welcome to the ills of socialism and it's destructive nature On Jun 13, 2:44 pm, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > Government “Waste” Is the Least of Our ProblemsByAnthony Gregory| Monday June > 13, 2011 at 10:41 AM PDT > Sometimes I swear we are living in a dystopian novel whose author is > courteous enough to provide us mere extras in his story with plenty of > comedic relief to make the days tolerable.The USA Today headline > reads:“Obama, Biden again target government waste.”Yes. That’s in fact what > it says. The administration that has given us a $3.7 trillion budget is so > concerned about wasting money, you see, that its Vice President is heading up > a “Campaign to Cut Waste.” The White House brags of having trimmed $33 > billion of waste in the last year. That amounts to less than 1% of the > budgeta budget that is, in nominal dollar terms, approximatelydoublewhat it > was a decade ago. Back in 2001 I remember thinking about how small our > government was, and how if only we doubled its size, and were careful to cut > back about a percent of that sum that happens to be “waste,” we’d be in great > shape. Oh wait a second. That’s not what I thought at all. > Yet all this talk of waste misses the point. Perhaps there are better uses of > our tax dollars than “waste,” but I must say, I prefer so-called waste to > most of what the government spends money on. Government is destructive. Most > of what it does is harmful. Being an agency of violence and the threat of > violence, the institution of government runs counter to economic progress as > a general principle. Even worse, its coercive grip strangles the freedom out > of people as a matter of course, and, far more often than Americans seem > accustomed to recognizing, it kills people. > If only the regulatory state’s budget were a matter of “waste.” If the > federal government did not spend billions to hire and empower regulators who > each spend hours a day sending out edicts to business, telling employers who > to hire and not to hire, commanding state governments and industry on the > parameters of infrastructure and architecture, imposing rules on > pharmaceutical companies concerning which drugs they can produce and sell, > strong-arming commercial enterprises into the advertising guidelines chosen > by politicians, telling banks what interest rates ought to be, instructing > telecommunications businesses on the rules of speech and the distribution of > information, threatening farmers and corporations with invasive environmental > regulations, imposing speech codes on workplaces, dictating what furniture > and employment standards companies can utilize, forcing national standards on > food manufactures, controlling the business practices of bars and > restaurants, deciding which immigrants were free to enter the county to work > and which ones were not, setting tariff rates for international trade, > determining which education policies passed federal muster, overriding the > decisions of doctors, medical professionals and patients, imposing billions > of hours of ridiculous paperwork onto the private sector, spying on our > communications, diverting resources from economical purposes to > counterproductive ones, threatening peaceful entrepreneurs with fines and > imprisonment for their consensual business activities, and otherwise > obstructing the economic growth made possible by the free market, we would be > so much better off it should make any thinking person angry to contemplate > it. Indeed, if the government simply took the same tax dollars it spends on > regulation, used it to buy up as many products as that money could buy, and > dumped all those products into the ocean, the economy would rebound almost > instantly and we would likely witness the greatest genuine boom in American > productivity in three generations, as the money being wasted would be so much > healthier for growth than the money being spent as it is nowon destroying > wealth on an atrocious scale through the crippling burden of regulations. The > pharmaceutical regulations alone, once unenforced, would translate into > thousands of lives saved, as the FDA notoriously kills Americans in large > quantities by depriving them of life-saving drugs. This would be a great and > moral end in itself, but it would also be a boon for the economy. > Or what if the warfare state money were simply wasted? Pentagon waste has got > to be the best thing coming from that department. When Obama decided to stop > spending so much on Cold War weaponry that would never be used and divert the > funds to 21st century killing machines to deploy against insurgents in > Pakistan and other such places, many cheered but I did not. For a weapon that > gathers dust is the best kind the military buys. One could correctly argue > that the thousands of nuclear weapons, by their mere existence, pose an > existential threat to humanity and should be eliminated, but the point stands > that so long as they have the potential to be used, better that they not be. > Nevertheless, the U.S. military establishment, at nearly a trillion dollars a > year when all is carefully accounted for, makes us less safe, hinders our > freedom, and, most important, actively and energetically pesters, harasses, > oppresses, tortures and murders foreigners in numerous countries. Millions > have been slaughtered, directly and by stealth means, by the U.S. warfare > state, only in the last couple decades. If Obama wants to cut down the budget > by more than $33 billion a year, he should look first to this monstrosity, > probably the greatest threat to world peace currently existing, and slash > away. But short of that, he should convert the entire military machine to one > of “waste” as opposed to engagement and activity. A trillion dollars spent > yearly on waste, or to pay personnel to sit around and play blackjack all > day, would be far better for American freedom, American wealth, and global > affairs, than allowing the status quo of murderous war to continue. > Then there is the U.S. police state. If only its budget was wasted! Instead, > billions are spent tracking down, trying, and locking people into cages. Many > of these peopleabout half at the federal levelare nothing but offenders with > no victim. Drug offenders, tax offenders, gun offenders and other violators > of laws that don’t belong in a free society. If this money were spent on > building huge modern art projects and launching them into the sun, society > would prosper significantly relative to where it is thanks to how the money > is actually spent. Surely, building prisons and not filling them with > peaceful people is infinitely morally preferable to building prisons and > housing harmless souls inside their cages. These cages, which have in many > cases become torture chambers and rape rooms, are the great domestic atrocity > of our time, so putting an end to them is a moral mandate in itself, even > putting aside the billions that could be saved by ridding of them. And with > each innocent man caged, we lose the chance of that person being out there in > the private sector actually producing wealth, which we desperately need in > this time of recession. And this doesn’t even account for how much federal > criminal justice programs, by their very nature, foment social conflict, > subsidize gang warfare through drug and gun prohibitions, and generally make > us less safe, less free and less wealthy. > Then there is all the welfarecorporate and individualwhich distorts the > economy and poisons the social fabric. In the long term this, too, is more > destructive than mere government waste, as the opportunity cost of businesses > catering to politicians rather than customers is unspeakably immense, and the > encouragement of people to rely on the federal government rather than on each > other for support is a rot at the core of the culture’s character and the key > method by which the empire and police state maintain the trust and love of > the oppressed masses. > I do not want to understate the evil of government waste. A billion dollars > stolen from taxpayers and sent down the drain is an injustice and a moral > disgrace of national importance. But government is an organ of plunder, > economic dislocation, mass imprisonment, social destruction, persecution and > mass murder. Given that it steals our moneycertainly a great evil in > itselfwe’re generally much better off the larger portion of its budget goes > purely to > waste.http://blog.independent.org/2011/06/13/government-waste-is-the-least-of-our-problems/
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