We have been killing free enterprise, individualism and the American can-do spirit for over 8 decades. But it hasn't always been this way. From 1850 to 1930 the US went from a second rate economy to a leader in the world in crucial industries from chemicals to car manufacturing. Famous industrialists like Ford, Durant, Crapo, Astor and Kellogg built huge businesses and in the process raised the standard of living for all Americans. And they did it without government help or intervention. These men did it with their ingenuity and the freedom which abounded during those years. Then the government stepped in with their controls and prohibitions shackling the men that would have continued in the entrepreneur tradition. And it hasn't changed ever since.
Americans today can't even realize how they are shackled and managed and sermoned to by government bureaucrats. Now for several generations we have been led with rings in our noses to toe the government line and without a whimper we oblige. Are we turning into cows? A wonderful book written by Burton Fulsom, Jr called "EMPIRE BUILDERS" is well worth your while. You will see that once Americans were builders and creators of empires during a short interlude of 8o years when the government was kept at bay.
The following is an article in Investor's Business Daily describing how low we have fallen as we ever continue to allow these politicians to tie us up and strangle us with regulations, taxes and prohibitions. We are no longer the spirited American of yore, we are humble servants led by the nose by government hacks and politicians. It's time to find some spirit and energy and put government back in it's place - which is the job of ensuring the defense of this country against our enemies and criminals but to otherwise "leave us alone"!
Poverty: A new report comes as a punch in the gut for proud Americans: One in seven of us is poor, government data show. Surprised? Don't be. It's what happens when you kill the most productive parts of a country.
An estimated 14.3% of the population, or 43.6 million people, were considered poor in 2009 up from 13.2% the year before, the Census Bureau reports. This is the highest share living in poverty since the government began keeping records half a century ago.
How can this be in the richest nation on Earth?
Since Democrats took power — Congress in 2007, the White House in 2009 — policies that punish the productive private economy have become the norm.
Meanwhile, government wastes massive sums bailing out failed businesses, purchasing bad loans and rewarding those who borrow too much, make bad economic decisions or belong to unions.
Knowing this, no one should express shock that 15 million Americans don't have jobs, and that perhaps another 14 million or so are working only part time when they'd prefer to be working full time.
Persistent unemployment from misbegotten government policies is why we have this poverty. And it leads, inevitably, to dependence on government. As recently as 2006, federal payments to individuals as a share of GDP — a proxy for welfare — stood at 12%. Now it's 16.4%, a 37% rise in three years and the highest level ever.
Our own IBD/TIPP Poll of 908 Americans across the country, taken last week, shows that 39% of all American households and 22% of all individuals today receive some kind of federal aid.
Why? For three years now, the private sector has been systematically punished for the sins of the federal government with higher taxes and greater regulation. Businesses, though sitting on nearly $2 trillion in cash, won't invest in such an environment.
Washington's response? Spend hundreds of billions more on ill-considered "stimulus" plans and consign millions more to unemployment and poverty.
In the past two years we've witnessed a breathtaking expansion of federal government. And it'll only get worse, with a planned $44.8 trillion in spending over the next decade, an 83% rise. This new spending will add $13 trillion to our debt, pushing the total to $23 trillion by 2020 from just $7.5 trillion as recently as 2008.
Contrary to the repeated assertions of our nation's Keynesian elites in the media, Washington and academia, all this spending and debt doesn't create jobs. It kills them. The money siphoned from the economy destroys investment and consumer spending, leading to slower growth, higher joblessness and lower incomes... READ the rest here at IBD.
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