What if we have reached a point where the scale and scope of government have become absurdly large? What you would observe is a growing gap between the theories used to justify government expansion and its practical impact. You would observe the cost of education and health care rising, without commensurate benefits. You would observe stimulus programs that increase employment according to computer models but not in reality. You would observe crony capitalism. You would observe budgets distorted by public-sector unions. You would observe fraudulent accounting that shifts costs for pensions onto future generations.
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Samizdata quote of the dayAugust 21st, 2012 |
 6 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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…and you would observe these developments being cried up as the ne plus ultra of compassion and fairness, if one could even broach the subjects without being drummed out of correct society.
Apropos of the Bastiat discussion yesterday. Now tell me why Bastiat is old hat again? Just re-read “The Law” and it could have been written yesterday. Desribes to a “T” why we are in the mess we are in today.
We probably have reached the point in both the U S and U K of fiscal and administrative obesity.
Next come cries (again) for the purported cures from Supra Governments bringing international authority.
This information is priceless. When can I find out more?
If one accepts the doctrine that all the basic functions of civil society (of human beings) are the responsbilty of the state -from the education of children, to the care of the elderly, then OF COURSE the state will grow without limit.
Till there is either a fundemental change in opinion (with the primary responbility for all the basic things in life NOT held to be a matter for the state) or till total economic and social breakdown occurs.
I recall reading an article over the last year which asked the question of the statists, “How much is enough?”
The answer was a form of non-answer, because there is no such thing as enough for the collectivist mind, only the endless search for more needs which can be used to justify more programs, more resources, more rules and regs, more cadres on the payroll.
Statism is an endless loop, like one of those strips that never have a beginning or end.
We live in a society upon which a cancerous growth has metasticized, a tumor-state which no longer has any concern for the health and survivability of the host, but whose only concern is to draw as much nourishment as possible for as long as possible, and to pretend that obvious outcome will somehow never occur.
This is not some grand conspiracy, but the mindless swarming of an infestation of pests.
During the cold war, the fear was that the west would fall to some grand scheme dreamt up by the evil geniuses in the kremlin. Now all we hear is the scuttling of something verminous in the walls, chewing and tunnelling, and undermining every supporting column.
If we do not fumigate carefully and thoroughly, we will fulfill Elliott’s prophecy—“this is the way the world ends…”
What a shame that would be, and what a travesty.