Peak Wealth?

Ronald Reagan (1986) said:

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:

If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
If it stops moving, subsidize it.

Click to expand...

mmerlinn said:

We passed the point of peak wealth in the U.S. long ago. ALL new wealth comes from the ground (oil, ore, food, etc) and we have long since quit generating new wealth. By destroying our cropland, capping our wells, shutting down our mines, etc we have been shooting ourselves in the feet for decades.

No one produces anything any more. All we do is keep shuffling what little wealth there is back and forth amongst us. And every shuffle sees the government take then waste a little more of it. Eventually, there is not enough wealth left at which time the money presses start running full speed to keep the illusion going that we still have wealth.

Guess where we are today in that timeline. Yup. The presses are running, proof positive that there is no significant wealth left.

The solution? Cut government by at least 90% where ONLY ESSENTIAL services are left. That would force millions and millions of government parasites, both public and private, to either start producing wealth again, or die. Harsh? Yes. Unfortunately, any other so-called solution in the long run is even more harsh.

We got along fine for hundreds of years without government welfare, government schools, government this, government that, and in the process became the richest nation in history where everyone, even the poorest American, was richer by far than even the rich of the rest of the world.

All government has done is to take it all away from us. And we have allowed it to happen.

Click to expand...

11C1P said:

It could get turned around though and it really wouldn't be that hard. We are drilling, BABY drilling up here, and they just started tapping into a similar formation in TX too and they aren't afraid to drill down there like they are in CA, AK, PA, NY, etc. If they just started cutting govt. by getting rid of the EPA or at least reigned it in a whole bunch, things in this country would take off like an Apollo rocket.

I've always liked that Reagan quote of the liberal philosophy but I thought it should be tweaked just a bit to be more accurate. "If something is just sitting there, tax it! If it starts moving tax it more! If it keeps moving, regulate it, and if it stops moving subsidize it, if it starts moving too fast penalize it!"

Click to expand...

Jay said:

yep, and then all of California can move into your neighborhood and mine, here in TX. How DO you have infinite growth in a finite world, anyway?

Click to expand...