BIG BUNGLER
For three and a half decades we have written warnings about the eventual outcome of big government social programs, deficit spending, money printing and credit excess. That line of reasoning has recently begun to go mainstream. TV networks like Fox and newspapers like the Wall Street Journal echo this theme.
Even the politicians are beginning to catch on to the economic perils we face. However, the idea that we’re going to cut government spending, balance budgets and stop creating money to pay our bills doesn’t ring true. We’re in between a rock and a hard place. Government spending is out of control and there is no way to cut it without repealing popular social programs.
Too many citizens believe the government can and should do all it can to help solve our social and economic problems. Unfortunately, the government is the most incompetent organization on earth. Unlike private business government has no bottom line. Without profit or loss they have no objective standard to measure results. Private industry cuts costs. Government spends more. The free market operates on what’s best for the customer. The government, which succumbs to politically motivated spending puts the interests of lobbyists and vote-buying politicians ahead of consumer interests. Private industry saves and invests. Government squanders and wastes.
Unfortunately merit takes a back seat in government hiring and promotion. Race and gender trump effectiveness. Educational credentials supersede merit. It’s hard to get rid of incompetent employees and with the advent of government unions it’s nigh on impossible to fire someone no matter how incompetent. Instead, they get even higher salaries ($123,049 annually in pay and benefits per employee). Furthermore, the most creative and entrepreneurial citizens avoid government employment.
Bureaucratic incompetence explains why we have massive government leaks to websites that deplore us. It explains why we can’t convict a terrorist or even have a trial for the worst offenders. It’s why immigration is a mess and why regulators always seem to close the barn door after the horse is out. It’s why our economy founders and why government subsidized green jobs don’t cut it.
Sad to say, we have Washington bureaucrats in charge of our money. Consequently, they’ve made inflation a national goal, as if that were a good thing. They’ve expanded the central bank’s role to the extent it uses newly created money to prop up stocks and to get people to spend rather than save. It subsidizes the fat cats on Wall Street and fattens them further by letting them handle their juicy bond business. It practices currency debasement on a grand scale and imperils the financial future of every citizen.
Government can’t solve our economic problems, it can only make them worse. Big government is a curse. As Lew Rockwell recently said, “The leviathan state is the great enemy of American prosperity, the monster that devours wealth.” Until the majority of voters come to that conclusion we are in for a very rough ride.
