Just as blind optimism blunts our awareness of risk, excessive pessimism blunts our awareness of opportunity.
Once an institution or bureaucracy is formed to combat a social problem then the actual solution becomes a threat to that institution. The employees and six figured directors will complete custom designed performance reviews that always show competence and accomplishment and the problem will be constantly redefined to never go away. There are just too many salaries and positions to protect.
I would add that of the 10 wealthiest members of Congress 7 of them are Democrats. We have nothing to fear from wealthy people. What we have to fear is powerful people and those who see wealth as a mere means to power. To those who seek to have all the benefits of wealth without the responsibility and accountability government and its sister institutions provides the perfect means to power. I have no problem with those who think they know better than I how to run my life; I do have a major problem with those who think they have the right and the authority to do so.
If redistribution of the wealth was a noble goal then we should sing the praises of Bernie Madoff. But as well deserved as his fall from grace was, none of us were any the better as a result.
Capitalism is not as much about the channeling of greed as it is about the competition of ideas. Government and bureaucracy thwart ideas. Capitalism works best when knowledge and power converge. Hundreds of financial regulatory agencies failed to avert the economic collapse of 2008 because they wielded power without knowledge.
We can agree that disability benefits and unemployment insurance are worthy benefits to cushion the volatility of a market economy that in the long run is necessary for the larger benefits of economic growth. But when these benefits are expanded too long and too far they also become a mask for transfer payments. It is hard to examine the numbers in the above article and not face the reality that these social safety nets have reached far beyond their purpose and ability. The combination of unemployment benefits, disability benefits, and a host of other welfare subsidies that reach far beyond their intent or funding has a higher moral cost of encouraging a dependent culture that will likely react violently when the gravy train grinds to a halt. Destroying an incentive to work will carry very long term costs.
Poverty persists because we pay people to be poor. This is both simple and profound. Once people get paid to not work the benefits they lose by working amounts to an enormous marginal tax rate. This is a far greater outrage than the measly few percentage tax points Congress and their media lapdogs have been choking on.
Poverty persists because we have created a poverty industry where six figure staffers increase their value by creating more dependents. Instead of correcting failures we create institutions to perpetuate them.
Poverty persists because we have created a behavior modification program where everyone is a victim and every benefit is deserved. Victim hood has replaced responsibility and ‘deserved’ has replaced ‘earned’.
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