The political class sings monotone, striking one note ad nauseam.
The song is “Money.”
One night an Amtrak train crashes, with fatalities; early the next morning a crowded chorus argues for amped-up spending on “infrastructure.”
Sen. Bill Nelson (D‑Fla.) pled to the MSNBC lens, “Is it going to take more of these crashes and deaths to wake up the members of Congress who keep wanting to slim down the budgets going into infrastructure?”
Of course, no dollar amount is high enough that, if thrown at the problem, could guarantee no future accidents. Politicians want to toss the maximum moola at it, nonetheless.
Meanwhile, Baltimore smolders — and not because the Orioles won a World Series, but rather at the hands of rioters using protests sparked by the death of a man in police custody as their cover. To many, the tragic events call not so much for justice in court, or enacting law enforcement reforms, but for more “investment” in “urban areas” to solve the persistent problem of urban poverty.
“There’s been no effort to reinvest and rebuild in these communities,” President Obama claims.
Isn’t Obama the country’s head honcho? Did he not make any effort?
That’s funny, because an analysis by the Free Beacon finds that the City of Baltimore raked in $1.8 billion from the 2009 stimulus bill alone.
Doesn’t that count?
“Today, government spends 16 times more … than it did when the War on Poverty started,” wrote Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield in their Heritage Foundation paper, The War on Poverty After 50 Years. “But as welfare spending soared, the decline in poverty came to a grinding halt.”
But why quibble about results?
Just send more money.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “That’s What They Want”
Money, especially fiat money, involuntarily expropriated and transferred, is clearly a temporary salve and not a permanent solution. Indeed, as have been demonstrated in what has become the War on the Impoverished, is commonly a palative preventing the cure.
What will government officials do when they have wiped out all the wealth of this country in ill-advised giveaways? Who will pay their bills?
Pat, you have hit upon the issue. When it is assumed the resources available are unlimited, as the government does with its borrowing, printing and taxing, there is no recognition that the economic system is the method of allocating scarce resources. Left to their own, the tyranny of the majority will and must self-destruct to totalitarianism. That occurs when the burden becomes too great and must be lightened and there is no ability to gain a majority to vote for the reduction of their individual perceived benefits.
The is the most frightening and likely result.
Weep not for yourself, but for your children and your children’s children.
It was a great and beautiful, if failing, experiment. We must do all in our power to reverse the course.
One might logically deduce that giving money to the government causes poverty.
Re Amtrak: Don’t text while running locomotives.