![\"Government](\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Recession_Depression_Oppression_01_220px.gif\" "\\"Recession_Depression_Oppression_01_220px\\"")
by Monty Pelerin –\nOur economic problems rightfully dominate the news. However, they are merely symptoms of a bigger, underlying problem: government.<\/p>\n
by Monty Pelerin –
\nOur economic problems rightfully dominate the news. However, they are merely symptoms of a bigger, underlying problem: government.<\/p>\n
For many, the previous paragraph is heresy. They “know” that government is necessary and good. They “know” that government solves problems and brings order to the chaos that would prevail in its absence. “They” are wrong!<\/p>\n
Government has become little more than a carefully crafted myth based on propaganda disseminated by government itself. It has devolved into a scheme of plunder whereby the elites plunder the masses. <\/p>\n
It did not start that way, at least not so egregiously. Government transmogrified into a vicious predator, preying on the wealth of the productive to enrich the political class and its cronies. It is no longer a force for good, but for evil. It has turned into the biggest criminal enterprise known to man. <\/p>\n
This quote from Albert J. Nock is eight decades old, but appropriately describes what passes for government in Washington, D.C. today:<\/p>\n
\nTaking the State wherever found, striking into its history at any point, one sees no way to differentiate the activities of its founders, administrators and beneficiaries from those of a professional-criminal class.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Americans have always viewed government skeptically.\u00a0 The vast majority of people still believe government is necessary.\u00a0 They also believe government is a potential, if not actual, evil because of its monopoly on power.\u00a0 Our Founding Fathers were explicit regarding this potential.\u00a0 George Washington described government as follows:<\/p>\n
\nGovernment is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
A carefully crafted Constitution was drawn up to contain government and its power.\u00a0 Over time, it was effectively demolished.\u00a0 With it went most limitations on government.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
The myth of government rests on two key assumptions — government is necessary and beneficial.\u00a0 Both are supported via the State’s propaganda machine.\u00a0 Few citizens recognize government as a predator enriching the elite.\u00a0 More realize that something is terribly wrong and that government has become too big and intrusive.<\/p>\n
Government is deemed necessary because, it is claimed, there are things that the private sector would not or could not do, at least not efficiently.\u00a0 This assumption contains both a value judgment and an efficiency judgment.<\/p>\n
The value judgment implies that individuals or firms would be unwilling to provide important services justifying government coercion to improve society.\u00a0 But this belief raises the question of whether the value judgments chosen are correct.<\/p>\n
A small cadre of men imposing its will on the rest of society is very dangerous.\u00a0 Even if one accepts a particular role for government, it does not mean that the form which is implemented will be acceptable.<\/p>\n
The efficiency aspect of government can be meaningfully explored.\u00a0 How well government has measured up on the efficiency criterion is discussed in the next section.<\/p>\n
There are two levels on which to explore government efficiency:<\/p>\n
The Macro Level pertains to the performance of government with respect to the economy.<\/p>\n
Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, leading figures in Austrian economics, maintained that an economy is too complex to be managed centrally.\u00a0 Infinite decisions based on infinite pieces of knowledge cannot be managed by a central decision-maker.\u00a0 From their standpoint, economies afford greater efficiency and satisfaction with limited government and a laissez-faire approach.<\/p>\n
John Maynard Keynes and his disciples saw economies as inherently unstable.\u00a0 They believed that government management of an economy is necessary to ensure full employment and high output.\u00a0 For eighty-plus years, the Keynesian interventionist views have prevailed and enabled government to continue to grow and become increasingly intrusive.<\/p>\n
Studies generally show an inverse relationship between large government and economic growth and well-being.\u00a0 These can hardly be termed decisive.\u00a0 Extreme cases of centralized economic management like Communist Russia, Communist China, Nazi Germany, Cuba, and North Korea are clear-cut.\u00a0 All were economic failures which produced great human tragedy.<\/p>\n
East Berlin and West Berlin, North Korea and South Korea, and Taiwan and Communist China were laboratory-like experiments.\u00a0 In every instance, free-market economies dramatically outperformed government-directed economies.<\/p>\n
The Social Welfare State has been the philosophy and excuse for bigger government.\u00a0 The European States, its leading proponent, are in process of failing.\u00a0 They will shortly be unable to meet their social promises and sovereign obligations.\u00a0 This collapse appears imminent and will likely signal the retreat of this philosophy, at least for a while.<\/p>\n
The Micro Level pertains to individual programs run by governments.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is an example of what is considered a mixed economy.\u00a0 Government runs some programs or sectors.\u00a0 Comparisons of efficiency at the federal level are difficult because there are virtually no private counterparts.<\/p>\n
At the local level, direct comparisons are available.\u00a0 Publicly run and privately run services like garbage collection, transit systems, etc. often coexist among neighboring municipalities.\u00a0 These comparisons generally show public services to be higher-priced and lower in quality.\u00a0 Some studies have shown inefficiencies in the neighborhood of 100% — that is, private service are half the cost of public.<\/p>\n
More devastating than direct efficiency comparisons is the tendency for government to eventually bankrupt everything it manages, including itself.<\/em> Amtrak, the Postal Service, Social Security, Medicare, Fannie and Freddie, FHA, FDIC, FSLIC, Student Loans, etc. are some examples.<\/p>\n
Major government initiatives are likewise judged failures.\u00a0 The War on Poverty, the Farm Program, the War on Drugs, etc. have wasted trillions of dollars and produced no improvements in terms of their intended objectives.\u00a0 Many programs actually made matters worse.\u00a0 The War on Poverty, for example, has created major disincentives regarding work which lead to increased poverty.\u00a0 Thomas Sowell argues that this program is responsible for many of the single-parent families and the breakup of the black family.<\/p>\n
Government-directed investment or research fares no better.\u00a0 It is ineffective, wasteful, and corrupted by the political process.\u00a0 “Green energy” is the latest blatant example, being exposed for the fraud, favoritism, foolishness, and failure that is associated with crony Socialism.<\/p>\n
Regulatory efforts often produce results opposite of their intentions.\u00a0 There is no crueler law in terms of harming the poor than the minimum wage.<\/p>\n
Even if regulations are properly designed, they are ineffectively enforced.\u00a0 Bernie Madoff is one example.\u00a0 MF Global is another.\u00a0 Regulations were in place to prevent both.\u00a0 Regulators dropped the ball in both instances.<\/p>\n
Regulatory failure produces only more regulation.\u00a0 The Dodd-Frank bill, so-called financial reform, consists of 2,300 pages, none of which will prevent another systemic failure.\u00a0 It is bad legislation that will not accomplish its stated objective.\u00a0 Likely it will do much to favorably influence the wealth of politicians and their friends.<\/p>\n
ObamaCare is another recent example of unwise legislation\/regulation.\u00a0 If implemented, it will cause health care to deteriorate and health costs to rise.\u00a0 It will likely cause the economic collapse of the government, assuming collapse does not happen prior to its full implementation.<\/p>\n
These are a few examples of a list that could be expanded greatly.\u00a0 Every one of these government programs failed, at least with respect to their stated purposes.\u00a0 Every one of these programs will result in bankruptcy of either the program itself or contribute to the bankruptcy of the entire government.<\/p>\n
Government supporters may argue that I cherry-picked the examples with a conclusion in mind.\u00a0 Yet these are the major programs of the last 50 years or so.\u00a0 None have succeeded.\u00a0 Furthermore, I am unaware of any major government program which has not<\/em> failed in terms of its intended outcomes.\u00a0 I know of no government program that has stayed within budget.<\/p>\n
It would be a valuable exercise for proponents of big government to create a list of programs which they believe have been successful.\u00a0 Those blinded by reality will make claims that some (all?) government programs have succeeded.\u00a0 I shall be happy to subject any so-called successful programs to an objective test based on intended objectives and cost considerations.<\/p>\n
While they are busy compiling and defending their lists, the rest of us should be dealing with the problem of regaining control of a government gone wild before it bankrupts itself, the country, and its citizens.<\/p>\n
HT: American Thinker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Monty Pelerin – Our economic problems rightfully dominate the news. However, they are merely symptoms of a bigger, underlying problem: government. For many, the previous paragraph is heresy. They “know” that government is necessary and good. They “know” that government solves problems and brings order to the chaos that would prevail in its absence. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[117,72,142,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-incompetence","category-leftism","category-leftist-tyranny","category-totalitarian-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}