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Are We Doomed?
NRO ^ | 8/21/2012 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 08/21/2012 10:32:30 AM PDT by mojito

Sometimes societies find themselves in pernicious cycles in which the perceived medicine seems worse than the known disease. The Roman satirist Juvenal lamented the ill effects of free food and free entertainment for the masses (“bread and circuses”) in part because he knew there was no remedy for the pathology in sight — and thus only a slow decline toward fiscal insolvency or riots were on the horizon. Any Roman emperor bold enough to rein in the Praetorian Guard, charge the mob for grain, and curb gladiatorial shows would earn a usurper marching on Rome from the provinces. So most did not.

[....]

We are currently mired in the slowest recovery from any recession in our modern history — and we face the same circular dilemma. A good argument could be made that President Obama’s gargantuan new health-care initiative, federal takeovers of businesses and failed subsidization of green industries, vastly expanded food stamps, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance, and “You didn’t build that business” boilerplate have ossified the private sector. Many businesses have plenty of cash, but their owners are terrified to risk much of it in hiring, buying, or expanding. This results in fewer jobs and slower growth — and again, in this squirrel cage of an economy, yet more need for entitlements.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: obamacare; privatesector; vdh; victordavishanson
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To: mojito

Yes. We are Doomed:

http://www.amazon.com/Are-Doomed-Reclaiming-Conservative-ebook/dp/B002PYFWAM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345576730&sr=8-2&keywords=We+are+doomed


21 posted on 08/21/2012 12:21:40 PM PDT by Little Ray (AGAINST Obama in the General.)
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To: Cyber Liberty
Living on a farm in central California watching your neighbors’ farms dry up and blow away to protect a two-inch Minnow a few hundred miles away will darken anyone’s spirit

Beats a truck full of technicals with .50 caliber heavy machine gun mounted on a truck bed and machetes showing up at the door and hacking everybody to death.

22 posted on 08/21/2012 12:24:39 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
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To: BenLurkin

For this election cycle, I am fairly confident that Americans are so repulsed by Barry’s imcompetence and narcissism that they are going to make the right call.

Long term though, I am gravely concerned. In my view the odds are about even that sometime in the next two decades 50.01% of the country will vote to go flat-out Socialist, and all of us who have tried to do it the right way are gonna get SCROOOOOOOOOOOD.


23 posted on 08/21/2012 12:26:23 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: mojito

I read in the WSJ yesterday that Texas has more people on Medicaid than there are total people in Iowa, Arkansas, or Mississippi.


24 posted on 08/21/2012 12:29:45 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: mojito
Given human nature, societies never voluntarily reduce entitlements.

Can anyone think of an historic example?

25 posted on 08/21/2012 12:36:28 PM PDT by LucianOfSamasota (Tanstaafl - its not just for breakfast anymore...)
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To: ichabod1
Beats a truck full of technicals with .50 caliber heavy machine gun mounted on a truck bed and machetes showing up at the door and hacking everybody to death.

Well, yeah, but in central CA the man-made drought is a certainty that is presently observable. The truck full of gear is another, more colorful dimension to the question, "Are we doomed?"

26 posted on 08/21/2012 12:39:20 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Obama considers the Third World morally superior to the United States.)
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To: LucianOfSamasota
Can anyone think of an historic example?

Ohh...me...pick me.

Voluntarily? No. Hence ramming thru Obamacare. Now they rush to implement it and we need not wonder why.

27 posted on 08/21/2012 1:24:50 PM PDT by Dysart (Obama Faults Profit. Reject That.)
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To: mojito

Doomed!

Except, yeah, we're pretty darned screwed.

28 posted on 08/21/2012 1:30:51 PM PDT by tnlibertarian (Government's solution to everything: Less freedom.)
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To: mojito; Dysart

Texas is a solidly Republican state for one reason; the GOP routinely wins over 70% of the white vote. That’s it. What happens when the white share of the electorate is no longer large enough for that to carry the day?

The GOP may do better with Hispanics in Texas than they do in California, but they still typically lose the latino vote by large, double-digit margins in the Lone Star State. And there is no reason to expect this to change, especially while mass immigration (legal and illegal) continues.

Texas won’t become hopeless for the GOP like California as long as the white vote there remains so conservative, but Texas will likely become a battleground state within a few election cycles.


29 posted on 08/21/2012 3:17:51 PM PDT by Aetius
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To: mojito

Yes. Next question.


30 posted on 08/21/2012 3:26:09 PM PDT by OB1kNOb (Vote for Paul Ryan 2012...... oh, and that other guy running on his ticket that's not Obama.)
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To: Aetius
That's a good, if dispiriting analysis.

Ok, so we are doomed. But I can still wash the bad news down with a Shiner. So, it's not all bad.

31 posted on 08/21/2012 3:50:59 PM PDT by mojito
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To: mojito

BTTT!


32 posted on 08/21/2012 4:01:57 PM PDT by Pagey (B. Hussein Obama is weak, and is a worse human being than F.D.R., on multiple levels.)
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To: LucianOfSamasota

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve read articles recently about how Sweden is retreating from its entitlement state mentality.


33 posted on 08/21/2012 5:28:27 PM PDT by AlanGreenSpam (Obama: The First 'American IDOL' President - sponsored by Chicago NeoCom Thugs)
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To: AlanGreenSpam

The United States now ranks fifth, overtaken by Sweden and Singapore in the 2011-2012 rankings of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness report.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/209890/20110907/united-states-united-kingdom-sweden-and-singapore-2011-2012-rankings-of-the-world-economic-forum-s-g.htm


34 posted on 08/21/2012 5:55:42 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: mojito

I choose to not participate the the doom. Much of America is doomed though.


35 posted on 08/21/2012 6:11:44 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: ichabod1

That’s why IEDs were invented.


36 posted on 08/21/2012 6:13:54 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: AlanGreenSpam

Thanks!
That’s very interesting.

I will try to find out more about Sweden then.


37 posted on 08/22/2012 4:34:03 AM PDT by LucianOfSamasota (Tanstaafl - its not just for breakfast anymore...)
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To: Cyber Liberty

Suddenly I am reminded of how Stalin pacified the Ukraine.


38 posted on 08/22/2012 7:15:40 AM PDT by ichabod1 (Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
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To: mojito
I think proximity to doom can be measured by the relative tonnage of babble committed to print.

At some point, you have to clean out the dross, and burning the books seems the time honored human way.

There was a time when I thought I would make some attempt to preserve some small pod of human knowledge, and there is a selected aspect I'll make the effort to keep alive. Otherwise, you'll find me next to the pile, keeping warm...

39 posted on 08/23/2012 4:48:15 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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