Posted on 10/31/2010 3:41:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
“The task of defining ideas and goals is not the province of politicians and is not accomplished at election time: elections are merely consequences. The task belongs to the intellectuals. The need is more urgent than ever.”
- Ayn Rand, “The Wreckage of the Consensus,” 1967 -
When Ayn Rand wrote the above words 43 years ago, the country was still stocked with a large majority of producers. Yes, the so-called “welfare” state and interventionist economics were on the rise, and had been for decades, but many more people than not supported themselves and their families by their own efforts.
If you still think that’s true, you had better think again.
In that year of 1967, for instance, the United States had a population of 198 million, a GDP of $825 billion, a federal budget of $157 billion and federal “social welfare” expenses of $26 billion. This placed “social welfare” spending at $131.30 per capita, 3.1 percent of GDP and 16.6 percent of federal outlays.
In 2010, the United States has a population of 308 million, a GDP of $13.3 trillion, a federal budget of $3.6 trillion and federal “social welfare” expenses of $2.1 trillion. This places “social welfare” spending at $6,818.18 per capita, 16.1 percent of GDP and 59 percent of federal outlays.
In the light of such figures, it’s pretty clear that our “social welfare” outlays have skyrocketed. And that’s just federal spending, folks - that doesn’t count the state and local outlays.
Given such data, I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to say that fully half of our population is receiving government aid of some sort and amount from the other half.
And this guess, while a guess, is at least close, for the tax figures bear it out: In 2008, IRS figures show that the top 50 percent of the country’s adult population (with incomes greater than $33,000) paid 97.3 percent of collected taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the other piddling 2.7 percent.
And if you (mistakenly) think that this is the price we pay for “helping the poor,” you’d better check your premises on that one as well: for despite the untold trillions of dollars we’ve poured into the so-called “War on Poverty” since 1967 alone, when 31.8 million people lived under the poverty line, we now have 38.9 million people there instead. This isn’t “welfare”; this is parasites living at the expense of the producers - period!
Back in the early 1970s’, when I was still a fresh young lad, my father told me something that I’ll never forget: “When 50 percent or more of the country lives on the dole, you can kiss your freedoms goodbye.”
Well, welcome to the future. The 2008 election of radical left-winger Barack Obama and a host of additional tax-and-spend Congressional Democrats was the tipping point.
For how many more years does anyone seriously think such a trend can continue? Carried to its logical extreme, we will end up with one producer supporting an entire nation of parasites. Which is clearly impossible.
So, where’s the snapping point? At what point of the trend do the producers simply revolt and refuse to play their perennial role of self-sacrificial serfs? Like most human phenomena, it’s a bell curve. Some people have already dropped out and off the radar, and more and more are joining them with every passing year.
And the “bell” of that curve? It’s approaching us much faster than we think, and we are headed directly towards civil war. Hence the “Tea Party” revolution, which has gained steam precisely in step with the mushrooming level of servitude.
So, for the Republicans and the “Tea-Partiers” getting ready to celebrate what looks to be near-certain victory come November 2nd, be advised: you are getting ready to step in front of a train.
And that train, loaded down with every free-loading moocher and looter in the country who thinks they have a “right” to exist at the expense of everyone else, can’t be resisted politically: it has to be challenged ideologically. For the only way to prevent the upcoming wreck is to reduce that percentage rate below 50 percent, which means: to educate our population as to just how it is that their true best interests, both socially and economically, lie in the unfettered freedom of the capitalist marketplace.
And you’d better get busy at it, for our time is running out.
******
Bradley Harrington is a former U.S. Marine and a writer who lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Hey! I’ve seen this in the movies. You blow up a bridge over a chasm in front of the train. The train goes over the edge.
The End.
For 12 years you have been asking “Who is John Galt?”.
I am here to tell you....
I happened to overhear a conversation this summer over breakfast at an exclusive location. Two couples had sold everything—multi-millionaires, mind you—and were nomadically cruising the US, here and there, looking for someplace to light, in the US or elsewhere. They were wheeler-dealers. They agreed they expect deflation, then hyperinflation.
Once they heard/saw my cocked ear in their direction, they all shut up right quick.
This article asks, “where is the snapping point”?
The answer is, of course, there will be no civil war.
Galt’s Gulch?
http://www.LivingInThePhilippines.com
Makers vs. Takers
The snapping point will be when the slave class riots again after having to take it’s second or third a pay cut.
Once entitlements become the catalyst for violence we’ll start to see progress.
Good find, thanks.
Amen
Short and sweet. Lays it out in plain, easy to understand terms.
We laugh at the rioting French with their pensions, but America is not that much further behind.
If there is, it’ll make the one in the 1860’s look like a Sunday School picnic.
With no host, the parasites die. I’m betting on the hosts fumigating the place and denying excess capacity.
All very nice libertarian words by the author but where are the jobs for the people and families who want to work and produce and not be sucking off the government? Back in 1967/1997/1987/1997 the jobs were still there. We had not driven industry offshore and allowed the Asians to grab it. We did not have Japanese automobile manufacturers setting up factories on US soil. We did not have the illegal immigrant invasion we have today that lowers wages for Americans
I would have slapped on high tariffs years ago and kept those jobs here. “Free trade” is only for chumps, losers and the naive and that is how we became an indebted loser nation. That plus low birthrates and the illegal immigrant invasion. Also add too much government regulations and the EPA driving US businesses out of America
When you include Gov’t workers and those who work in non-profits (10 million so they say) the parasite class outnumbers the producer class. Even a lot of the “producer class” are useless padding and paper shufflers. It was much different 50 years ago. I saw it all gradually devolve to what we have now. My father owned a sheet metal factory. We made things
This article asks, “where is the snapping point”?
The answer is, of course, there will be no civil war.
Probably not. I found this on the Net and thought you might benefit from reading it again:
Has the time come to shoot the bastards?
Some people on either side of this equation are probably wondering the answer to the age old magic question. “Is it time to shoot the bastards?”
I can give you the answer very succinctly, and a lot of you are not going to like it.
When complying with the tyranny becomes more difficult than just shooting the bastards, the bastards will begin to be assassinated, and in rather large numbers.
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