The Experiment, by Robert Gore
The other failure: most “average” Americans simply couldn’t comprehend or even conceive of the hatred directed against them. Statism, whatever its variations, is never about doing something for people, it’s about doing something to them. Even now, with virulent vitriol and hatred on full display, much of it is minimized or rationalized by people who should know better. The corruption of the “middle-grounders” may run deeper than the statists and the collectivists, who at least no longer try to hide their agenda and acknowledge that freedom cannot coexist with the unlimited governmental power they covet.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
This is an excerpt. For the complete article please click the above link.
If you compare it kingdoms of the past, it's actually better. If you compare it to the US when it was founded, without out-and-out slavery and people not having rights on account of their sex, it's still better. As James Collins says, "good is the enemy of great." We should be able to admit we're good while striving to be better.
Regarding murder and genocide, if you erase the world wars, which may not be fair, violence is decreasing. The chance of being a victim of crime is way down. We have implemented rules of war, like rules against chemical weapons, weapons which aren't that worse to die from than other weapons, and mostly we have followed the rules. We have atomic weapons, and after using them in one war, no one has used them again. (Knock on wood!!) In ancient times, it was normal to kill the men, take the boys and slaves, and take the little girls as one of many wives. I can't imagine the horror of people in walled cities being besieged. That almost doesn't exist anymore. It's unheard of.
I wish I could talk to the Framers of the US Constitution. They know Wollstonecraft, de las Casas, and people who believed in equal rights for all human beings. They've heard of animal welfare. They've heard of the concept of not beating children. It all sounds pie-in-the-sky. They're just trying to build a democratic republic not run by a king. Just that, only an idea that could change the world, that countries around the world will use as a model for the constitutions as they try to get rid of kingdoms in favor of states based on Enlightenment, nothing too grandiose, I imagine them quipping.
I think we've done something truly amazing. I think we are so wrong to take it for granted, both when we're cavalier about the Bill of Rights and when we say things are so incredibly bad.
I heard Elizabeth Warren on the radio this morning. I heard her speak at a fundraiser a year ago. She thinks everything's bad, and her solution is gov't interference. I can't be a part of that. I wouldn't go to another fundraiser for her, even if I knew it would be great for making contacts. There are charitable fundraisers for that. I'm alone in the "things are great; let's be careful not blow it" way of thinking.
I'm like a Hand Rearden wannabe, hoping that maybe if I just keep getting products working, some similar cooler and nerdier heads will prevail in public policy world.
By even accepting the notion of class and a "middle-class", are we buying into the ideas of an intelligentsia contemptuous of the bourgeoisie?
"To this day nobody can explain the logic behind the bailouts during the last financial crisis"
I naively thought that President Obama might go easier that President W Bush had on the bailouts. (I thought the same about drone strikes, which is a discussion for anther time.) President Obama was about Hope and Change. I wanted him to say all the economy is is people serving one another freely for money. If we find someone who needs something and is willing to give us something, it doesn't matter if the financial industry collapse. Instead of Hope, he sold bailouts using Fear, just as W Bush did. I protested President Bush's policies in the streets countless times, but the protests mostly ended with Obama even though the policies didn't change that much.
I suspect many people think the bailouts worked. We borrowed $1 trillion dollars, and the economy bounced right back. The $1 trillion dollar price tag is cheap. We're borrowing that now for no reason during good times. I do not agree with this, but I think many people see it this way.
"The mathematical outcome is as straightforward and devastating as playing Russian roulette with all the chambers loaded."
I see the outcome as years of histrionics and bellyaching, which is not the same as Russian roulette.
"Obamacare is the latest insane gift from the government that keeps on giving. "
Pre-PPACA we had back-door disorganized socialism. PPACA made sense in that it keeps people from free riding. It's far from perfect, but it's not insanity.
"As the middle class watches the America it once knew and cherished collapse, "
What does this mean? Wealth disparity? That's been increasing since the end of WWII, when there price controls and very high marginal income tax rates. Despite the so-called collapse of the middle class, far more people now are rich enough to have a movie projector with a large selection of films in their homes. Far more people have two reliable cars. The world is richer.
"Talk of 70 percent or higher tax rates and wealth taxes capitalizes on hatred of the rich, it’s open season. "
I don't understand how we got to this point. I wouldn't have thought it 10 years ago.
"The ruling class has backed the middle class into a corner. Shoving them into poverty and vanquishing their dreams amounts to an unprecedented and dangerous experiment. "
I don't see this at all. Name any luxury, liberty, or freedom from peril, and it's gotten better. Crime is down. Acceptance of going and doing what you want regardless of your attributes is way up. If you get sick, even the poor get outcomes like the rich used to get. Prosperity is everywhere.
"The potentates may find their nuclear arsenals and well-armed militaries and police forces comforting"
Nuclear weapons were keenly in my mind 30 years ago. We have forgotten about them, but the peril is still there.
"What happens when the disaffected, many who will have nothing to lose, try to reclaim their lives and liberty and upend the political order that has roadblocked their pursuit of happiness?
Disaffection is a battalion, righteous moral certainty an army. "
This is truly baffling to me. The only roadblock I see is we've become decadent like the Roman Republic. We are incredibly prosperous, but way overextended on debt to maintain a global empire. Despite the heretofore unimaginable prosperity, we still feel disaffect, as if we have nothing to lose. Just look at humankind at any other time and place, and it becomes clear we have a lot to lose.
Thank you for the thoughtful article.