Posted on 08/20/2010 4:12:52 AM PDT by Rashputin
The people of the United States have been blessed to live in a country that has experienced, over the past seventy years, the most sustained period of overwhelming prosperity in the history of mankind. However, due to the staggering growth of government, unrealistic expectations of the citizenry, and a new global economy, the current makeup of the economic engine of the country is such that it will not be able to generate sufficient wealth to finance the nation's long-term financial commitments, jobs, and desires of the populace.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Politicians vs. the immutible laws of human economics. Place your bets.
Th long-term health of the country depends on two three things:
1) Big tax cuts far beyond those passed by Reagan and GW Bush — accompanied with an end to almost all social programs.
2) Downward pressure on wages (and lifestyle expectations) to make American workers cost-competitive, less spoiled and more hard-working.
3) The end, once and or all, of “benefits.” It is a crime that employers were ever pressured into taking on responsibility for pay their employees’ doctors and giving them paid time off.
Think America in 1912 — only with women’s suffrage.
With the magnitude of the situation we face, I just do not see how we can stay the course.
Yeah I know we are the greatest nation blah, blah, blah... but the math is just not there.
Greatest nation or not, we are fast approaching the end of the line for our economy and the country as we know it.
Bankruptcy... if that was all we were facing, was a massive bankruptcy then we could survive. But what we face goes so far beyond that and will be so much more painful.
The libs can continue to run the country into a ditch to increase their power, to make more people dependent on .gov for money, food, shelter, etc...
But what so many fail to realize, dems and a few conservatives too, is that power will do you no good when the country is in chaos, collapsed into borderline anarchy or worse its gone. Because its broken up into small state like sectors.
We are already in for a hard few years and even a ginormous landslide come November will not stop whats already coming for us.
The magnitude of the necessary changes and the vested interests of about half of the county make the suggested solutions sound like a fantasy novel. The enemy is beyond inside the gates. We will need a crisis and collapse far greater than what we have seen to even begin to correct the path the US is on.
As long as we continue to penalize success through confiscatory taxes, and as long as we continue to reward failure through excessive entitlement programs and welfare, we will continue to see the economy falter.
Failure will be the new success as people begin to pride themselves not in how much they can produce but in how much of the fruit of other peoples’ labor they can accumulate.
And success will be the new failure as people begin to realize that there is no reward for taking the risk or making the effort towards achievement. Why buy and feed the cow when you can get your milk for free?
I just do not see how we can stay the course.
The problem is that the MSM will savage anyone who proposes changes (reductions) in the entitlement state. Plus, you will have people coming out saying that they can’t make it without this, that, or the other thing. Any politician who tries to fix the problem will be painted as “mean” or “heartless”. Too much of the electorate thinks with their heart rather than their head (which basically means they don’t think).
The result may well be anarchy or situations where people have lots of benefits on paper, but can’t collect on any of ‘em. Like having gold plated, public health insurance, but being unable to find a doctor to treat you at rock bottom rates.
.......accompanied with an end to almost all social programs.....
While I agree that the social programs are at the root of the problem, elimination will result in destruction of the cities by the inhabitants. It is this fear of chaos and property destruction that prevents restraint and diminution of the social programs.
We see cars being burned by the hundreds in Paris. that is trivial to the destruction that will surely happen in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Detroit when the dole ceases. .
Obama is draining the treasury and the proceeds are going to the favored to stash in their mattresses to hold them over when the fires begin. They will sit back and watch the war when the dole stops
I am a firm believer that we are just one missed welfare check away from all out anarchy in this country
” social programs are at the root of the problem, elimination will result in destruction of the cities by the inhabitants. “
Isn’t there some kind of old proverb something to the effect of “Once you start feeding the tiger, you’d better not stop..”??
(If there isn’t, there should be...)
I’m gonna have to take issue with you. Tax cuts are fine but I do not want to go back to 1912 working conditions there was a time when unions served a purpose. whats up with downward pressure on wages, screw u, I work dammn hard and am already underpaid. I do not make 6 figures and I am damn sure worth more than 40 but I don’t get it. I do not want to work 365 with no time off and I sure as hell earned my vacation days PAID. WE havent seen a pay raise for over two years, if you want to go back to 1912 do not drag me with you.
I’ve got another saying - “Tigers aren’t bulletproof!”
No State is more than three meals away from revolution.
I don’t know about feeding the tiger, but as a small businessman for most all of my life, I know a lot about holding a tiger by the tail.
“Th long-term health of the country depends on three things:”
All of those things can happen deliberately, or they can happen uncontrollably.
Since they are politically hard to contemplate, and there are no leaders to do deliberate things - but we have an abundance of officials, elected and otherwise who think they can profit from chaos they create, we’re left with uncontrollable change.
1) Drastically overhaul or even phase out the income tax. The current system costs Americans US$304 BILLION per year in compliance costs, drives jobs out of the country and may have driven circa US$16 TRILLION in American-owned liquid assets into the underground economy or into offshore financial centers to keep these assets out of the reach of the IRS--sheer economic insanity.
2) Aggressively reign in the excesses of Wall Street. We need to require real liquid backing to trade in hedge funds, derivatives, credit default swaps and other "exotic" investments, increase the minimum margin requirements for futures and index trades to 15%, re-impose the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act to "firewall" bank assets from the ups and downs of the stock market, and revise the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
3) Aggressively audit EVERY Federal, state and local government agency. Use the audit results to look for bureaucratic overlap and agency bloat so we can cut the size of government at minimum 30% immediately and eventually cut it by as much as 60%.
4) Begin a decade-long phase out of the Federal Reserve Note fiat currency and replace it with a new US dollar backed by a combination of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper and nickel--the most common metals used for bullion blocks and coins used in legal monetary transactions.
Do these four steps and our economy will come roaring back and be stronger than ever over the next decade.
Regards
Point 1: Agreed.
Point 2: Societal group-think, not wages, are responsible for Spoiled Americans Syndrome. Most people come out of high school with no concept of hard work, sacrifice, or responsibility, and that worldview is continued in college. Change the educational system, and you change society. Limiting wages smacks of socialism and Obamanomics; when you disincentivize the work force, you slow economic growth.
Point 3: Benefits such as health insurance and 401(K) plans are means through which employers attract and retain quality employees. Better to fix the attitude towards health coverage; namely, that it should cost pennies while covering every stomach ache, splinter removal, and office visit. Health coverage is not a right, and it was never designed to pay for the $50 and $100 stuff, but rather to protect you against the $5K - $1M stuff.
I’ll add a couple of ideas:
4) Disband all government unions. “The unions will be the death of this country.” -My grandfather, back in the late 1960s
5) Remove all illegal aliens from US soil, and end the anchor baby policy;
6) Cut the number of government employees by 50% and cut all government pensions 50% excepting the military. Make them act responsibly to fund their own retirement. When you end the majority of socal programs, this should be easy.
anchor baby was changed in 1996 already.
now the left is moving/moved to have a foot in amnesty (dream act amnesty)
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