Posted on 11/07/2012 3:51:00 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Abe Lincoln used those words in 1858 to describe a country that was careening toward civil war. Now we’re a house divided again and another civil war is coming, with the 2012 election as its Gettysburg.
Call it America’s coming civil war between the Makers and the Takers.
On one side are those who create wealth, America’s private sector–the very ones targeted by President Obama’s tax hikes announced Monday.
On the other are the public employee unions; left-leaning intelligentsia who see the growth of government as index of progress; and the millions of Americans now dependent on government through a growing network of government transfer payments, from Medicaid and Social Security to college loans and corporate bailouts and handouts (think GM and Solyndra).
Over the past century America’s private sector has been the source of productivity, innovation, creativity, and growth–and gave us the iPhone and iPad. The public sector has been the engine of entitlement, stagnation, and decline -- and gave us Detroit and the South Bronx.
The private sector built the strongest economy in the world. It armed the free world in World War Two, and then in the three decades after the war turned America into the most prosperous society history had ever seen. It revived America in the Reagan and Clinton years, and thanks to the Bush tax cuts brought this country back from economic collapse after 9/11.
In those same years a growing public sector, by contrast, turned Europe into a cesspool of debt, stalled economies, and chronic social dysfunction that’s set the streets of Athens -- and perhaps other European capitals--on fire.
That’s where we’re headed, too, more rapidly than we like to think.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It could happen. I am certainly not all knowing about our future. I used to be a person that believed that it would happen, however I left that reservation a long time ago.
For you, apparently not. The dynamics (fortunately) of mid-term elections are entirely different from Presidential years. Eventually, we're going to start losing those as well; especially if we continue to delude ourselves that we're being defrauded.
We're not.
We lost.
We've got problems.
All of the educational, entertainment, and cultural institutions have been beating a constant drumbeat against our cause for over 50 years. Many of our so-called "mainstream" religious institutions are failing as well. The Roman Church got itself behind 0bamacare, and now, though supposedly horrified at the result, still can't muster the moral courage to refuse the Blessed Sacrament to de facto excommunicants like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sebelius, and many others. 1 out of 9 people who were Christians in the last generation are not Christians in the current generation of Americans.
It's taking it's toll, and we've allowed the occasional triumph, like 2010, to lull us into to believing that we're "winning." We aren't.
And by the way, I'm still waiting for some actual evidence.
Backing up crazy conspiracy theories doesn't come easy, does it!?
I don’t see enough support, organization and expertise for another civil war. What I do see is, on going low level violence that replicates the third world.
The problem with the analysis that CA and NY and some other states are "donor" states is that it simply draws a huge line around the border and says "here is the money collected in Federal Taxes," [that part is easy enough to delineate, but it's also not quite the whole story, read on.] It then says, here is how much money comes back in through these lines from the Federal government, and A - B is > 0, therefore we are a donor state.
It does not consider that a substantially larger amount of our national defense is geared toward protecting New York City. It does not correctly pro-rate the fact that high population states have to amortize the defense costs over larger numbers to begin with, it does not account for the fact that Eastern States like ours, and even Kali, which was settled early, derive enormous benefit by stealing huge amounts of hidden money from people in WY, MT, AK, ND, SD, ... because of the benefits their public lands accrues to us, and is lost to the people of those states.
I'm not even going to get into the disproportionately higher hidden costs of regulation that people in low-density agricultural areas bear for the sake of those of us in high-water, high fertility farming states, that is my bailiwick since I got out of Academia and it would bore you to tears.
Here are two other examples: Southern States have disproportionately large numbers of veterans. Now, I don't know about you, but I do not believe the Federal money going back to our veterans comes anywhere close to paying them back for what they've done for us. But even if it did, it would still not be NY money that was going to, say SC. It would be US money, going to US veterans who happen to live where they were born. How do you correctly amortize the flux of money into SC to account for that? What did the veteran "pay?" It was paid in red, not green.
One more example: Any state with a median age over the US median age will suck a huge amount more money from the Federal coffers than a "young" state like UT. Does that mean that the state is a "taker" state? In PA, it doesn't, because most of the people getting old age benefits here were also born here. But on the other hand, can we seriously argue that is true even in the case of FL where most people are transplants? After all, the money Floridians are currently drawing from entitlements was contributed in other states decades ago.
Finally, just to touch on my original example. Do you really want Federal contracts to flow back to high cost-of-living states like NY? One of the biggest cost problems we have right now is that an enormous amount of Federal money is spent close to Washington, DC. As a result of that, NoVA has become an extremely expensive place to live, and the costs of contractors in NoVA and MD has skyrocketed in the last 40 years. We actually should flow that money to low cost of living states in the Mid-West. You could hire an engineer in KA for 1/2 of what it costs in Northern Virginia, and he would be able to maintain the same standard of living on 1/2 the money -- and a whole lot better quality of life.
But of course, liberal economists working for the NY Times would accuse Kansas of being a "taker" state if we did that. Well, screw them. I'm the employer and I want more engineers for my $.
So, my point is this. Liberals like to look at a very oversimplified economic model of revenue and return, and then claim that overpopulated liberal states are net contributors. It's not that simple. I was a physicist in a former life, and this isn't an energy flow where you can just draw a circle around a system and talk about the thermodynamics of heat going in, coming out, and the internal energy or state variable changes as a result. It's political sophistry to believe you can. That's why liberals do it. They want to believe that their regulatory, high-tax, welfare state policies, which force companies to pay their employees more money to live in their hell-holes entitle them to "bragging rights." They don't. They simply make the products and services they sell more expensive for those of us who have to buy them, and if we live outside of those states, that makes them "free enterprise TAKERS." Please, let's not go there. It's a place conservatives don't belong.
http://www.creators.com/opinion/pat-buchanan/is-belgium-breaking-up.html At some point, the US will a) become ungovernable, b) become despotic or c) coalesce around semi-autonomous regions. I believe it will be (c). Have a read.
Bump to the top....
Bump to the top....
Bump to the top....
Unless you define "forseeable future" as "a few years", that's mathematically impossible.
Calhoun was talking secession in the 1830s. Even then, the formation of the Confederacy and the bills of secession were not something which just popped up overnight, it had been brewing for decades before it happened.
Similarly, the grumblings of colonists against the King of England went on for a while before things came to a head.
In both cases, the powder keg had been charged for decades before the spark ignited war.
Don't let your normalcy bias blind you to history. Human nature does not change that much.
You’ve no problems at all.Your simple deluded mind is at peace with whatever is dished out to you.
That’s probably a good thing for you, since you lack the cognition, and the moral outrage required to establish an effective plan, or even a desire, to deal effectively with the situation.
Just go back to sleep.
My Father-in-law’s place had two ponds on it. It was on the west side of Double Bluff,near a hump in the road, just a short distance from the maim highway (525?).
The ponds were at the west end of the property, down lower than the house.
How far do you think you can “forsee?”
Let’s say at least two decades, and it is quite possible.
Sick huh? Enjoy your socialist utopia troll.
Do you remember a girl named Kathleen Kolweiss that worked at the building supply store on the south side of the highway, just a few miles east of Double Bluff?
Medicare’s been growing at 9% annually (doubling every eight years) since 1980.
It was $50 billion then.
This year it’s $800 billion.
Eight years from now that trend points to $1600 billion.
Eight years from then it’ll be $3200 billion.
That’s the entirety of this year’s Federal budget. Just for Medicare.
How long do you think that sort of thing is possible?
In other words, you would follow orders to attack Americans. Good to know.
One would have to be able to quantify future revenues to answer your question, but based on the slope of the production curve for natural gas, it could go on for a few decades.
That is not an advocation of the process,its just the way it is shaping up.
In other words, ya got bupkis.
Looks like you’re getting to know Vermont Lt.
Many have had his number since the day he showed up.
He’s a real piece of work.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.