UNCLE SAM'S FUTURE


Alison Fraser points out there are two visions for the future of USA. Under one, we follow in the footsteps of miserable Greece, replete with debt crises and an economic and cultural meltdown and in the end, vastly higher taxes. Under another, we return to our smaller government roots with lower spending and lower taxation for all Americans, and unshackle our system of free enterprise so Americans from all walks of life can seize opportunity.

Fraser notes that under Obama's vision, we close our eyes and pretend that big government has all the answers to every risk and problem in society, real or perceived. Under Obama's vision, fairness and prosperity come from spreading the wealth around and the government picking winners and losers. Crony capitalism, waste, and corruption capture the headlines. 

We do nothing about our entitlement crisis and instead pretend it doesn't exist, while driving health care further into the clutches of unelected government bureaucrats and away from patient-centered care. Under Obama's vision, we get crushing levels of debt or crippling levels of taxation, and America's younger generations pay the price in terms of lost freedom, opportunity, and prosperity. Under Obama's vision, we walk squarely and knowingly into a Grecian-style debt and democratic crisis.

Americans inherit from their ancestors a glorious tradition of freedom and resistance to oppression. USA has long been admired by the rest of the world for its great example of liberty and prosperity, a light shining in the darkness of tyranny. But many Americans today are frustrated. The political choices they are offered give them no real choice at all. For all their talk of change, neither major political party as presently constituted challenges the status quo in any serious way. 

Neither party treats the Constitution with anything but contempt. Neither offers any kind of change in monetary policy. Neither wants to make the reductions in government that our crushing debt burden demands. Neither talks about bringing American troops home not just from Iraq but from around the world. USA is going bankrupt, and none of these sensible proposals are even on the table. This destructive bipartisan consensus has suffocated American political life for many years. Anyone who tries to ask fundamental questions instead of cosmetic ones is ridiculed or ignored.

The free market, reviled by people who do not understand it, is the most just and humane economic system and the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known. We oppose the dehumanizing assumption that all issues that divide us must be settled at the federal level and forced on every American community, whether by activist judges, a power-hungry executive, or a meddling Congress. Libertarians believe in the humane alternative of local self-government, as called for in our Constitution.

Libertarians believe that freedom is an indivisible whole, and that it includes not only economic liberty but civil liberties and privacy rights as well, all of which are historic rights that our civilization has cherished from time immemorial. USA is ailing. That is the bad news. The good news is that the remedy is so simple and attractive, a return to the principles American Founders taught us - respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, individual liberty, sound money, and a noninterventionist foreign policy. 

USA might deteriorate to the miserable level of Greece. The government of Greece in 2010 was so stupid that it hoodwinked all media that I plotted to trigger a war between Greece and Turkey and blame Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, for it! Much worse than that, all the Greek media were so stupid that they believed this nonsense!

Accusing dissident bloggers of treason, the Greek government manufactured a blood libel in cyberspace, which in turn incites hatred. The deranged minister gave my head on plate to Erdogan. Brutal Graecokleptocrats have destroyed my life. My life is stolen. Now I demand my life back!

My persecution costs the government of Greece dearly, because fund managers who follow my ordeal are pissed off, dropping Greek bonds and stocks like hot potatoes, and advising all investors to stay away from Greece. In addition to the default premium, Greek bond yields now also include the stupidity premium! 

What are the greatest dangers that the American people face today and impede the goal of a free society? Ron Paul, a frequent reader of http://venitism.blogspot.com, points out there are five:

1. The continuous attack on our civil liberties which threatens the rule of law and our ability to resist the onrush of tyranny. 

2. Violent anti-Americanism that has engulfed the world. Because the phenomenon of blowback is not understood or denied, our foreign policy is destined to keep us involved in many wars that we have no business being in. National bankruptcy and a greater threat to our national security will result. 

3. The ease in which we go to war, without a declaration by Congress, but accepting international authority from the UN or NATO even for preemptive wars, otherwise known as aggression. 

4. A financial political crisis as a consequence of excessive debt, unfunded liabilities, spending, bailouts, and gross discrepancy in wealth distribution going from the middle class to the rich. The danger of central economic planning, by the Federal Reserve must be understood. 

5. World government taking over local and US sovereignty by getting involved in the issues of war, welfare, trade, banking, a world currency, taxes, property ownership, and private ownership of guns.