A good point:
…even if unemployment does start to decline steadily this year, the larger point is that the growth of government means a lessening of individual liberty. You have less control of your life, and bureaucrats have more. Would it be desirable to live in a country with only 1 percent unemployment — as Germany and the USSR sometimes had in the 1930s — but have almost no ability to earn and accumulate property and wealth?
The current efforts to centralize power in Washington must be resisted because they substitute the authority of the state for our individual autonomy over the direction of our lives. Only secondarily should we oppose massive spending because it does not work.
But we should also oppose it because it doesn’t work. There is no up side to it for us — only for those who would rule us.
I wonder what people think are the top intrusions of government power in their lives? For me, tax season, workplace regulations, and the drug war are the top problems.
Is there something in the human conditions that causes us to seek fascist political solutions every 70 years (roughly every 3 generations)?
Today…. 1930s…..1860s…..
fas·cism (fshzm) n.
1. often Fascism
a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
It seems to me,,, just me,,, that definition 1. is beginning to fit to the current administration.
Regards,
All those times were times of crisis. Government solutions are easier to push when some sort of collective action appears required.
I remember being in Montreal in the 1980s when Quebec was pushing “full employment.”
You know the little booth where you exit a parking garage? (The one that is now being replaced with a credit-card machine?) You pull up to the booth, hand the attendant your ticket and money, and they press a button to open the gate.
I’m not kidding: these booths had THREE PEOPLE squeezed in there. One to take your money, one to press the button, and one to supervise the other two.
Yep, there were three jobs being filled. But certainly no value being created.
Karl, I find that the local ordinances passed by my suburban (population 40,000) city government are the most intrusive. “Cut down that tree”, “Store your garbage cans here, not there, because those are the rules, even if your neighbors much prefer your solution”, “You’ll need a permit and an inspector to put in that swing set, but first come down to city hall and plead for a variance, which you’re unlikely to get”, “no dead vegetation on your property, not even logs and compost”. Note that most of the restrictions do not require government spending, except for enforcement. Nationally, I’m a Democrat, but in city hall, I’m a libertarian. I was recently contacted by a statewide libertarian group which noticed my mostly futile efforts at city hall, and I welcome their help, even while I think they are dangerously misguided in general (they are fighting government spending on a radon-awareness campaign, for example)
Karl, I find that the local ordinances passed by my suburban (population 40,000) city government are the most intrusive.
They are also the easiest to address, either by complaining to the local official, or moving.
The unemployment rate is unlikely to decline at all this year. All of the reasonable projections are that the GDP will continue to decline, but at a slower rate, until the end of the year. The recovery will not start until early next year and when it starts, will be very slow. We’re looking at a multi-year stagnant economy, much like Japan following the end of its bubble.