As for wealth distribution, it’s obvious that wealth is being consolidated at the lofty percentiles but blaming government for that is inaccurate, we don’t live in a communist country we live in a capitalist country where the there is no approach more effective at the redistribution of wealth than the free-market itself. I suggest you have a look at two significant trends across the last 30 years, deregulation and wealth consolidation. If you look at these trends together you will notice that the less regulated the market, the more consolidated the wealth became.

As for government… I just wish people would see it for what it is… a means, not an end. Those leftist governments – the Soviet Union, Cuba, etc… was leveraged to achieve the objectives of elitists. The moderate-right government of the U.S. is being leveraged to achieve the objectives of capitalists. The objective is always the same… take everything and use the government if it helps or push it aside if it’s in the way.

The American middle-class needs to stop imagining that they are being pushed down by a leveraged communist government so they can start understanding that this time the people are being pushed down by a market trying to get free of government regulation.

Josh,
What do you think is happining now??? 1% is controlling 90% of the money. Do you think the goverment is acting in the MOB’s best interest…I think not!!! And you skipped addressing this part…

The private sector can’t hire all the available people as it is… What will happen when we add millions more to the unemployment rolls??? I think since the depression (1929), it has become the governments duty to find excuses to get the freshly printed money out to the masses. The private sector isn’t an effective method of spreading out the freshly printed money. Too much of it ends up in to few hands…hence government workers, where the money gets disbursed more evenly. This even spreading of the money makes for a more stable economy because we’re not dependent on the “trickle down” system.

The ONLY reason Meg Ryan lost; is she was anti-public unions…and the public-unions collectively have even more money than most of the richest indivuals. Balance. Hundreds of thousands of public servants overcame a wannabe queen.

Have a great day everyone…

My question is can you govern a country of 338 million people with a large government? It seems to me the larger the government gets, the worse they do and the more of our money they take.

“I agree there is a lot of fat in the various government agencies…but then what do we do with all the displaced workers?”

The thing to understand is that every government employee is a drain on the economy. If every government worker were laid off today, it would not hurt the economy at all. In fact, it would help it, because those dollars that were previously taken from private industry, which is what builds products and services for us that improve our standard of living, would now be available for reinvestment in activities that make the economy grow and make us all more prosperous.

Of course growth in the private economy would mean that companies need to hire, so those government employees would soon find that there is ample work available for them to do.

“In many ways the USA is still the wild, wild, west of the world; It’s the law of the jungle…might is right!!!”

Actually, it’s the opposite of the wild, wild, west. The old west was a very free society, and there were surprisingly few murders, very little corruption, etc. Without state government as we know it today, the west was actually quite well managed. Ironically it was when government’s were established in California and other western states that murder rates, corruption, etc. skyrocketed. The concept of “might makes right” being something bad is exacerbated by government, rather than alleviated. The mighty merely enter politics and use that ultimate might to hurt the rest of us. Without government, or large government, they would not have that power.

“The wealthy get richer, the rest of us get poorer.”

There’s actually not much of any factual basis for this opinion. Hardly anyone has gotten poorer during the past 100 years, even adjusting for inflation.

“Last year Meg Ryan spend a couple 100M, of her own money, trying become Governor… 200 million dollars!!! And she lost???? Tell me it’s not government by the rich for the rich…”

If she lost, despite all those millions spent, doesn’t that show that money wasn’t enough to buy the election? Isn’t that a bit comforting? Maybe there’s still hope.

“So I think it’s vital to maintain a solid middle class, mostly supported by the government, to offset the absurd wealth building aspect of our capitalist economy.”

This is actually a recipe for poverty. If you follow this path, there will be no middle class at all, only a vast population of poor, and a few rich people running the government. We saw this played out in the Soviet Union over a 70-year period. We see it in Cuba today. We see that government redistribution of wealth is hurting the US today, and we see that as China moves towards free markets they are becoming much more prosperous.

I’ve got two book recommendations for you:

The Road to Serfdom by FA Hayek
For a New Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard

Read those two books and I bet you’ll come away with an entirely different perspective on things. I won’t guarantee you’ll be happier though, you might just be more frustrated than ever But at least you’ll know what needs to be done to fix things.

In my last post, I stated I think everything is already done by private entities, with funds doled out by the City, County, State or Fed governments. The people running those companies, dictate to their wage-slaves, how much of the taxpayers money they are going to receive for their labor. Of course, the CEO’s are going to give themselves far more of the taxpayers money than their wage-slaves get. The Federal and State govmt’s only handle a few things; Military, police, education, road maintenance (some of this is sub-contracted) and some of the hospitals, weather stuff…etc. Other than that, the rest is done by the private sector. I think what you (Josh) really want, is to dissolve all the “Agencies” that regulate our activities. Which sounds like it would amount to Anarchy…right??? Our state legislators and the Congress keep passing (sometimes meaningless) laws, which creates a new “Agency” to enforce them; they’ve been doing this for 200 years… When is it going to be enough??? True…they need to address issues concerning new technology, but stay out of the everyday stuff. Seatbelt laws, helmet laws, small engine emissions, BBQ emissions, smoking outside, weather we should be able to take or smoke drugs, coke machines at schools, mandatory insurance…etc. Leave that stuff to the laws of the free market. I wouldn’t be surprised if some law got passed concerning which side you part your hair on!!! Here in Ca. they want to enforce small engine emissions…so you’re out mowing your lawn and the “Small Engine Police” are going to swoop in and test your lawn mower??? All this, while a FOREIGN OIL COMPANY pumped raw oil into the Gulf Of Mexico for 6 months and our government shrugged it’s shoulders, and said “Oh well, stuff happens”!!! BP should be US property for the damage they caused!!! Josh, once you have shrank the government, what next??? Where do all the displaced workers go??? The private sector can’t hire all the available people as it is… What will happen when we add millions more to the unemployment rolls??? I think since the depression (1929), it has become the governments duty to find excuses to get the freshly printed money out to the masses. The private sector isn’t an effective method of spreading out the freshly printed money. Too much of it ends up in to few hands…hence government workers, where the money gets disbursed more evenly. This even spreading of the money makes for a more stable economy because we’re not dependent on the “trickle down” system. There’s those CEO’s out there, that just don’t spend any of the money!!!! They are worth a Quad-zillion dollars and are out there still trying to MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY AND INCREASE THEIR WEALTH EVEN MORE!!!! I personally don’t get it, but that’s what is happening in our current, capitalist system. It appears to me, the only way to spread some of that wealth out legally, is to tax them down to a couple million a year(more than enough for the average person), and then give all that collected money to some bean-counting wage-slave working for (AND MORE IMPORTANTLY SPENDING) 40k a year. So I think it’s vital to maintain a solid middle class, mostly supported by the government, to offset the absurd wealth building aspect of our capitalist economy.

Enough ranting for tonight…

It seems to me that most things are already privatized. The really big things…military, police, fire, road maintenance ( and some of this is contracted out ),some hospitals and education are handled by state and federal govmt…but everything else is already private. I think what you are really referring to, is what government does…and that’s regulate. What you really want, is to dissolve all the “agencies” that have been created by all the (in many cases meaningless) laws which state legislators and the congress pass every year. They’ve been passing laws now for 200 years!!! When will it be enough??? Here in Ca., they want a new agency to enforce small engine emissions…So you’re out mowing your lawn and the “small engine police” are going to check you out!!! Come on…A freeeekin foreign oil company can let one of their wells pump raw oil into the Golf of Mexico for 6 months but here in Ca. we gotta police our lawn mowers???? So I agree there is a lot of fat in the various government agencies…but then what do we do with all the displaced workers??? The private sector doesn’t have enough jobs as it is???? Here in Ca your avg wait at the DMV is 3hrs…and what does the state do…closes the office every Fri due to budget constraints??? We need 1000 more DMV offices open full time!!! Not less, or we need to stop the regulation of vehicles…one or the other. It’s easy for the republicans to say “SHRINK THE GOVERNMENT” because, generally, most republicans are well off and think they can buy their way out any vacuum created by the shrinkage of government; they’ll just pay someone else to do it…but the rest of us can’t afford that kind of thinking. We don’t have that kind of money. Josh give me a picture of the small government society…you can’t just say shrink the government with out an exit plan??? What will be the consequences??? Can you govern a country with 338 million people with a small government??? In many ways the USA is still the wild, wild, west of the world; It’s the law of the jungle…might is right!!! The wealthy get richer, the rest of us get poorer. What we need is some poor people making some decisions in the government…but they’re too busy trying to eek-out a subsistence and to poor to even think about running of some kind of office. Last year Meg Ryan spend a couple 100M, of her own money, trying become Governor… 200 million dollars!!! And she lost???? Tell me it’s not government by the rich for the rich…

Enough ranting for today…

Have a good one!

PS: Love the interchange of ideas!

However, I don’t care whether someone else is getting filthy rich, or whether the gap between rich and poor is increasing. If the poor are 10 times better off, and the rich are 100 times better, who cares? Everyone is better off! And this is essentially what has happened during the past 100 years. Despite corruption, the Fed, etc., we are all better off than our grandparents were 100 years ago. Who had a microwave, air conditioning, satellite TV, the Internet, a car, etc. 100 years ago? Not the President, nor any king. Today, people below the poverty line have all these things, and they think they’re poor.

Now, there is the question of how much of this is due to us borrowing from China, and where we would be without that giant credit card, but it’s probably safe to say that even without the borrowing we’d still be 10 times better off than our ancestors 100 years prior. Of course without the Fed and the corruption, we’d all be 50 times better off.

As for the solutions, getting rid of the Fed is the big one. But rather than taxing the rich, which punishes the honest as well as the corrupt, let’s get rid of the avenues by which corruption takes place, that is, by shrinking government, privatizing everything that can be privatized, and limiting government’s ability to tax and spend. If government didn’t have so much money and control via regulation, there wouldn’t be so many incentives for business to collude with government to take advantage of all of us.

BTW, if you haven’t already read it, based on your comments I think you’d really enjoy reading For a New Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard.