Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Big Government: Overpromised, Undersold

The End of Big Government

It's not just us.  Governments around the world have overpromised and undersold.  They had dreams of wiping away every tear, free health care for all, generous old age pensions...  The only thing they completely accomplished was racking up trillions of dollars of debt.

Liberals call it noble, trying to take care of everybody by forced redistribution; spreading it around, as President Obama would say...  But the scheme has collapsed.  There's no way to continue paying for it.  Bernard Palmer sums it up nicely:
bernardpalmer wrote:
Feb 11th 2010 4:21 GMT
World wide Socialism is really dying. We should get ready to celebrate and say goodbye to the huge governments and their armies of parasites who have fed themselves fat for so very long. Hopefully Copenhagen was their last big romp.
It's the Economic Uncertainty, Stupid!
The Economist, a highly-respected British magazine, is an excellent source of dispassionate, unbiased news.  Studiously apolitical, they are a trusted source around the world.  They don't go quite as far as Bernard Palmer in condemning big government, but the solution they proffer looks a lot like Reaganism:
That points to a renewed focus on freeing trade, cutting spending rather than raising taxes and agreeing on new financial regulations.

Some of today’s nervousness comes from “policy risk”. Nobody—neither firms, banks nor individuals—is quite sure where government policy is going. The more that governments can do to reduce such uncertainty, the stronger the recovery is likely to be.
If the Federal Government merely froze spending and announced a moratorium on government regulation and taxes, our economy would grow as a result.  Uncertainty is killing us.
Posted by Silverfiddle
Labels: , , ,

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the money, pardon the sorta pun. There is a great deal of grid lock in the business world at this point in time. Banks are reluctant to lend, business is unwilling to expand, consumers are avoiding consumption and so on.

The uncertainty/indecision that is portrayed by the Admin and government in general casts a pall over optimism and has ushered in a fog of pessimism that is clouding over the opportunities that are possible in our markets.

One only has to go back to the point where it was apparent that Obama was going to win in 2008 and the free fall in the markets were simply a proxy stating, "we have no idea where this guy is going so I am outta here". The word confidence disappeared and that emotion is key to free markets.

I agree a freeze would be a step in the right direction to stablize and put a floor to the uncertainty but until the massive redistribution is viewed as turning around and heading towards smaller gov we will probably experience a protracted stagnation.

Ya think the liberal mentality will finally at least acknowledge that maybe being like the rest of the world ain't that good of an notion? Yeah I doubt it too, but I am hopeful type fella.

WAKE UP FOLKS SOCIALISM DON'T WORK OVER THE LONG HAUL, IT IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

Stillhacked,

jadedfellow

February 16, 2010 at 8:19 AM
Anonymous said...

Ps.

Real Clear Politics article today by Joel Kotkin is in sync with you.

jaded

February 16, 2010 at 8:30 AM
Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

I concur Silverfiddle. I am no huge fan of G.W.Bush but after 9-11there was much uncertainty and that is most likely an understatement.

Bush moved quickly, as quick as a government can that is, to remove that uncertainty on Wall Street, consumer confidence and the economy in general.

This paved the way for the economy to bounce back and in no small manner.

February 16, 2010 at 8:51 AM
TKZ said...

That quote from bernardpalmer is pure conservative porn to me; I like it, but I know deep down that it's not real. Socialist are persistent buggers, and when one scheme fails they'll find another way to weasel in. Maybe it will be another impending ice age crisis this time, or perhaps they'll give up on the evolutionary Marxism thing and go straight for revolution. Second Amendment, anyone?

The government killed a lot of small businesses with the CPSIA and it's guilty before proven innocent nature, so to me it's a matter of deregulation and freezing spending combined, but I'm probably biased because my business was shut down because of stupid legislation.

February 16, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Silverfiddle said...

I really do think more and more people are "getting it." The liberals can continue to scream (rightly so) "Bush did it too!" and we can continue to respond, "Yes, and he was wrong too."

Credit to Bush for stabilizing the economy, but he did it in an expensive way. As Obama quadruples down on what he did, we are now paying the price in trillion$.

BTW, Jaded, I am in sync with Kotkin. He is the teacher, I am the disciple. Hope you can unhack yourself soon!

February 16, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

Silverfiddle, The aftermath of 9-11 was well before any TARP or bailout of Bushs making and also before a democrat controlled congress.

February 16, 2010 at 9:50 AM
Fredd said...

Bernie has a good point, but I would not go so far as to say socialism is dying, it simply is not very popular anymore.

Rather than 'dying,' socialism certainly is in the hospital, with needles and catheters and all kinds of machines hooked up to it, with more machine hookups planned.

It's heart is still beating, it still breathes, but it's not going anywhere.

Dying? Well, we can all dream...

February 16, 2010 at 10:09 AM
Silverfiddle said...

Christopher: Props to Bush, but he was a crony capitalist, in true DC fashion. Not picking on him, they all did it, but he is not immune from the criticism.

TKZ: Did you do a blog post on your business getting shut down? I'd be interested to hear the details...

I agree with everybody that we should not yet be dancing on the grave of socialism. It is indeed a changeling...

February 16, 2010 at 10:33 AM
TKZ said...

I haven't talked about my business, but perhaps I should. The CPSIA was passed at the end of the Bush years, for political reasons, but ultimately they made a big boo boo because those that were hurt the worst were the very votes they were trying to buy- the mommies.

February 16, 2010 at 2:41 PM
Most Rev. Gregori said...

"World wide Socialism is really dying."

How true, but I fear that the Liberal leftist morons here in the U.S. are a dollar short and a day late in making that realization. Perhaps we will have to push them, kicking and screaming, into that vast pit of long gone socialist scum.

February 16, 2010 at 4:55 PM
Silverfiddle said...

When we finally really run out of money, we will also run out of socialism. Socialists cannot function without other peoples money

February 16, 2010 at 5:15 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)