The Keynesian Trifecta - Theft, Borrowing and Counterfeiting

To hear Washington tell it, if we cut back on the increase, not the total, but the increase of government spending, we're going to go bankrupt, resort to cannibalism, and start listening to disco again.  30 seconds of video here.  Please watch it.  Who does it remind you of? 



Let's break down the Keynesian Logic (sic) here....

Economies rely on spending. 

I spend a lot, and you spend a lot. 

Government takes money from both of us, and spends it.  This makes it look like government spends even more, and is even more vital.  But it's the same amount of money. 

But even if we weren't spending our money instantly, we would have it in a bank.  The bank attracts our savings by paying interest.  The only way they can generate this interest it by loaning it to other people who want to..... spend it. 

Government takes our money by force.  If the only rationale for this theft is to create jobs and help the economy, we could be doing that without their freakin' help.  I want to create jobs in industries that I like, not necessarily in industries that have given The Teleprompter Jesus a shitload of contributions.  Plus, even though I'm a moral leper, I still don't like giving money to an asshole who blows up children with drones.   

Some of the other money pumped into our economy is borrowed from other nations, other individuals, or from ourselves.  Keynesian economists don't worry about this, mostly because they're not the ones who will have to pay it back. 

The other money pumped into our economy is printed at a facility on Blue Mound Road in Fort Worth TX, or at another facility in Washington D.C.  Nothing is backing it.  Not gold, not silver.  It's just paper. 

Taking money by force is bad.  Printing money out of thin air is bad.  Borrowing isn't necessarily bad in some cases, but if you're putting the loan on the credit cards of 5-year-olds, it's bad.   

If the only things keeping our economy afloat are 1) theft 2) borrowing, and 3) counterfeiting, then we need to re-examine everything we think we know about government, economics, and politics. 

The piper is coming, and he's gonna get paid. 

What A Wonderful World

One of the first things taught in Libertarianism 101 is that "Utopia Is Not An Option". 

Statists often argue that if Farm Bill 2987234-234E doesn't pass, then what would Libertarians do about the kid with Leukemia whose father was diagnosed with Aids after the plague of locusts destroyed the farm because a family of raccoons chewed threw the electric fence, the very electric fence that Farm Bill 2987234-234E would provide along with the cheese subsidy.  What would you Libertarians do about that if you dared touch the funding for Farm Bill 2987234-234E?? 

This reasoning assumes that if John Boehner/Nancy Pelosi didn't take care of the kid with leukemia, no one else would either.  The private sector and charities would step in.  They did it in the past and they could do it again.  Absence of government subsidies made medicine cheaper and doctors less risk-averse.  It wasn't Utopia then, but it's not Utopia now, and it won't be Utopia (Lord hasten the day) in a more Libertarian future. 

But just imagine with me.....

We could end the Drug War.  The Drug Lords would go belly-up.  People could move freely across the Rio Grande.  Texans hopping down to Mexico would be like hopping up to Oklahoma.  Would it be a Utopia?  No.  Some people might become addicts who wouldn't ordinarily become addicted.  But they would probably be more likely to get treatment.  Hundreds of thousands of people wouldn't be in jail.  They recently legalized everything in Portugal, and addiction rates went down!!   One million government jailer/narc/torturer/DEA jobs wouldn't be necessary.  Barack Obama, George W. Bush, John Kerry, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton could all smoke weed openly, the way they did when they were younger.  Another 40,000 Mexican bystanders wouldn't die in the violence.  It wouldn't be a Utopia, but it would be better than the current disaster. 

We could End The Freakin' Federal Reserve.  A dollar saved wouldn't mean 50 cents lost.  Ben Bernanke wouldn't be allowed to do any more counterfeiting.  Would the absence of a Federal Reserve mean that we'd be at the mercy of the ups and downs of the business cycle?  (Which was part of the rationale for The Fed's creation - LOL.)  Yes, we might see some weirdness because of the ups and downs of the business cycle.  It wouldn't be a Utopia.  But I'd bet my bottom dollar that it would be less screwed up than what we have now. 

I've got a friend named Roger who is going to vote for Obama because of Obama's newly discovered support of gay marriage (among other reasons).  Never mind the total cynicism of Obama's new position on this.  The bigger question is what the hell is the government doing in the marriage business anyway?  If it matters to you who gets elected president, then your government is too big.  Would a smaller government be a Utopia?  Heck no.  But it would be infinitely better than the plague of busybodies currently trying to regulate your diet, health, safety, marriage, drug use, alcohol consumption hours, payroll and gun cabinet. 

If you're a taxpayer, your share of the national debt is $80,000.00.  Your share of the unfunded liabilities is a number so staggering that no one can calculate it properly.  Somewhere around 350K to 500K.  This is a lot of money, and we'll never, ever pay it off.  Imagine that it was your brother-in-law who got you into this much debt, mostly for what he considered to be worthwhile causes.  You'd kill him.  Every serious investor knows we're playing a shell game.  We keep acting as if the problem will go away.  When it crashes, it's going to be horrible.  Absolutely horrible.  Civil unrest, hungry people, and a total breakdown of society. 

I haven't mentioned the money we're spending killing women and children in Pakistan, and how we're going to pay a price for that.  There are some 15-year-old boys in Pakistan watching Obama's drones fly over, and they're plotting their revenge.  On you. 

The alternative would't be a Utopia.  There will be problems. 

But it would be so much better. 

You Get What You Pay For

From The Daily Pundit:

Our society chooses to pay for bastards and wonders why the number of bastards increases. Our society refuses to support poor families with married fathers in residence, and wonders why the number of single mothers increases. Our society pays for single motherhood, and wonders why we get it. Our society gives stipends to unemployed and/or homeless males, and wonders why we get more and more of them.


Why on earth would any of the poor pay attention to “cultural signals” when the check that comes to them pays for exactly the opposite?

The phenomenon is called "perverse incentives". 
It is why a government anti-global warming program is paying me to run forklifts all night.  (Hit the label below)
It is why we're subsidizing corn syrup producers while subsidizing an anti-obesity campaign. 
It's why a lot of beautiful, intelligent kids are put in Special Ed in exchange for their parents getting a "crazy check". 

But but but but....our intentions are always so pure !

Top US Political Donors from the last 20 years. Damn those greedy corporations !!!

Top US political donors from the last 20 years, from OpenSecrets.org:

I found this list here, via a link from Instapundit. 

Where to cut the Federal budget

The chatterers were breaking out in rashes, boils, and stigmata on yesterday morning's political talk shows. 
We have a 14 trillion dollar debt. 
This year's budget deficit will be 1.5 trillion or so. 
The primary amusement on Meet The Press yesterday was David Gregory trying to get John Boehlout Boehner to admit that he would do anything significant, anything at all, to improve the situation.
We are broke, broke, broke.  End of story. 

Obama has proposed a plan that will chop 1.1 trillion from the deficit (not the debt, just the yearly deficit) over a ten year period. 
Good lord in heaven, can you imagine what that hole will look like ten years from now? 

Here's a chart on where they're doing the spending.  Or at least where it is budgeted.  Various politicians are slowly coming to terms with the fact that our military couldn't survive an audit. 

I'm a shipping manager.  I have no background in economics.  But I read a lot.  The path we're on is very well marked.  Would it hurt us to stop borrowing from China and expecting our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to pay all this back? 

We could confiscate every penny from the infamous top 5%, and use the money to continue paying for Bridges To The 21st Century, for "Investments" In Infrastructure, and Winning The Future. 
All it would do is continue to scare the Bejeebers out of anyone considering investing here.  Including you. 

Let's start at the top of the dial, and work our way around the chart. 

In the top right corner, we have Social Security.  Is there anyone who thinks Social Security will be around in 25 years?  Anyone?  Anybody?  Didn't think so.  It's broke as the 10 Commandments.  What would be so horrible about continuing to pay the current retirees with money from the Chinese Benevolence Fund, and taper off the expected payments to, say, everyone under 50 ?  Raise the payoff age to 70.  That would get the life expectancy-to-payoff-ratio close to where it was when FDR got drunk and came up with this scheme. 

Next we have the Department Of Israel, South Korea, Germany and The Philippines Defense (from the 2:00 to 4:00 section of the chart).  We have more military than the rest of the world combined.  China is in 2nd place, and our military is six times larger than theirs.  Cut the military by 50%.  Bring the remaining boys and girls back to the house.  Defend the borders.  Do you think our manufactured products might be more attractive to the rest of the world if Asian manufacturers had to pay a little more in taxes to provide for their own defense? 

From 4:00 to 7:00, we have a mis-named category called "Unemployment, Welfare, and Other Mandatory Spending".  Save it for the mentally ill, the injured, and the elderly.  Give everyone else a bumpersticker that says "Don't Breed 'Em If You Can't Feed 'Em."  Think of how much private charity would be available if we didn't have to funnel so much aid and assistance through the current collection of inefficient government programs.  I'm all for compassion, and when I'm old and broke and feeble, I hope someone gives me some.  I just don't want to force anyone to do so. 

From 7:00 to 9:00 we have Medicare and Medicaid.  Go here for a Free Market proposal to cut medical costs in half.  Stop protecting the medical and pharmaceutical monopolies with regulators and barriers to entry.  Open up the market to more competitors and watch the costs go down.  It worked for telephone service (now almost free) and air travel (thank you, Jimmy Carter) and trucking (thank you again, Jimmy Carter). 

At the 9:00 mark, we have interest on the national debt.  Let's stop borrowing. 

These are the categories that our politicians have previously regarded as "untouchable", "off the table", and "the 3rd rail of American politics".  They are also the only areas big enough to cut and make a difference. 

Can anyone think of any other ways to get out of this mess? 

The piper is coming, and he wants to get paid.  Please hurry. 

Oh, one other thing....Any politician who doesn't favor nuking the Departments of Energy, Agriculture and Education is not a serious person.