I don't think government intrusion is the problem, I just think it is methodology. There was a serious problem with poverty among the elderly, the nation wanted to do something about it. They needed to pay out current seniors who had not paid in. They should have done this in a phased approach, paying out the contemporaneous poor seniors on a needs basis, and set up a system for people to fund their accounts over time.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda... why didn't they?
Because they thought their socialist Ponzi Scheme would work.
We don't need government to hold our hands. America did fine without them before.
I would also argue that there is nothing perverted or even new in our people, but that the problem is the shift in our economy from a balance between labor and capital that has heavily favored capital. Capitalism is the engine of our economy, but an engine can be debilitated by too much fuel. We complain about current tax rates and ignore the past when they were much more progressive and much higher.
1916 was the first Federal income tax. Aimed at less than 1% of the population. Look at what it has wrought. The disease right out of the Commi manifesto.
Our economy is based on consumer spending (about 70%), when the policies change in such a way that new money goes into fewer and fewer hands, the results expected are exactly what we are seeing now. We missed a lot of what was going on during the first part of this decade because consumption was fueled by debt backed up by home values. When that house of cards fell it exposed the reality of our economy, consumers had far less disposable income than previously.
Government caused that problem... passing legislation forcing banks to make bad loans. Just like the income tax, Social Security... this created problems on a scale 100 times more massive than they were supposed to "solve".
We have since seen capital try to make up for this by selling products for less by producing them for less. But to do this, they hve outsourced production, killing more American jobs and putting greater downward pressure on incomes.
That is what happens when you price labor too high. Unions... your chickens have come home to roost.
A sustainable economy should function by one simple edict, take a little, leave a little, but don't break up the game.
Who decides what is "sustainable"? Some pinheads in DC? No... let the free market reign.
Our policies over the last 30 years put us on a path to break up the game. Through most of the last century wealth was concentrated at a level of about 22% of all private assets in the hands of 1% of capitalists. And it remained in that vicinity for most of the century. With the policies beginning in the 80's, this changed, pushing a greater and greater share of the wealth into fewer and fewer hands to the point where over 40% of all wealth is in the hands of 1%.
The mass of wealth will always be in the hands of the top 20%. It will change hands... some will fall out, others will rise up. It shouldn't be discouraged... and a society of class envy will only hurt the greater good for the greatest number.
Where do you think this train goes?
We all know where the socialist train goes. Into disrepair... and despair.
We're not Czarist Russia, but if we are heading in that direction, what do you suppose will happen? Do you believe that continuing this path of wealth concentration is sustainable?
The Top 20% will always have the greatest wealth. This will become more concentrated the more socialist legislation we have and the harder it is to move upwards. Socialism kills upward mobility... and Obama's schemes are designed to kill that. Those that have don't have to worry... but their assault on those creating wealth is a break and hammer.
I don't come at this from a perspective of a desire to see wealth equality or to stick it to the rich. I come at this as a patriot who would like to see America work for Americans they way it had in the past in a sustainable way. Capitalism is not a form of goverment, it is an economic system, and it cannot function in the absence of a political system.
Capitalism works and works best for the most people.
But that political system will create the construct, the playing field, if you will, for the capitalist system. The system cannot be fair, it is built by the haves for the benefit of the haves,
Pure BS.
Capitalism works for all. Those who want to go out and do it can reap the rewards of their labor. If they don't want to take the risk... they can find employment from a risk taker.
BUT, and this is key, the haves need to have a long term view of how they put policies in place.
The long term view of Socialism is terrible. It fails everywhere... and it is not just.
if they are consumed by the short term view, they will take as much as they can as soon as they can, and they will break the system. Rich people don't make policies thaat are good for workers because they love workers, they make policies that are good for workers because ultimately, the workers have the power to take everything they have. When FDR began instituting labor favoring policies, it wasn't out of a desire to be socialist, it was out of a necessity to avoid revolution.
Let those who want to look out for the short term do so... let those who want to take the long view do so... there is room for both. Some will succeed, some will fail. THAT's LIFE... and government intrusion only fecks things up.
FDR may not have desired socialist policies, but that's what he delivered... to the detriment of the country. He is the root of much evil.
WE NEED FREEDOM... from an overbearing, omnipotent and omnipresent government
Obama is FAR from being socialist, in fact, the policies he favors could save capitalism from itself.
ROTFLOL... Obama is killing Capitalism with his idiotic Socialist policies. And he is a Socialist... and you've sounded like one throughout your post... with talk about class warfare... some people having more than others, and a need for Capitalism to be managed by a bunch of pinheads. You last line was the winner... "the policies he favors could save capitalism from itself." ROTFLOL...
