Have We Reached the Point of No Return?

The other day I was reading through a number of quotes from important political figures of years past when it all stuck me. I realized that America is likely to fail in my lifetime. I believe that there is a very good chance that it might happen soon and I fear that there is nothing that can be done to stop it. I started researching a bit more and came across a quote from Alexander Francis Tytler. He said, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years."

There are also a few quotes from Winston Churchill that stood out to me. He said, “We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle” and “Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.”

These certainly are some interesting quotes and I believe that they explain what is happening in American right now.

People fail to realize that it is the private sector that keeps the economy going, not the Government. Without the private sector the Government would collapse because it would have no way of taking in revenue. The Government creates absolutely nothing! It relies solely on the people of this country to support it.

WWII prompted the need for mass production and the private sector answered that call. The private sector employed millions of people in this country and as a result, the Government was able to tax them to fund the war effort. Believe it or not, a lot of people actually think that it was FDR’s social programs that saved the American economy. Those people are wrong.

One of the things that people need to accept about capitalism is that corporate greed will always exist and there will always be people who are taken advantage of. It’s unfortunate but it is true. Winston Churchill said that “the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” Personally I’d much rather live in a country where someone else has more than me than one where everyone is equally poor.

 

Corporate greed does have an upside though; the profit motive. If a capitalist recognizes the opportunity to make a profit, he or she will seize that opportunity. That is the reason that businesses start in the first place. They will also find the most efficient way to run a business to maximize their profits. By nature, capitalism is efficient.

Lets take a look at taxes. Right now there is a huge push from the left to get the rich to pay a higher percentage in taxes. They claim that this would help to reduce our national deficit and give the middle class the break they need to spur the economy back on track. In a way it would seem that the left is trying to redistribute the wealth so they can use the money to fund more social programs to “help” the middle and lower class. We are essentially trying to tax ourselves into prosperity. What will we do when the rich have no more money to give?

Interesting…social programs to “help”the lower and middle class. Are they really trying to help them though or are politicians simply perusing their own selfish interest? I would argue that the left wants to keep giving the poor more so they can keep them dependent. If you’re dependent on the Government then who are you going to vote for, someone who is in favor of big Government and more entitlements, or someone who wants to cut spending and balance the budget?

The current administration keeps making promises to the lower and middle class to make it more fair for them. Things such as Obamacare, the HHS mandate, college grants for students, less strict laws for ILLEGAL immigrants, and any other entitlement that appeals to a large percentage of voters. People are by nature incredibly greedy. We want free stuff the therefore we have a tendency to vote for the person who is going to give us the most. Americans are losing their appreciation for hard work because the government is so eager to simply give away what others have worked so hard to achieve.

Tytler said “It[democracy] can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy”. This is what is happening right now! People voted for Obama because he offered them most. They don’t care who’s paying for it or how it will affect the country as a whole. If they want it they will get it. It’s that simple.

This is a repetitive cycle that we are in. Obama has given people more than any other president in the history of this country. The price that we have paid for it has been huge too. Over six trillion dollars ($6,000,000,000,000) in additional debt over the past four years. We are destroying ourselves through loose fiscal spending and the problem will only get worse. People have limited needs but unlimited desires. They want the Government to keep giving them more and unfortunately the Government will continue to comply to their demands because selfish politicians want to continue to hold their positions.

What a majority of Americans fail to realize is that the candidate that the democrats choose for the 2016 presidential election will be even more radical than Obama. Once you start moving forward in one direction it becomes nearly impossible to go back. That candidate will offer the people even more “free” stuff and I fear that a majority of people will vote for him/her.

I fear that the path to America’s downfall has been paved. The door to socialism has been opened and I don’t foresee it closing anytime soon. Winston Churchill said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.” Hopefully we do the right thing before it is too late.