Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Celebrity Nepot "Pundit" Hired to Give the Young, Inept View of the World Bemoans "Enterainmentization of Politics" | Main | The Tingle Didn't Linger: Matthews Turns On Obama? »
November 21, 2011

DOOM: Short and Sweet

DOOOOM

PSA: This is Thanksgiving week, and so this week's DOOM will be stepped down a bit. Less DOOM per day, and no DOOM on Thursday as well as Friday. (Well, the DOOM will still be there...this column will simply remain silent on it until the following Monday.)

It’s an interesting question: what if you had to choose between political freedom and financial stability? Democracy is often messy and chaotic, and markets hate uncertainty. Yet robust markets really can’t develop anywhere but in a representative political system (though rarely in pure democracies; a representative republic is generally the most fertile political system, economically speaking).

The Super Committee’s failure was pre-ordained. In fact, it was part of the Democrat plan right from the start, which is why they packed it with far-left ideologues. It was never intended to succeed -- it was an election-year prop. Even if the group scrambles to put some last-minute "agreement" together, it will obviously be a thin layer of face-saving political blather over a vast ocean of disagreement over the shape, responsibilites, and size of the Federal Government. These are not trivial issues, so perhaps it is not surprising that consensus is so hard to reach: the goals of the makers and the takers are completely at odds. The only way to get consensus is to have the voters speak and give the lawmakers a mandate, one way or another, and that won't happen until next year. Markets will hate it, and we may well be in for another credit downgrade...which would be richly deserved.

I've said it many times before: the notion of "retirement" is a modern fiction based on some flawed assumptions. The idea that you can take the last 20 or 30 years of your life as an extended vacation turns out not to be sustainable. This is not the result of a broken societal or cultural model; this is reality re-asserting itself, as it always does.

America before the entitlement state.

Reacting to calls for cuts in entitlement programs, House Democrat Henry Waxman fumed: “The Republicans want us to repeal the twentieth century.” Sound bites don’t get much better than that. After all, the world before the twentieth century–before the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society–was a dark, dangerous, heartless place where hordes of Americans starved in the streets.

Except it wasn’t and they didn’t. The actual history of America shows something else entirely: picking your neighbors’ pockets is not a necessity of survival. Before America’s entitlement state, free individuals planned for and coped with tough times, taking responsibility for their own lives.

And even if you disregard the moral and ethical questions surrounding the entitlement state we've built, there is this bedrock truth: we can't afford it.

And the wind cries bankrupt.

Just a reminder: Illinois is still on a rocket-sled ride to insolvency.



digg this
posted by Monty at 09:00 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
18-1: "Old saws no longer valid: Is the Pope Catholic? ..."

rhennigantx: "Putting it all together, we now know - as the Phil ..."

dantesed: "- - - - The AP After Reporting His Death Without V ..."

Thomas Bender: "@189 >> Trans grandma able to breastfeed baby w ..."

Cat Ass Trophy : "Joseph of Arimethia! ..."

Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden: "[i]Louis Gossett Jr is still alive but he has anno ..."

Lizzy[/i]: ">>[i]Okay, I'm going to give a Trump W this mornin ..."

Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight: "He went off to Kathmandu. Posted by: Count de Mon ..."

Humphreyrobot: "Twinkle nuts. That's the bad fairy. ..."

Warai-otoko : "I'd laugh if the majority of crooked shit being do ..."

Count de Monet: "They catch P.Diddy yet? More coffee... Posted ..."

Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden: "[i]Well the Dark Money infusion - oh, I meant the ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64