Posted on 02/20/2014 11:18:56 AM PST by Kaslin
When I give speeches around the country, I often get asked whether it’s time to give up.
More specifically, has America reached a tipping point, with too many people riding in the wagon of government dependency and too few people creating wealth and pulling the wagon in the right direction?
These questions don’t surprise me, particularly since my speeches frequently include very grimBIS, OECD, and IMF data showing that the long-run fiscal problem 
in the United States is larger than it is in some nations that already are facing fiscal crisis.
But that doesn’t mean I have a good answer. I think there is a tipping point, to be sure, but I’m not sure whether there’s a single variable that tells us when we’ve reached the point of no return.
Is it when government spending consumes 50 percent of economic output? That would be a very bad development if the burden of government spending reached that level, but it’s not necessarily fatal. Back in the early 1990s, the public sector was that big in Canada, yet policy makers in that country were able to restrain budgetary growth and put the country on a positive path. Sweden is another nation that has turned the corner. Government spending peaked at 67 percent of GDP in the early 1990s, but is now down to 47 percent of GDP after years of free-market reforms.
Is it when a majority of households are getting government handouts? That’s also a worrisome development, especially if those folks see the state as a means of living off their fellow citizens. But taking a check from Uncle Sam doesn’t automatically mean a statist mindset. As one of my favorite people opined, “some government beneficiaries – such as Social Security recipients – spent their lives in the private sector and are taking benefits simply because they had no choice but to participate in the system.”
Is it when a majority of people no longer pay income taxes, leaving a shrinking minority to bear all the burden of financing government? It’s not healthy for society when most people think government is “free,” particularly if they perceive an incentive to impose even higher burdens on those who do pay. And there’s no question that the overwhelming majority of the tax burden is borne by the top 10 percent. There’s little evidence, though, that the rest of the population thinks there’s no cost to government – perhaps because many of them pay heavy payroll taxes.
I explore these issues in this interview with Charles Payne.
Dan Mitchell Discussing the Tipping Point when America Becomes a Failed Welfare State
The main takeaway from the interview is that the tipping point is not a number, but a state of mind. It’s the health of the nation’s “social capital.”
So for what it’s worth, the country will be in deep trouble if and when the spirit of self-reliance becomes a minority viewpoint. And the bad news is that we’re heading in that direction.
The good news is that we’re not close to the point of no return. There is some polling data, for instance, showing that Americans still have a much stronger belief in liberty than their European counterparts.
And we’ve even made a small bit of progress against big government in the past few years.
I speculated in the interview that we probably have a couple of decades to save the country, but it will become increasingly difficult to make the necessary changes – such as entitlement reform andwelfare decentralization – as we get closer to 2020 and 2030.
And if those changes don’t occur…?
That’s a very grim subject. I fully understand why some Americans are thinking about the steps they should take to protect their families if reforms don’t occur and a crisis occurs.
Indeed, this to me is one of the most compelling arguments against gun control. If America begins to suffer the chaos and disarray that we’ve seen in nations such as Greece, it’s better to well-armed.
Though maybe there will be some nations that remain stable as the world’s welfare states collapse. And if emigration is your preferred option, I’d bet on Australia.
But wouldn’t it be better to fix what’s wrong and stay in America?
Thing is, that everyone is looking for that magic person who will solve all their problems for them and still take flack from a spoiled public. GW protected the US from a world of hurt, but he was still mouthed off to via the spoiled university crowd and our pampered media. Even conservatives whined about how he wasn’t doing one thing or another for them, while they sat fat and glassy eyed in front of TV. I’m certain that if the US decided to start making changes for themselves we wouldn’t be in this fix.
Honestly, when the economy and system collapses, it’ll be for the better in the end. Time to shed the dross and have ourselves a little Darwin experience. It’s inevitable.
Doomed? Can someone be “doomed” after the fact?
Anyone who can perform mathematical functions would tell you that America is past the point of no return. For now, the burden of the debt is lessened by ZIRP. When it starts to go up and it will, those left believing in unicorns and rainbows, will have to work harder for less.
Yes - without a doubt.
I thought we already were.
I fear we are doomed to become a failed Stalinist State, after the financial collapse and social upheaval.
The sign says “Work makes you free” and Obama doesn’t like work. Just more taqiyya?
Um, no.
Failing Euro-peon welfare states only exist because the US has been underwriting and subsidizing them.
When the US fails, there’s no one there to prop us up. We will take the rest of the world down with us.
Socialism has run out of other people’s money to spend.
Not ours. Not yet. But I agree with you entirely, it will, and when it does there will be no soft landing.
Buuuuump!
Yes.
The 2012 election was the Rubicon.
I loved America.
“Trey Gowdy supports amnesty, no thanks.”
Really?
Trey Gowdy: Don’t trust Obama, immigration reform not coming
“So when I hear the president say immigration reform is coming next? No, it’s not.”
http://gowdy.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=339551
The very few who don't live in the new normal of "equal income poverty" will be 0.002% of the population who are elitist members of "The Party" controlling every single aspect of our lives. They will live opulent lives of excess while everyone else suffers.
Won't it just be fabulous to live like this?(/s)
Short answer yes, with an if. Long answer no, with a but.
Failure. The counties in Europe, for the most part, are homogeneous populations with the same race(s) and religion(s) and goal(s). This country is not like that anymore. The Judeo-Christian/Anglo-Saxon/WASP foundations that this country was founded on have been either eliminated or diminished by decades of calculated attacks by the Communist/Leftist/Anti-American forces.
Major problems in Europe were when people(s) were forced together (Yugoslavia, for example) or conquered (Ireland/England) or “other” (Germany, 1933-1945?). Or in the phenomenon of “Balkanization” that we’ve seen. That problem has spread to the USA, precipitated by what I wrote above.
Yes, we’re already there with the “consent of the governed”.
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