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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| VDH: The Last Generation of the West and the Thin Strand of Civilization |
| 2014-01-20 |
| [PJ Media] Bottom line up front: We forget that the obligations of the working to care for the 70-80 million who genuinely cannot work become more difficult, when the 90 million who can work for all sorts of reasons won't. Note the theme of this essay: the more in humane fashion we provide unemployment insurance, food stamps, subsidized housing, legal advice, health care and disability insurance, the more the recipients find it all inadequate, inherent proof of unfairness and inequality, and always not enough. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 Laying off half of government employees would have a drastically bad effect on expenditures, the economy, and the unemployment rate. I get that, AH. Bad, but better than not doing so, long term. It has to happen eventually - nothing else will fix this country. Literally nothing else. Better sooner than later. The longer we wait the worse the eventual fix will become. There will be social unrest, as the publics will do anything including watch their private sector neighbors have their property and wealth confiscated by the government and their persons be shipped off to concentration camps with great approval, so long as their precious magic checks and anxiety-free state of income stream is upheld. You can take that to the bank. The longer we wait to trim off 50-75% of the public work force, the less likely we will be to do it at all. I don't think we have more than 5 or so years, maybe less. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2014-01-20 15:03 |
| #4 Iblis - exactly. "the wealthy counties around Washington D.C. are reduced to impoverished ghost towns " only AFTER the descent of the rest of the country into abject poverty and/or barbarism, except for outliers that produce something easily exported, perhaps ND & TX would be among those relatively better off. Also, remember about 70% of the economy is supported by consumer expenditures. Should these expenditures decline, the economy will follow. Laying off half of government employees would have a drastically bad effect on expenditures, the economy, and the unemployment rate. Besides bad governance, outsourcing of America's industrial base, and looney-toons political theories, I also blame the extreme spike in energy costs. For about 200 years economic growth has depended on cheap=abundant fuel sources, which aren't available at the moment. The level of current domestic petroleum exploitation now is only possible due to these high prices, which in turn are strangling other possibilities. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-01-20 13:12 |
| #3 Anguper Hupomosing9418: You raise a key point. These days when I talk about government expenditures I never say "we spent." I say "we borrowed." Much more accurate, and has a greater impact. Most people still think of the US as a wealthy country, so who cares if we are a little profligate now and then. Need to hammer home the fact that we are broke and all this lunacy is just making us broker faster. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2014-01-20 11:07 |
| #2 In the final analysis, the trouble we face is the vast growth of the size of the public sector vs the private. The percentage of nonmilitary public workers/grant recipients/subsidy recipients/"private" rent-seekers in the workforce was 5% in 1960 and is 20% now - and the average government worker now makes about 20% more than the average private worker. Add to that longer stays on unemployment, a larger entrenched welfare sector as a result of Gramscian/Alinskyite tactics by the left, and a hyperregulatory environment which harms business, and the route to our current troubles is crystal clear. . . . as is the route out. The only way America is saved in for millions of people whose income stream is derived from the coerced government sector to be summarily dismissed from their position and be forced to survive in the dreaded private, in all likelihood at a greatly diminished material standard of living. In short, when the wealthy counties around Washington D.C. are reduced to impoverished ghost towns and the money channeled there currently is back out among the people, America will be OK and justice will have been served. Those who must make the transition to a private sector life with its lesser pay and the constant anxiety that most of them lack life skills to handle will resist this with all means available to them. That is the sad and difficult part. There is no way back to this country being great, at this point, without civil unrest. The truth is that the personality types that make up the bulk of the public work force will do great evil to maintain their anxiety-free income status. Be prepared. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2014-01-20 08:46 |
| #1 "Every three working Americans provide sustenance for two who are not ill, enfeebled, or too young." This is a distortion. A substantial percentage of federal expenditures is now made up of borrowed money. This money is NOT being provided by working Americans. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-01-20 04:28 |