“This thread posits the Roman Empire as a single example. I contend that this is a vast oversimplification of the empire’s history, that even if we accept the annona as a primary cause of the empire’s decline and fall, it took it 4 to 6 centuries to do its work.”
I am in fact positing that encouraging dependency, confiscating production, debasing the currency and the government reacting to the resultant ill-effects by insinuating itself even further into the economy was the cause of Rome’s fall and threatens to destroy America from within.
I am in fact positing that making economic decisions in to political decisions is doomed to fail.
Under socialism, government owns the means of production — which ultimately is the citizenry itself. When you have the product of your labors expropriated, agglomerated and then distributed by an elite — be it a government or private entity — you are a slave.
Fascism [aka European Social Democracy] is another form of collectivism, but is distinguished by the fact that private property is tolerated only so long as it serves the State. Fascists view wages and personal property as allowances granted by the government on behalf of the collective. Hence they refer to take-home pay that is not expropriated by the tax collector as a cost. [”We cannot afford a tax-cut!”] They firmly believe that the State is the people and the people are the State [”we are the government”]. Therefore, the more powers the State has, in their view, the more empowered are the people.
Whether private property is tolerated or not, collectivism features the government allocating resources based upon a principle [other than supply-and-demand]. It may be “from each according to ability, to each according to need” or simply political cronyism.
So you may have a company that is only adept at getting politicians and bureaucrats to give them other people’s money. These companies are not going to be competent at much of anything else — hence Solyndra.
I pretty much agree with what you say, except the assumption that the history of the Roman Empire has much of anything to say about the future of America.
The Empire was a slave-based, non-technological, human muscle based economy. It’s difficult to think of anything at all its economy had in common with ours, except of course for pervasive corruption and cronyism. The Empire certainly did not have anything even vaguely resembling progressive taxation or extensive welfare.
In fact under the Empire the wealthiest people were generally exempt from most taxes.