Think through what “only able to afford the basics” means for the economy. Drive past your local strip malls, you see nails salons, insurance agents, a tanning place, pizza and chinese carryouts. Go into any office building and look at the directory, and you find “financial services,” some lawyers, maybe some counselors. When you get down to it, how many of the businesses there really fill basic needs? How many of them rely on “discretionary” money? Just about all of them.
If we have to pay triple for electric AND increased costs for all goods, here’s the economic decisions my family will make, in order:
1. No vacations
2. No new purchases of major goods unless absolutely necessary (I have 7 TV’s, 4 computers, 3 refrigerators, one freezer, 3 cars; I can last several years without purchasing a new one).
3. No entertainment (we attend a lot of sports events; that’s getting cut).
4. No dining out
5. Only basic food staples purchased
6. Son at college will come home to live in basement, unemployed (last resort).
7. Second son will not attend college (despite being advanced class straight A student, he’s a white male. No chance of scholarship under the 0bama regime).
That’s assuming we can keep employment, which I doubt in the case of my wife and which I expect to be drastically reduced on my part. Further cuts will be necessary. And, to the extent possible, we will start bartering.
Our economic decisions will be shared by millions. We are looking at MAJOR economic contraction, and the end of economic freedom. With the end of economic freedom, all political freedom will also end.
The Long March will be triumphantly over. Yeah.
Good analysis, henkster. Taxing ourselves to affect climate change is a fool’s errand. There is no plus side for economic or political freedom in American.