are out there working, and making society function.
There are many parasites, of various kinds, you just laugh at us and call us suckers. And we know they are right, don't we? But we just don't do anything to change it.

[BenLurkin]

[Ouderkirk]

There is a proper place for governmental regulation. One of whih is environmental the other is employee safety.

As with anything the government does, is starts out small with noble goals, and has grown into a tool to coerce businesses to play politics and feed the political parties which in turn use those regulations to enrich themselves further.

This applies to the tax code as well. Started out small, (though I would question the nobility of this) and has become the most powerful tool to stifle competition and enrich the individual politicians rather than the parties.

The popular election of US Senators was the first step toward the tyranny of today’s CFR. Repeal of the 16th amendment (taxes), and 17th amendments (direct election of Senators) are the minimum requirements to roll back this tyranny.

[Georgia Girl 2]

In fact Mr. GG2 and I are such suckers we are going to start a new business. Can you even imagine how much harder it will be now with all the Commie red tape and fees and taxes?

[RipSawyer]

$54,000 per capita sounds too high to me. I would like to know how that figure was derived.

[EQAndyBuzz]

That would go up even higher if every dictator was strung up and the money used to prop them up go for things like desalination facilities.

Desalination facilities along the coast of Africa would provide needed clean water and the infrastructure built could be used for agriculture and industry.

[Alberta's Child]

The author of this article overlooks an important point.

GDP growth is based on only two factors: growth in population and growth in productivity. Let's eliminate the population side of the equation because this country has already demonstrated that it will allow a full-scale invasion of illegal aliens to drive that growth.

So now we're left with growth in productivity. I can't think of anything out there would have made Americans more "productive" over the years than they have already been. Is the author suggesting that the personal computer or the iPhone or advanced cancer treatments would have been developed 25 years earlier if not for excessive government regulation?

I don't think I understand the author's point here. As others have said, raising the median income would only have raised prices even higher ... which means our standard of living would have been no different than it is right now.

[SpaceBar]

The prevailing economic model that motivates governments worldwide, including the present-day United States, is extortion of taxes from the masses to support a luxuriant lifestyle for a select few ‘leaders’ using various communist playbook arguments and techniques, and tight control though massive ‘regulations’. And just like it was tried before, the results will always be national retardation, decay, ruin, and ultimately death on an industrial scale.