… FOR AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN
Monty Pelerin isn’t a real person. It’s a nom de plume – a pseudonym taken from the Mont Pelerin Society, the famed Swiss-based economic policy think tank founded nearly seven decades ago by free market luminaries including Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman.
A.k.a. our heroes …
Anyway, “Monty” writes for a website called Economic Noise – which last week published a must-read column entitled “How A Country Dies.”
“Economically, people become poorer,” Pelerin writes. “It becomes harder to feed a family. Growth stalls and stagnation occurs. Job opportunities decline. Disincentives to work rise as government tries to ease the burden on the unemployed and lower-skilled. These efforts require more revenues, necessitating higher taxes or debt financing. Disincentives to create jobs are exaggerated as a result of attempting to ease the hardships. Higher taxes and other burdens on the productive make work less attractive.”
Sound familiar?
The column continues, noting in such an environment that “government spending soars as a means to juice reported economic activity.”
There’s a catch, though ….
“Much of the increased spending is both unproductive and counterproductive,” the column states. “Disincentives and distortions are introduced as a result, further weakening the economy’s ability to recover.”
Ah yes, “stimulus.”
“Society becomes increasingly divided in terms of ‘makers’ and ‘takers,'” the column goes on. “As the takers grow in numbers, the makers shrink. Soon the parasites overwhelm the productive. Society collapses at that point.”
Pretty intense stuff, huh?
We read the whole column once. Then twice. Then we cried. Because it describes to the letter what’s happening in America right now. And while we don’t want to be a “doom and gloom” site – constantly bemoaning the deterioration of the country we were raised in – it’s important to acknowledge things aren’t rainbows and unicorns.
“The State is threatened by the decline,” the Pelerin piece continues. “Its first reaction is to blame others for causing it. Eventually, it moves into pretend mode, trying to convince people that things are on the mend. All States seem to want to deny, divert and become more powerful.”
Again … sound familiar?
One of our favorite scenes from the 1998 Steven Spielberg war epic Saving Private Ryan involved an unidentified German solider – dubbed “Dagwood Dusseldorf” – taunted the onrushing American forces via loudspeaker, telling them “the Statue of Liberty is kaput.”
“That’s disconcerting,” the movie’s protagonist, Captain Miller, states.
It is …
Anyway, read the whole Pelerin piece HERE.
30 comments
Wow: FITS just figured this out….
Pretentious pap much like a high school boy would spout after reading half of “The Fountainhead.”
You can always “go Galt”.
Also: Chemtrails!!!!!
They never will. Our peers are much further to the left than we are or ever will be. What the right calls “uber liberal” in this country would be a conservative’s wet dream in many EU nations.
The “takers” are dragging the “makers” down man! The “makers” are gonna leave! Who is John Galt? All tax is theft! The “makers” owe nothing to the society that enabled them to make their wealth! Walsghaoigiasohgiohalghhhvhoihherhhghhhh!!!
We need to get rid of the “takers” programs! Let’s get rid of Social Security and Medicare first, since those are the biggest! Grab those bootstraps, grandma! Screw you, I’ve got mine!
don’t forget the moochers lined up for handouts at VA hospitals. they get medals, what more do they want?
Rule of Acquisition #23: Nothing is more important than your health… except for your money.
Even as obtuse as Marxist as yourself has to realize this Welfare State can only collapse in the not-so-long run. 70 million on food stamps ( most popular items purchased on EBT -steak, shrimp, crab legs)….14 million on “disability”, (which they now are rapidly signing up for when their 2 YEARS of unemployment run out). Any parasites speaking Ebonics and wearing bathroom slippers in public get free cell phones, Section 8 housing, free medical, free utilities. The useless breeders and eaters are rapidly approaching 51% of the electorate…you tell me how that all plays out.
Regardless of your un-PC comment, what you say is true for the most part , but I’d argue we are already at the magic 50%+1 vote, it’s just a lot of those votes are still productive people that think forcing others to pay for the parasites in society scores than moral points-and those productive people truly believe they are “doing the right thing”.
Stepping back to generalize a bit(which you can do to both Lefties and Righties), the two biggest issues that Lefties routinely display:
#1 Economic ignorance (and I can forgive the for it, I just hate that they are going to help bring down the whole ship via experiment)
#2 Envy (which usually displayed among the lower socio-economic rungs)
I find them to be far more sensible than Righties on the subject of war, but Lefties routinely allow their emotions to dictate their decision in outright defiance of economic reality.
So you hear:
“Fuck Grandma, right?”
“We don’t need SS and/or Medicare, right?”
“People don’t need to be educated, right?”
…and when they say these bombastic things, not only does it display their emotions “gone wild”, but it shows they willingness to vilify people through distortion because the reality is not important to them.
They often bitch about ideologues, but they themselves are guilty of that very thing.
RABBLERABBLERABBLERABBLERABBLE!
ONLY MARXIST LEFTIST COMMIE PINKOS SUPPORT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE!
RABBLERABBLERABBLERABBLERABBLE!
another dumbass comment from the supposedly “thoughtful” one…
I honestly don’t give a shit what someone who labels everyone they disagree with as “Marxist” thinks.
What I think about those kinds of dumbfucks is that they are the reason everyone bickers over “makers” and “takers” instead of banding together and demanding cuts to things that quite clearly only help a select minority of well-connected douchebags that consistently bribe politicians into getting what they want.
Responding to him (and you) is a complete fucking waste of time, but congratulations, you got me to waste a few minutes.
You’re making no sense…you’re talking about “banding togther” in the name of taking money from some people using the pols they bribe…seriously..you’re fucking delusional now.
sociopathy is the new normal.
I couldn’t get past nom de plume and pseudonym. I thought the comments might help then euwe throws in sociopathy.
Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman?
Noticed GrandTango is lost here also. “Wow: FITS just figured this out….”
Figured what?
I have seen “Private Ryan” though.
anosognosia
hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
the piece is moronically obvious political spin. “disincentives” (higher taxes) as a result of ‘easing hardship’? where exactly did this happen? ancient greece? was it the welfare state that brought down the pharoahs? maybe it was the ottoman empire? maybe ireland? maybe this has never happened anywhere?
B-but, he cried Glenn Beck tears…
Why don’t we bring back all the work programs from the New Deal? Wouldn’t this satisfy the left and the right? Or would conservatives still complain if the government was paying people to build parks and roads?
“was it the welfare state that brought down the pharoahs?”
You don’t think the welfare state contributed to the sinking of Rome?
The illegal-immigrant barbarians were on welfare?
No…there wasn’t enough left in the coffers to beat them back with soldiers…the “over expansion” left Rome a bit strapped in addition to the dole.
Freedom is not pretension. Government, on the other hand, is. In order for true libertarianism to work, the MAJORITY must be convinced that that freedom is more precious than safety. Read The Probability Broach by L Neil Smith.
“the MAJORITY must be convinced that that freedom is more precious than safety.”
#1- Never gonna happen
#2- A minority of people wanted seccession from King George, yea that’s right, a MINORITY. So a majority is not necessary, a tireless minority CAN do it.
Yep. But even then, it was a plurality. Doesn’t mean those who treasure freedom should stop working for it. It’s just very hard, with so many moral cowards pontificating while hiding behind the lie of “helping” people out of a situation the pontificators caused.
Look at all the Lefties bitching about economic reality! You are all a bunch of loons.
Cry about throwing wheelchaired grandma over a cliff, SS and Medicare going down the tubes(no one’s bitched about Welfare yet, why not?), etc. Whatever vilification makes your cognitive dissonance easier to bear, right?
It all doesn’t matter. Our economy is getting crushed just like the old USSR.
What’s wrong Lefties? Aren’t you participating in the stock market advances? Why are you bitching? Don’t you all feel rich? If everything is fine why even bother to reply? Do you really think the popularly elected holder of office will let that happen when votes are on the line?
lol…you’re all a bunch of rubes.
If the country is going to crash, it is going to crash. We the People obviously aren’t going to do anything about it because we can’t agree on what should or needs to be done.
At that point, the only thing I can do is reply in jest to people who think dismantling every part of government that has a positive impact on its citizenry is the first, biggest, and in some peoples’ opinion, only thing that needs to be severely cut or demolished.
Throwing millions more into abject poverty and turning government into an exclusive backscratcher of the rich and powerful creates a government that isn’t worth saving and a country that has an immense debt to pay back and virtually no return for the average man to show for it. But hey, that’s the goal of those who label the average citizen as a “taker” and a “parasite.”
At least freeing up government’s responsibility to help the people it represents will give it more energy to focus on oppressing the people and serving the elite few’s needs.
“Throwing millions more into abject poverty and turning government into an exclusive backscratcher of the rich and powerful creates a government that isn’t worth saving and a country that has an immense debt to pay back and virtually no return for the average man to show for it. But hey, that’s the goal of those who label the average citizen as a “taker” and a “parasite.”
See, it’s comments like this that are born out of pure emotion, with no real substance or reality to them, that basically tells me that I’m wasting my time to even reply. (see the comment above titled “Catch and release”)
The financial ship is going to go down, it’s not a question of if, but when. That you can’t handle that society has taker and makers is not the issue in the big picture no matter your refusal to acknowledge it.
It’s really simple. I think Ms. Thatcher said it (don’t quote me on that) “at some point, you run out of other people’s money.”
So, if takers keep growing and makers keep shrinking, something has to happen, there’s no way out of that.
I don’t disillusion myself into thinking we won’t always have takers, the poor will always be with us. So, just how is it supposed to be managed?
For myself, I’m not long from being out of the workforce, but I have paid my share in, doubtful I’ll see it all come back.
Really, aren’t there any successful models out there?