[p2p-research] Post-Depression first: Americans get more money from government than they give back | csmonitor.com

[Ryan Lanham]

On 11/24/09, J. Andrew Rogers <reality.miner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > That sort of argument feels very old now...like very 1983.
>
>
> Sadly true in this case, the growth in spending has significantly
> exceeded the growth of the economy for a long time. There is
> absolutely nothing to show for the massive spending increases. It is
> mostly spent on things like lavish pay for bureaucrats, the unions for
> which have completely captured the government for decades. Something
> is not right when the State that has metropolitan areas like Silicon
> Valley has government workers that make 10-15% more than the average
> individual in the private sector.
>
> The state is a disaster, and the state government is largely immune to
> accountability. For projects that span adjacent state borders,
> California will frequently pay more than 10x for the same bit that is
> on their side of the border as the adjacent states.
>
> Other states may have better excuses, but California is simply a
> matter of corruption and gross fiscal mismanagement.



California's got problems.  My own guess is that a sort of Reagan-Ayn Rand
spectrum is more pain and less gain than lots of other possible outcomes.
Either way, the process will be political.  My guess is that the
conventional libertarian right has a median age that is increasing nearly
one-to-one with the passing of time.  Young people don't want it; don't like
it.  With good reason.  It's a pretty cynical world view.  The theories of
that group proved hurtful to many.  Greed wasn't good.

Now a lot of systems are collapsing.  The question in the US will be a
libertarian right response or a stable North European styled market
socialism or green capitalism, etc.  Right now there is stalemate, but the
numbers and time lean toward a social solution.  As usual, I suspect
California will lead it.  I never worry much about California.  No place so
beautiful with so many gifted people can ever be down for very long.  I
worry about the desertification and aging of the hellish states in the
middle that still command two senators much more than I do about California.
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