Yes, it is preposterous. Einstein once said that the universe and human stupidity are infinite - he forgot the fiscal-grabbing fantasy of the welfare bureaucracy.

France is really really advanced on this matter.

A very well written but depressing post. Surely, a good bleeding heart liberal probably would argue like this: There was too less social assistance ...

By reading such numbers one gets dizzy. But it appears plausible to argue that the true purpose of welfare is to not empower for self help but to justify the existence of the welfare industry with all its agencies, commissions, and  counsels. They need to find clients to care for.

Yes, soziale Gerechtigkeit means social justice, that's right. People are right to mistrust politicans who do all the talking.

Especially when they use nebulous notions they usually fill up with their own meanings. Soziale Gerechtigkeit - it can be used as a master key for permanent socialist tyranny because there is always something lasting to be done. Soziale Gerechtigkeit, yes, we can - I do not want to imagine where it ends.

What I found astonishing is the fact that the drafted idea of compulsatory loans was launched by professional economists whose methodological approach should ban a phantasmal approach. I was too naive. 

Thanks for this clear argument worth a second thought. I do agree and it might be helpful to explore this point: In the physical world one force implies a diametrically opposed counterforce. What about politics:

Could the experience of a failed European dream  help and strengthen to revive the American Way of Life? 

"The money we're spending on these tax cuts for the wealthy is a major driver of our deficit." This quotation – in my opinion – is very representative for both the left ideology and the semantic reinterpretation, that is to say: the change of the meaning when we apply words. (Orwell perfectly described this new-speak methodology. Free, for example, had no political meaning in “1984” but just the meaning of being deprived of something. “This field is free of weeds.”)

The left ideology is evident: The omnipresent welfare state needs resources to allocate, therefore – and it is never enough – they tax the wealthy people. The underlying idea implies an endless entitlement on which the state can tax its citizens: a fully socialist assumption: Scary!

But the left wants more: Their line of arguments turns the structure of society upside down: In a liberal society government spending is strictly limited and must be justified – in an overflowing apparatchik state tax cuts must be justified: Not taxing is a merciful courtesy which can be cancelled without any explanation or justification. There is a closed black box of commissioners to regulate each niche of life. We are no citizens but subjects.

(continued) 

I think - but do not remember the context - once Paul Rahe said, we are living in times of big hope. I agree, because the present circumstances could initiate you American people to reconstitute the former wisdom of the Founding. We cannot take for granted that the western culture in general and the United States in particular will prevail, the idealist philosophy of history is disproved, yes. But the ideas on which your country was founded are still vibrating – can the idea of individual rights which limit governmental actions be disproved by the occupation of a bureaucratic welfare state and its economical failure?

The debt crisis, in fact, reveals the total failure of the welfare state which taxes citizens to allocate resources – therefore, the fate and decline of the European system, combined with the trust in your principle may reconstitute your people’s trust in American exceptionalism.

Great ideas are born and defended in times of crisis.

Dear Mr. Robinson,

I do share your serious concern:

The United States are on the brink, endangered by ideas which do not coincide with the structure of natural rights, and threatened by fiscal and debt burdens which could languish the drive of economic life. Nobody can deny the tendency towards a European-style social democracy. ( In Europe we already have passed the brink)

But there is hope for you: As a German citizen I am very delighted to see the discussions within the society of the United States and to follow blogs like ricochet. Here in Germany, there are no such blogs which serve to share serious concerns between citizens. Of course, the European citizens suffer from tax burden and the social engineering chimera, too – but there are no efforts to link individually felt concerns with the deeply rooted apotheosis of the state and to identify the root of our problems. Therefore, it is hardly possible to discuss a very alternative draft – but the people of the United States do. The market of ideas is still living.

Take it for granted. 

How long the bureaucratic welfare state will have the fiscal means ( or the credit line) to do so? 

Is it possible for the people to push politicans to repeal? Of course, and a firm stand against socialized health care is an advantageous prospect - otherwise the unbalanced fiscal state will destroy it which seems to be more a collapse than the return to an appropriate situation.

There is no individual hero, but you the American people.

It is delightful to see discussions flourishing like at ricochet: there are absolutely no similar discussions by the people going on in Germany. 

Despite the present events like the decision of the Supreme Court, the ideas on which the United States are founded remain an closed universe of ideas which are exceptional, stringent and simply true. 

There are no serious alternative to the concept of a natural rights structure which limits every governmental attempt to subordinate the citizens. 

Today, I found this citation: 

I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.

Letter Jefferson to Madison 

The force of attraction of these arguments, clear like rock water, needs no justification: they simply endure to be true. Fortunated to be founded by such ideas.

Good luck, Sir, our prayers will be with you.