Monday, February 8, 2016

America's Debt Bomb Caused by the Welfare State

Richard Ebeling emails:

Dear Bob,

I have a new article on the “EpicTimes” news and commentary website on, “America’s Fiscal Debt Bomb Caused by the Welfare State.”

The U.S. federal government’s debt now exceeds $19 trillion, and is on a trend line to add around another $10 trillion by 2026, for a total of nearly $30 trillion. The major factor behind the ballooning debt crisis and its continued worsening is the American welfare state.

Of course, other government spending has helped the process along, including the costs of America’s foreign policy interventions, but looking over the last fifty years and head for the next decade, the primary culprit is the redistributive state.

Almost a hundred years ago the Austrian-born economist, Joseph Schumpeter, said that a nation’s economic and cultural history can be found encapsulated in its fiscal history, because on what and how much governments spend tells you the ideological and special interest forces at work in that country.

In America’s case a direction down the road of fiscal socialism is driven by the ideology of “entitlement” under which some are to be taxed and plundered because the redistributive “experts” say that some have “too much” and others have “too little” in society. This is complemented by our “age of democratized privilege,” under which individuals and groups view the democratic political process as a conduit for mutual plunder through lobbying and politicking in the halls of political power.

Unless we successfully devise a way to change the political, ideological and practical direction of the country, our debt crisis will continue to take us on down a road to ruin.

 http://www.epictimes.com/richardebeling/2016/02/americas-national-debt-bomb-caused-by-the-welfare-state/

Best,
Richard

1 comment:

  1. "Almost a hundred years ago the Austrian-born economist, Joseph Schumpeter, said that a nation’s economic and cultural history can be found encapsulated in its fiscal history, because on what and how much governments spend tells you the ideological and special interest forces at work in that country."

    Guns and Butter.

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