Posted on 03/22/2014 5:23:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
Back in 2010, I shared a video that predicted a catastrophic end to the welfare state.
I said it was an example of Libertarian Porn because:
it is designed for the dark enjoyment of people who think the government is destroying the nation. If you dont like bloated government and statist intervention and you think that the policies being imposed by Washington are going to lead to hyperinflation and societal collapse, then you will get a certain level of grim satisfaction by watching the video.
While I also stated in that post that I thought the video was far too dour and pessimistic, I dont automatically reject the hypothesis that the welfare state will lead to societal chaos.
Indeed, Ive specifically warned that America might experience European-type disarray because of big government and I even wrote about which nations that might be good escape options if the welfare state causes our country to unravel.
Moreover, Ive speculated about the possible loss of democracy in Europe and specifically said that people should have the right to be well armed just in case society goes you-know-where in a handbasket.
So Im definitely not a Pollyanna.
Ive given this background because heres another video for those of you who revel in the glass being nine-tenths empty. Its about the United Kingdom, but these numbers from the BIS, OECD, and IMF show that the long-term spending problem is equally severe in the United States.
Be warned, though, that its depressing as well as long. And I gather its also designed to sell a magazine, so you can ignore that (particularly if youre not British).
The debt time bomb that is Britain.
Now that Ive shared the video, Ill add a couple of my own observations.
First and foremost, no country is past the point of no return, at least based on the numbers. It doesnt matter whether were talking about the United Kingdom, the United States, Greece, or France. Politicians always have the option of reforming entitlements and restraining the burden of government spending. So long as they followMitchells Golden Rule over an extended period of time, they can dig out of the mess.
Thats why Im a big fan of Switzerlands spending cap, That policy, technically known as the debt brake, imposes a rolling cap on budgetary growth and has been very effective. Colorado also has a spending cap that has been somewhat effective in restraining the cost of the public sector.
My second observation, however, is that some nations may be past the psychological point of return. This is not easy to measure, but it basically means that theres good reason to be pessimistic when themajority of citizens in a country think its morally acceptable to have their snouts in the public trough and to live off the labor of others. When you have too many people riding in the wagon (or riding in the party ship), then its difficult to envision how good policy is implemented.
Indeed, the video includes some discussion of how a growing number of people in the United Kingdom now live off the state. And if you add together the votes of people like Natailija, Tracey, Anjem, Gina, and Danny, perhaps the United Kingdom has reached a grim tipping point. Especially since welfare spending has dramatically increased in recent years!
A third and final point about the video. I think it focuses too much on deficits and debt. Red ink is a serious issue, to be sure, but its very important to understand that too much borrowing is merely a symptom of too much spending.
P.S. On a totally separate matter, everyone should read the USA Today columnby Glenn Reynolds. He explains how government is perverting our criminal justice system.
Here are some of the most important passages, but you should read the whole thing.
Heres how things all-too-often work today: Law enforcement decides that a person is suspicious (or, possibly, just a political enemy). Upon investigation into every aspect of his/her life, they find possible violations of the law, often involving obscure, technical statutes that no one really knows. They then file a kitchen-sink indictment involving dozens, or even hundreds of charges, which the grand jury rubber stamps. The accused then must choose between a plea bargain, or the risk of a trial in which a jury might convict on one or two felony counts simply on a where theres smoke there must be fire theory even if the evidence seems less than compelling.
This is why, Glenn explains, there are very few trials. Almost everything gets settled as part of plea bargains.
But thats not a good thing, particularly when there are no checks and balances to restrain bad behavior by the state.
although theres lots of due process at trial right to cross-examine, right to counsel, rules of evidence, and, of course, the jury itself, which the Framers of our Constitution thought the most important protection in criminal cases theres basically no due process at the stage when prosecutors decide to bring charges. Prosecutors who are out to get people have a free hand; prosecutors who want to give favored groups or individuals a pass have a free hand, too.When juries decide not to convict because doing so would be unjust, its called jury nullification, and although everyone admits that its a power juries have, many disapprove of it. But when prosecutors decide not to bring charges, its called prosecutorial discretion, and its subject to far less criticism, if its even noticed.
Heres the bottom line.
with todays broad and vague criminal statutes at both the state and federal level, everyone is guilty of some sort of crime, a point that Harvey Silverglate underscores with the title of his recent book,Three Felonies A Day: How The Feds Target The Innocent, that being the number of felonies that the average American, usually unknowingly, commits. The combination of vague and pervasive criminal laws the federal government literally doesnt know how many federal criminal laws there are and prosecutorial discretion, plus easy overcharging and coercive plea-bargaining, means that where criminal law is concerned we dont really have a judicial system as most people imagine it. Instead, we have a criminal justice bureaucracy that assesses guilt and imposes penalties with only modest supervision from the judiciary, and with very little actual accountability.
Glenn offers some possible answers.
prosecutors should have skin in the game if someones charged with 100 crimes but convicted of only one, the state should have to pay 99% of his legal fees. This would discourage overcharging. (So would judicial oversight, but weve seen little enough of that.) Second, plea-bargain offers should be disclosed at trial, so that judges and juries can understand just how serious the state really thinks the offense is. And finally, I think that prosecutors should be stripped of their absolute immunity to suit an immunity created by judicial activism, not by statute and should be subject to civil damages for misconduct such as withholding evidence. If our criminal justice system is to be a true justice system, then due process must attach at all stages. Right now, prosecutors run riot. That needs to change.
Amen to all that. And you can read more on this topic by clicking here.
The Obama years have taught us that dishonest people can twist and abuse the law for ideological purposes.
Whether were talking about the corruption of the IRS, thedeliberate disregard of the law for Obamacare, or the NSA spying scandal, the White House has shown that its naive to assume that folks in government have ethical standards.
And thats also true for the law enforcement bureaucracy, as Glenn explained. Simply stated, people in government abuse power. And jury nullification, while a helpful check on misbehavior, only works when there is a trial.
Indeed, Im now much more skeptical about the death penalty for many of the reasons Glenn discusses in his column. To be blunt, I dont trust that politically ambitious prosecutors will behave honorably.
Thats why, regardless of the issue, you rarely will go wrong if youre advocating fewer laws and less government power.
Perhaps it will look like the collapse of the soviet union. Lots of economic bad news, not enough jobs to hire the former government workers and the nationalization of gas and oil industries.
government is destroying the nation
democrats love and trust government
democrats trust the news media. why do these idiot democrats trust government and the media?
Some states will be able weather the coming Economic collapse—Texas along with the breadbasket states.
Other states may resemble Mad Max...California.
Survival will be determined by location,location, location...
SLIGHT correction from a wishful (L): BIG un-Constitutional government is destroying the nation
Spot on on the other points
Good post.
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