Dark Thoughts

Forgive me because this is going to ramble a bit.

When I use the word “anarchy”, I don’t mean armed gangs of bullies patrolling the streets abusing those who aren’t as armed or aggressive. I use the little “a” as in little or no government. And, I don’t go as far as the guys over at Patriot’s Lament.

Patriot’s Lament is available on AM 600 KFAR Saturday mornings 9 am to 11 am (streaming on the web at the KFAR website) or they have a Blog Spot site.

http://patriotslament.blogspot.com/2013/09/may-11-2013-stand-up-to-bully-and-rita.html

 

The guys at PL (and I’d probably be more “sold” if they had some women speaking out on their site) think it will be just fine if we had no government. They consider it slavery to pay taxes or vote. I appreciate what they do on Saturday’s morning in putting their thoughts and research out there to the general public. That’s why I link them periodically. However, I don’t entirely agree with them.

I agree with them that the US government reached a tipping point in the last decade where there is no real opportunity to put it back into the limited government box it was supposed to exist in. When Thomas Sowell wrote last week that the House shouldn’t try to defund ObamaCare because it wouldn’t work (it won’t get through the Senate and Obama will veto it) and threatening a government shut down was not worth the political risk to the Republicans, I knew we’d crossed a bridge that burned behind us.

Individual liberty is over as an American concept under the United States of America. The Health Insurance Exchanges open on Tuesday and once the ACA is in place, we will never get rid of it. I predict that within a decade Americans will be like the English, seeing about 60% of our income going to taxes and medical coverage.

Anyone want to argue that individual liberty is possible when you’re forced to live on 40% of your income?

Of course, the ACA was not the first shackle to go around our wrists. It’s just the latest and the most destructive. It’s the bridge too far and the straw that will break the camel’s back. If the country hadn’t given Obama a second term, maybe … but we did … and do we really think that Mittens (author of Romney Care) would have voted to set aside the ACA if he were sitting in the White House now? I expect more arguments about it in the near-future, but it’s done. Sometime in the future, we’ll elect a Republican president and a Republican House (maybe even a Republic Senate) and they’ll futz with the formula, all the while saying they can’t repeal it because people count on the coverage. Our premiums will continue rising dramatically until the entire middle-class is subsidized and then our elected tyrants will install universal health coverage because that was the plan (of BOTH political parties) all along. Bye-bye, liberty! It’s been nice knowing you.

Which leaves us ….

The United States of America as my parents knew it has been slowly dissolving like an ice sculpture in an Alaskan March for more than a century now. The only reason my parents didn’t know about it was that they lived in the Western states and came to Alaska. The “blue states” lost their liberty first, but the “red states” don’t really have liberty either. The evidence is all around us and it’s not going away. I don’t know if we can identify any one wrong turn. There have been a lot of them. The growth of the administrative state was one of the largest, but something within our society allowed that to take root when we shouldn’t have allowed it.

Maybe the guys at Patriot’s Lament are right and all government will always become tyrannical. Our Founders thought that would be the case, but they also believed that the system they were setting up could be adjusted back on track. I think — realists that they were — they would say it’s a hopeless cause right now.

Which leaves us ….

To be honest … the tyranny is here right now. The ACA affects all of us, forcing us to spend money on something we may not even need and may not want. The State Troopers have armored vehicles now and the EPA is showing up at mines to do water inspections with armed officers. This winter the State of Alaska plans to cite homeowners in Fairbanks for burning wood for home heating during air-quality alerts. I plan to burn wood then anyway. I’ll let you know how that works out.

We always say we’ll resist the latest tyranny, but Americans as a rule do not. The guys at PL say we’re the “most armed slaves on the face of the planet”. Maybe they have a point. We have this history of revolution, of tossing off a dictatorial system and embracing something much less dictatorial, but for the last 100 years we’ve watched our freedoms dissolve like an ice sculpture and we’ve complained and voted and complained and voted and … yeah, we’ve really not doing anything to change our circumstances.

Collapse is coming. Sorry if that disappoints you, but today I don’t feel hopeful. The ACA is such a massive government takeover of a portion of our economy that collapse is inevitable. Beyond the attempt to defund ObamaCare, do any of us believe that the Senate is going to acquiesce to the House and actually fix our spending problem? There’s a large railroad bridge, partially finished, in Alaska that I want to sell you if you actually believe that’s going to happen. If they cut PROJECTED spending by 5% over the next five years I’ll be gob-smacked. You?

So the federal government is going away. Probably not tomorrow. The “experts” say by mid-century. I think by 2020. In the meantime, I think the tyranny will grow worse because the feds need to raise taxes to stay afloat and pay for the ACA. We’re not talking a little bit of taxes either. We’re talking 60% of ALL of our incomes just to keep up with current spending. Forget that the interest on the debt will balloon and by 2025 be equal to the entire GDP of the nation. There are those here on Word Press who believe we can just default on the debt or that the “red states” can secede and default on our portion of the debt and it will be fine. With due respect — and I do have respect for their opinions — it shows a lack of economic realism and a lack of understanding of international dynamics.

Tough times are coming and there’s no avoiding it.

The salient question might be:

Is the federal government going to go away when it collapses in unsustainable debt or because of the Second American Revolution? And which course of action would be better if we want to maintain liberty and have a hope of our children not starving?

What replaces it?