The Daily Plunge

Generally I’m optimistic about the future. However, I’m starting to adopt Mark Steyn’s view of the world. Western civilization is getting older, not having children, and is in so much debt that the barbarians are ready to fight over what’s left. In a few years the United States’ interest payment on our debt will be enough to fund China’s military budget. Why isn’t anyone alarmed about this? A greater number of American citizens cannot see a future without their particular handout.

The farming industry has its stupid subsides. Health care is bankrupting the West. The United States paid for Europe’s defense for a half century and the continent is still going bankrupt. Shouldn’t that be a warning for the United States? If Europe is going bankrupt on unsustainable health care entitlements, government pensions, and bureaucracy why do we think this will it work in the United States? It’s just not liberals who are stupid. The Republicans have grown into government caretakers. No one is talking seriously about the world’s fiscal problems. Restoring the United States government to year 2000 levels would be a good start, but it needs to go back to 1960 if there’s ever a chance of climbing out of the hole.

What is the new answer from the conservative establishment? Rick Santorum? A culture war hero who is against free trade, in favor of corporate welfare, and thinks birth-control pills are a problem. Mitt Romney? The former governor of Massachusetts who thinks RomneyCare is fundamentally conservative? This is how a Republic ends folks. Since the FDR administration the populace has traded more and more freedom to the federal government for welfare, health care, and social security. None of these things are sustainable and the size of the government grows ever larger. The bureaucracy’s reach grows ever further. You can’t sell homemade pies in Pennsylvania without a permit. You can’t sell lemonade on your street without paperwork. Did you catch a fish by accident? Yep, the government has a role in that as well.

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century the government fought large corporations. The same can’t be said now. Major corporations learned their lesson. Now they give generously to both parties. Their lobbying efforts have not gone unrewarded. The government has bailed out airlines, car manufactures, and banks. What is the risk in running your company into the ground if the state is always there to bail you out? It’s just not bailouts. The government has become a tool for telecommunications companies. The United States telephone, cable, and internet infrastructure is at the disposal of AT&T and Verizon. Not too big to fail, but too big to allow competition.

It should be embarrassing to the average American that our internet speeds are slower than Europe or that our airline industry doesn’t allow competition. However, most Americans don’t know. The product of a prosperous nation is to be run by corrupt leaders and corporations with too much influence. When you boil it all down we’re past the point of elections having any special significance. If you’re driving off a ledge does it really matter how fast you’re going?

Bureaucrats and corporations are corrupt, but they’re not dumb. They see the handwriting on the wall. This is a scary time to be living in the United States because some action has to occur to keep this business model afloat. Usually that means war. This time next year it’s likely that there will be a new President-elect, but I won’t be any more optimistic. The names change but the policies remain the same.