Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
We are playing a rigged game. Trying to undo leviathan is like trying to toss rings around bottle necks at a carnival. The problem, as Victor Davis Hanson explained yesterday, is that we cannot afford to buy voters the way the left can. He began by writing:
About 50 percent of taxpayers don’t pay federal income taxes. Almost half of American adults receive either the majority of or all of their income in some form from government. They are naturally desirous of even more entitlements, in the sense that even higher taxes on the top 5 percent might ensure at least some of the needed revenue to pay for them. And if that echelon must pay 70 percent or 80 percent rather than the present 60 percent of all collected income taxes, it would still not be such a bad thing, inasmuch as the circumstances surrounding their earned income must be somewhat suspicious. In the words of the president, the so-called affluent surely at some point must realize that they have made enough money and have hundreds of thousands in unneeded income that could easily be assessed with higher taxes.
How do we convince half the nation to vote for a cut in pay?
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Apr '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Bring back the shame that used to be associated with being on the dole, instead of treating parasites as victims.
Feb '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
It doesn't matter whether they are convinced or not. It is going to happen either with some planning or as a result of markets imposing reality upon those who will not accept reality. I can't help but wonder whether this isn't an inevitable evolution of societies. Such market realities are being imposed on Ireland and Greece at the moment. Such market realities were imposed on Britain several decades back. Such market realities were imposed on Latin American countries in the 20th century. When has there been an example of a country where the country was willing to impose the discipline upon itself? I can't think of an example. So there's no reason to think that it will be anything other than a rough time for the US while all of this plays out.
Feb '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
It is not the people whose income is too low to pay taxes who worry me most; it is the people whose income is pretty high to very high, but who get it directly or indirectly from the government and hence are incentivized to support its growth. These include: government employees, university and k-12 administrators, lobbyists, lawyers with a regulatory practice, employees & executives of not-quite-public-not-quite-private entities like Fannie/Freddie, people who work for "think tanks" and certain other kinds of nonprofits, executives and shareholders in companies receiving "green" subsidies, etc etc.
Aug '10
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Where there are functioning family units, the lessons passed on will hopefully reflect the pride of accomplishment in work. Children know and , at some point, will approach the tipping point of the decision to be a drain (parasite) on society or a contributor to it's improvement. When the contribution is to have a better car, more food for the kids, or being able to give more to charity , there has to be a visible reward in taking that path. Have the schools deliberately obscured that reward ? Does the culture obscure that ? Of course ,having the big cultural heroes be actors who attained it by posing rather than Horatio Alger tends to obscure reality as well.
Aug '10
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Mar '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
"Those who write in democratic ages have another more dangerous tendency. When the traces of individual action upon nations are lost, it often happens that the world goes on to move, though the moving agent is no longer discoverable. As it becomes extremely difficult to discern and to analyze the reasons which, acting separately on the volition of each member of the community, concur in the end to produce movement in the old mass, men are led to believe that this movement is involuntary, and that societies unconsciously obey some superior force ruling over them. But even when the general fact which governs the private volition of all individuals is supposed to be discovered upon the earth, the principle of human free-will is not secure. A cause sufficiently extensive to affect millions of men at once, and sufficiently strong to bend them all together in the same direction, may well seem irresistible: having seen that mankind do yield to it, the mind is close upon the inference that mankind cannot resist it."
-Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Part II, Bk1, Chp20
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Thankfully, my defiant nature renders me temperamentally immune to such fatalism.
Jan '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
I read Victor David Hanson's post in NRO, and as always, he makes several points that deserve reflection.
One is that we need to question whether the entitlements actually work. George Will advanced a similar point today in his column. The failure of the Great Society isn't just that it's expensive. It doesn't work, either.
You can point to a government program here or there that succeeds, but no one can seriously claim that heavy government direction makes things better. The volume of evidence is that government's involvement is an expensive irrelevance, or is an expensive obstacle.
I'm not sure we even need to convince half the nation to take a pay cut. All we need to show them is how little they get in exchange for the subservience. The rest will follow.
Apr '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
flownover
Where there are functioning family units, the lessons passed on will hopefully reflect the pride of accomplishment in work. Children know and , at some point, will approach the tipping point of the decision to be a drain (parasite) on society or a contributor to it's improvement. When the contribution is to have a better car, more food for the kids, or being able to give more to charity , there has to be a visible reward in taking that path. Have the schools deliberately obscured that reward ? Does the culture obscure that ? Of course ,having the big cultural heroes be actors who attained it by posing rather than Horatio Alger tends to obscure reality as well. · Jul 31 at 8:37am
And:
What the welfare system and other kinds of governmental programs are doing is paying people to fail. Insofar as they fail, they receive the money; insofar as they succeed, even to a moderate extent, the money is taken away. --Thomas Sowell, 1980
Apr '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
flownover
Where there are functioning family units.... (snip)
And that's where much of it begins to take hold, by institutionalizing disincentives for two-parent families to remain intact in the first place.
May '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
The main problem with big government is that is creates too many large entrenched institutions that become impossible to reform or cut. The rhetoric is easy. Common sense and a calculator can show where we can cut. The implementation is what's impossible. Anybody realistically think we can eliminate corporate welfare? The Department of Education? Raise the retirement age to 70? Too many large institutions have too much at stake to give up their power and entitlement.
Sep '10
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
I guess we are doomed! Perhaps you could explain why the retirement age was raised from 65 to 67, but can't be raised to 70. Difficult but not impossible
Apr '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Yes.
Sep '10
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Mr Hansen may not have wanted to be taken as literally as some have. Most government largess does foster a mentality of dependence that is why most government programs not only don't work but end up causing more harm than good. Suggesting these attitudes cannot be over come once recognized and addressed is not accurate. I believe welfare reform met with a fair amount of success even though it was pursued half heartily.
May '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
liberal jim
I guess we are doomed! Perhaps you could explain why the retirement age was raised from 65 to 67, but can't be raised to 70. Difficult but not impossible · Jul 31 at 9:44am
You are correct good sir about the retirement age. I forgot we raised the retirement age to 67. It will still be a bitter dogfight with powerful interest groups like AARP to raise the retirement age to 70. As for everything else? WE'RE DOOMED! DOOMED!! DOOMED!!!!!!!!! sort of ... :>
May '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Michael Patrick Tracy
Yes. · Jul 31 at 9:48am
How?
Feb '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
I disagree.
The left can't afford to buy the votes it needs to retain power.
That's why they've moved on to giving out de facto exemption to US law to illegal aliens and other supporters.
Their problem is that when people notice illegals don't need to have car insurance like they do and wonder why GE doesn't pay taxes they get rather cross - and unless they are personally benefiting they don't think well of the left.
Plus, when people first start getting that sweet government check in the mail to make their living they might be enthused about turning out to vote but eventually they just take it for granted.
So the left needs to continually come up with new and shinier ways to motivate its supporters.
Except now they can't. The country is bankrupt, and the special legal treatment infuriates everyone else.
Hence I think the leftist welfare state model of American governance is lot closer to an end than most people expect. Once the endless ever increasing spigot of money gets turned off - happening now - their political coalition starts collapsing.
We'll see...
May '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Its hard to see a happy ending here. When the idea that we cut the rate of increase in the size of government is considered radical, much less a real cut, we are in a very bad place. All the polls show the American people want a balanced budget and reduced spending BUT don't touch social security, medicare or medicaid. Until this turns around its not going to get any better.
Aug '10
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
thelonious
Michael Patrick Tracy
Yes. · Jul 31 at 9:48am
How? · Jul 31 at 11:18am
What's your fear ? Revolution from the aged, infirm, young, out of work ? These people will need alot of tactical leadership and weapons to accomplish much. Or are you suggesting that the revolution will come in the form of a military coup that is actually the government seizing the means of production and forcing people to work ?
Dept of Education ? Heck how about adding the Dept of Energy, the EPA, Interior, NASA, NIH, NEA, NPR, Labor, HUD, HHS, DHS, Transportation, Legal Services Corp,....I could go on, but so can you . Just look at this site . No wonder Washington DC is the only good real estate market in the country. I have friends there who sell their houses for exactly what they ask, no complaints.
Apr '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
thelonious
Michael Patrick Tracy
Yes. · Jul 31 at 9:48am
How? · Jul 31 at 11:18am
"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
It can either be voluntary, and relatively proactive, or it will be involuntary, when there is no more money.
Remember, a few short years ago we were going to be wandering in the desert for 40 years.
I am cautiously optimistic, and will contribute to the campaigns of those who get it. Better to light a candle, even if it's in the middle of a shirtstorm.
Apr '11
Re: Why We Will Lose This Fight and Every Other
Xennady: (snip) Hence I think the leftist welfare state model of American governance is lot closer to an end than most people expect. Once the endless ever increasing spigot of money gets turned off - happening now - their political coalition starts collapsing.
We'll see... · Jul 31 at 11:24am
That too.
A year ago the idea of taking back the Senate was dismissed out of hand by most pundits. Before that it was talk of a Permanent Minority.
Getting hysterical, race-baiting push-back from a Progressive nanny-state under attack is proof that success is possible, not that defeat is certain.
I am a pessimist by nature, but we can't afford to indulge ourselves in throwing up our hands--that's the only thing that will allow the Left to triumph.