Welcome to the Age of Welfare Politics and the ever growing Nanny State.
Welcome to the Age of the Progressive Liberals; the new “Aristocracy” in Power.
It cracks me up how Progressives seem today more than ever preoccupied with the concept of “fairness.” My observation is that they always seem to think they know what is best for everyone else. They are, in my opinion, usually self-righteous busy-bodies whose views are often well-intentioned but misguided and almost always devoid of any critical analysis, such as consideration of unintended consequences.
The Eighteenth Amendment is a good example of this; it curbed public drunkenness, but gave us speakeasies, bootleggers and Al Capone.
Other Progressive brainstorms gave us the Sixteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution resulting in federal income tax. The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote and removed the only true representation that the sovereign states had at the federal level. If a Senator was beholden to the state legislators who had selected him or her to serve, they would be less likely to support a federal program which appropriated the resources of their state. After the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, the members of the U.S. Senate became a de facto House of Lords; counselors to the imperial Presidency and answerable to none.
The Progressives also gave us the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which co-opted the federal governments constitutionally mandated function of managing the monetary supply and policies of the nation and effectively turning it over to a private banking cartel, which wrote banking regulations with the force of law.
FDR on the other hand gave us the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1934; supposedly protecting our investments on the one hand, while on the other hand he seized all privately held gold under Executive Order 6102. The National Labor Relations Act gave workers legal permission to organize unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes. Thanks to World War II, continued government tinkering with economic theories and Roosevelt’s numerous national “make work” programs, deficit spending went through the roof under FDR. These and many other programs that were initiated during the so-called Progressive Enlightenment of the Thirties have served only to expand the size and reach of the federal government.
Moving forward to the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs declared a war on poverty, illiteracy, racism and the lack of fundamental services for the sick and elderly. Medicare, Medicaid, Vista, NPR, PBS, Head Start and the proscribed use of seat belts all came into being under this massive societal makeover. Such a vast government entitlement safety net was installed that many people were, for the first time in America, faced with a simple economic choice; continue to struggle to free themselves from poverty and work hard for little pay or to just give up and resign themselves to a life on the government dole and not have to work at all. The basic economic principle of self-interest was ignored again. The result of this grand Hamiltonian scheme has been several generations of Americans living substandard lives steeped in ignorance, immorality, violence and poverty as a permanent underclass of victims.
Other examples of unintended consequences coming from Progressive minds include the McCarran–Ferguson Act of 1945. This federal law exempts insurance companies from most federal regulation, including federal anti-trust laws to a limited extent, as long as state laws regulate the "business of insurance." This piece of legislation is responsible for you not being able to go across state lines to purchase health insurance at a competitive price. When this was coupled with the 1986 passage of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), the seeds for our present day health care crisis were fertilized. EMTALA requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions, but if you refused to participate, you were not allowed to partake in the Medicare and Medicaid payment programs. Considering that these two programs typically constitute 40% of a hospital’s revenue stream, the Progressives had once again used the guise of “doing good” to grab more political and economic control over the lives of American citizens.
So what can one do facing this barrage of “progressive” ideas challenging entrepreneurs and wealth creators on a daily basis?
My personal opinion is just to bust your ass and get filthy rich. Make a boatload of money and do something positive with it. If you are smart enough to make it, you will be smart enough to know where to put it to work.
I don’t care what anyone says. Being rich is a good thing. The more money you make the more of a financial impact you can have.
So go out there and get obnoxiously rich.
In these times of “The Great Recession” we shouldn’t be trying to shift the benefits of wealth behind some curtain. We should rather be celebrating and encouraging people to make as much money as they can.
Your feedback is as always greatly appreciated.
Thanks much for your consideration.
|