Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and
Prosperity
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If Americans were honest with themselves they would
acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police
state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom
and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All
liberties in America today are under siege.
It didn’t happen overnight.It took many years of
neglect for our liberties to be given away so casually for a
promise of security from the politicians. The tragic part is that
the more security was promised — physical and economic — the less
liberty was protected.
With cradle-to-grave welfare protecting all citizens from
any mistakes and a perpetual global war on terrorism, which a
majority of Americans were convinced was absolutely necessary for
our survival, our security and prosperity has been
sacrificed.
It was all based on lies and ignorance.Many came
to believe that their best interests were served by giving up a
little freedom now and then to gain a better life.
The trap was set. At the beginning of a cycle that
systematically undermines liberty with delusions of easy
prosperity, the change may actually seem to be beneficial to a
few.But to me that’s like excusing embezzlement as a road
to leisure and wealth — eventually payment and punishment always
come due. One cannot escape the fact that a society’s wealth cannot
be sustained or increased without work and productive effort. Yes,
some criminal elements can benefit for a while, but reality always
sets in.
Reality is now setting in for America and for that matter
for most of the world.The piper will get his due even if
“the children” have to suffer. The deception of promising “success”
has lasted for quite a while. It was accomplished by
ever-increasing taxes, deficits, borrowing, and printing press
money. In the meantime the policing powers of the federal
government were systematically and significantly expanded. No one
cared much, as there seemed to be enough “gravy” for the rich, the
poor, the politicians, and the bureaucrats.
Warfare/Welfare State Requires Police Control
As the size of government grew and cracks in the system became
readily apparent, a federal police force was needed to regulate our
lives and the economy, as well as to protect us from ourselves and
make sure the redistribution of a shrinking economic pie was “fair”
to all. Central economic planning requires an economic police force
to monitor every transaction of all Americans. Special interests
were quick to get governments to regulate everything we put in our
bodies: food, medications, and even politically correct ideas. IRS
employees soon needed to carry guns to maximize revenue
collections.
The global commitment to perpetual war, though present for
decades, exploded in size and scope after 9/11. If there weren’t
enough economic reasons to monitor everything we did, fanatics used
the excuse of national security to condition the American people to
accept total surveillance of all by the NSA, the TSA, FISA courts,
the CIA, and the FBI. The people even became sympathetic to our
government’s policy of torture.
To keep the people obedient to statism that originated at the
federal level of government, control of education was required. It
is now recognized that central control of education has actually
ruined education, while costs have skyrocketed. National control of
medical care has brought a similar result. This has meant more
money for bureaucrats, as well as drug, insurance, and health
management companies, and less money for medical care. Constantly
more police are required to run our lives at greater costs while
providing less benefit. “Nationalizing” both medical care and
education has provided a great incentive to increase the policing
powers of the federal government.
The predictable poverty that results from such a
terrible system is now upon us and is a strong motivation for the
militarization of local police as part of the expansion of the
national police state. Temporary and perceived benefits of
government overreach and expanded policing powers end up becoming
the real problem. By the time it is understood that these
“benefits” are artificial, government power and special interests
have gained control of a system designed to serve them and not the
people the programs were purported to help. The victims are left
hanging and taught that too much freedom is the source of the
problem, prompting even more support for the policing power of the
state.
Today the failure of central economic planning and of the US as
world policeman is everywhere to be found. This is especially
noticeable in the police war on the lawbreakers — real and unreal —
in America. The failures of social and economic policy of the past
50 years have led to a mounting friction between the local police
and the rights of the people. Local police have been militarized
and have become an integral part of the national police state. A
police culture that accepts the principle of initiating unjustified
violence against citizens has become a serious problem.
The news is constant. If it’s not Ferguson, it’s New York City.
If not New York City, it’s Chicago or Detroit or Cleveland. And I
believe the violence in our cities is only in its early stages. We
had a taste of the conflict in the 1960s, but the fundamental
values of equal justice and economic opportunity have receded
further from reality. Failing to understand why the past 50 years
of government expansion to eradicate poverty has only worsened the
conditions of our cities will guarantee that the violent conflicts
we see erupting today will only get worse.
Fight for Equal Protection Distorted by 'War on
Poverty'
Fifty years ago, as a result of Martin Luther King Jr.’s
leadership in a plea for equal justice, LBJ declared war on
poverty. Poverty was seen at that time as the major contributing
factor in the plight of those living in the inner city. King’s
dream was to make sure all people will be judged by the “content of
their character” and not by “the color of their skin.” Good advice,
but it was never followed. Residual racism remains, but the excuse
for every shortcoming in the failed cities is said to be due to the
color of one’s skin.
The very expensive war on poverty has after 50 years only made
matters worse, compounding the problems of poverty and inflation
while hurting most of the people the “war” was supposed to help.
Currently our government spends over $1 trillion per year on
anti-poverty programs. Over the past 50 years, over $16 trillion
was spent, i.e., wasted. And yet poverty and dire economic
conditions remain the major factor in the violence that persists,
which incites or gives the police the excuse to overreact to
maintain order. The plans and expectations for the war on poverty
must have been seriously flawed.
Although the degree of poverty is different for the various
races in the United States, all categories — Asian, white,
Hispanic, and black — have had a steady increase in real median
income from 1964 until the year 2000, when the first of many
bubbles started bursting. In all four race categories incomes are
lower since then. With the economy moving into the next stage of
liquidation of bad investment and debt, we should expect this trend
to continue. Economic setbacks and a decrease in real income are
not limited to blacks in the inner city. The setback for the young
has been dramatically worse than for the older generations,
aggravating the problem of violent crime in our cities.
The “progress” of the early years of the war on poverty is
understandable because the payment that always must be paid was
delayed. The deficits and the borrowing and printing of money were
unsustainable. It should not be difficult to understand that the
welfare benefits, the bloated government, the excessive salaries,
and the promised pensions for thousands of nonproductive
bureaucrats in Detroit would lead to bankruptcy. The benefits had
to be reduced. If policies don’t change and the politicians
continue to be elected by wild promises, the disaster will
continue. How can the provocateurs blame racism for the plight of
the middle class in Detroit?
We must get people to reject flawed economic policy if we want a
real war on poverty. LBJ’s war on poverty was no more successful
than his Vietnam War — or any war since, for that matter. A
national government that can print money as needed to finance
extraordinary extravagance can function longer than a city, state,
or private entity, but it too must eventually “file for bankruptcy”
albeit in a different fashion. As we are now seeing, the bankruptcy
of a nation also involves poverty for many. This situation will
continue to worsen. Since poverty is a major contributing factor to
the violence of excessive police militarization, some fundamentals
must be understood. The economic theories of Paul Samuelson, Paul
Krugman, John Maynard Keynes, and all those who claim to know how
to “regulate” the economy to benefit the poor, must be challenged
and abandoned.
So far reality has not yet set in. The poor grow in numbers as
the middle class shrinks and the privileged class that benefits
from government spending and government control of the monetary
system thrives. The political demagogues and the authoritarians
feed the flames of resentment that develop between the rich and the
poor as class warfare and racial strife take over. They care little
and understand less what liberty is all about — the more chaos
there is, the more laws they seek to pass.
The Victimized Inner Cities
This social disruption has motivated the enthusiastic growth and
militarization of our local police departments. The law and order
crowd thrives on excessive laws and regulations that no US citizen
can escape. The out-of-control war on drugs is the worst part, and
it generates the greatest danger in poverty-ridden areas via
out-of-control police. It is estimated that these conditions have
generated up to 80,000 SWAT raids per year in the United States.
Most are in poor neighborhoods and involve black homes and
businesses being hit disproportionately. This involves a high
percentage of no-knock attacks. As can be expected many totally
innocent people are killed in the process. Property damage is
routine and compensation is rare. The routine use of civil
forfeiture of property has become an abomination, totally out of
control, which significantly contributes to the chaos. It should
not be a surprise to see resentment building up against the police
under these conditions. The violent reaction against local
merchants in retaliation for police actions further aggravates the
situation —hardly a recipe for a safe neighborhood.
Though poverty and excessive laws associated with the war on
drugs are significant factors in the conflicts that are routine in
the inner-city, the overreaction by both sides continues to make
the situation much worse. As a result, policing in general is out
of control, and anything suggesting racial confrontation leads to
rioting, looting, and property destruction. Civil liberties are
ignored by the police, and the private property of innocent
bystanders is disregarded by those resenting police violence. When
police overreact and unfairly enforce the law, it elicits a violent
reaction from those on the receiving end. This only escalates the
problem. It’s an invitation for outside provocateurs to rush in and
aggravate the racial tensions — all the while never trying to
understand the real reasons behind police militarization and the
cause of poverty.
The military-industrial complex now systematically lobbies to
provide to local police departments the newest and most
sophisticated weaponry — just as they sell weapons to the United
States government to fight undeclared wars overseas. Drug laws are
pushed by many corporate interests as well. Pharmaceutical
companies, alcohol companies, and private prison systems all
support of the insane war on drugs. The victims are the poor who
suffer with a messed up economy and have no easy access to jobs. A
natural temptation is to become a drug dealer. Violent activities
arising from the drug war making drug transactions a criminal
undertaking create demand in communities for strict law
enforcement.
Why do the race baiters have so much success in making this type
of conflict a racial problem alone? Unfortunately many of them make
a living off stirring up trouble. If the situation were understood
in terms of police brutality and poverty, the evening news would be
dramatically different. Turning it into strictly a racial conflict
narrows the discussion, and the idea of responsibility for one’s
action no longer needs to be discussed.
The race factor seems to stir up the emotions. Mob-like
responses can be achieved, which further inflames the situation.
Out of control police and an entire segment of our population
taught that responsibility for one’s actions is a negative are a
volatile mix.
Justice under the law requires that people cannot be punished or
rewarded because of the color of their skin, but unfortunately
King’s claim that only a person’s character counts is
forgotten.
The entitlement mentality is a source of much anger and
misunderstanding. It leads people who see themselves as victims to
one conclusion: they are entitled to be taken care of. They believe
that more government transfer payments are the solution. They claim
that they deserve to be taken care of and that, if they are not,
there’s trouble to be had — which only opens the door to more
police overreactions.
There is agreement with my contention that poverty is a big
problem and the source of much trouble. Therefore, it is said,
someone must take care of it. If one trillion dollars per year
doesn’t do the job, then make it $2 trillion. If the war on
poverty’s $16 trillion hasn’t worked, make it $32 trillion. This
sentiment reflects the entitlement mentality that has taught many
that some people have a “right” to government handouts and that the
rich must pay. This is an idea that is deeply flawed, and it stirs
up class warfare on top of racial animosities and police
brutality.
The blanket demand that all wealthy individuals owe support to
the poor through government welfare programs is not an example of
equal justice under the law. It is an example of egalitarianism
gone awry. Welfare, which is the use of force to transfer wealth
from one group to another, is based on a moral principle of
equality that in fact is not moral and does not work. The wealthy
special interests, such as banks, the military-industrial complex,
the medical industry, the drug industry, and many other
corporatists, quickly gain control of the system. Crumbs may be
thrown to the poor, but the principle of wealth transfer is
hijacked and used for corporate and foreign welfare instead of
wealth transfers to the poor.
Many people do indeed gain wealth unfairly with today’s system,
which adds to the envy shared by many and especially the poor. But
this is a problem that is not solved by indiscriminately placing
blame on successful businesses. The result would be the country and
the whole world becoming poorer while resentment rises. Honest
profits of successful entrepreneurs are quite different than
profits of the corporate elite who gain control of the government
and, as a consequence, accumulate obscene wealth by “robbing” the
middle class. To blame and destroy those who make an honest living
by satisfying consumers without the use of special benefits from
the government is destructive to liberty and wealth.
Reforms that are driven by envy of successful people making an
honest living will not address the problem of poverty. Poverty is
actually made worse by an aggressive sense of victimization.
Many factors are involved in the crisis of our cities, including
the following:
Police brutality, militarization
of the police, excessive laws, courts and law enforcement efforts
ignoring the principles of equal justice,
Racism that exists to some degree
on both sides of the conflict,
Rampant crime reflecting
structural poverty,
Absence of an understanding of the
difference between earned and stolen wealth,
Race baiting,
The entitlement mentality,
self-reliance not being a goal for many, and the breakdown of the
family unit,
The war on drugs, and
The lack of economic understanding
regarding the Federal Reserve, taxes, welfare, economic
consequences of constant war, deficits, and excessive government
spending.
True satisfaction comes from productive effort and self-reliance
and not from a government transferring wealth in an effort to bring
about an egalitarian society. The absence of an understanding of
the nonaggression principle makes it difficult for positive reforms
to develop. Unfortunately hypocrisy has come to equal “common
sense.” Placing confidence in people who thrive on wielding
government power and who spend a lifetime using it to benefit
special interests is not a wise policy.
The people have too little confidence that most problems can be
solved in a voluntary manner in a society that cherishes civil
liberties. There’s never an admission that government
problem-solving doesn’t work. Government-created problems are a
road to poverty and resentment. Too many people believe that “free
stuff” from the government can solve our problems. They mistakenly
believe that deficits don’t matter and that wealth can come from a
printing press.
The recent high profile episodes of racial conflict involving
police killings and the violence in some neighborhoods have been a
fertile environment for the demagogues and those who thrive on
racial conflict.
Some have suggested that sensitivity training for all police
personnel should be required, to teach proper ways to deal with the
public. Though there’s a lot of extenuating circumstances that
provoke overreaction by the police, I’m not optimistic that the
problem will be helped much by sensitivity training. Retraining the
police won’t touch the complex problems that pit the police against
the victims of complex social conditions generated by hate,
violence and bad economic policies. The high profile episodes of
police violence and overreaction are a consequence of conditions
that in many ways were generated by government policy.
If social engineering intended to produce economic equality
fails, more of the same cannot possibly be the solution. Seeking
and promoting equal justice has nothing to do with welfare
redistribution. On the contrary: equal justice requires the end of
welfare redistribution. Redistribution is a process that is always
destined to help a small minority, whether in an economy like ours
that endorses central economic planning or in one run by radical
fascists or communists. While advocates claim that it’s the duty of
government to pursue economic equality, all efforts fail to achieve
that goal, while gutting the principle of equal justice.
The Rich Are Getting Richer, But Why?
Under an authoritarian regime, those in power take care of
themselves. This always leads to poverty and discrepancy in wealth
distribution. Eventually the social strife that is predictable
leads to an overthrow of the government. The Soviet communist
leaders never suffered from want, but even they were routed when
the people in the Soviet system decided that they had had
enough.
We must realize that we are not exempt from a breakdown of our
system. The strife that we are witnessing is a reflection of a
growing number of people who are recognizing the discrepancy
between rich and poor, the weak and the powerful, Wall Street and
Main Street. The courts are obviously failing at meting out justice
fairly and impartially. Money and race have a lot to do with how
arrests, convictions, and incarcerations are carried out. That
provides motivation for some people to become angry and violently
strike out against anyone who appears to have more than they
do.
While the courts fail to follow the rules of equal justice,
those who react violently believe that attacking almost anyone is
justifiable in seeking what they claim is justice. Talk of the 99
percent and one percent is not just sloganeering. It reveals a
problem generated by government and a situation in which some
people believe that they have a “right” to be taken care of rather
than just a right to live in a free and just society where all
persons are treated equally under the law.
Indeed the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. The
extreme current inequality is not a consequence of free markets and
true liberty. Rather it results from the welfare state that, as
always, morphs into a system that provides excesses for the
powerful few. Better management of the welfare system does not
help. That only changes the types of authoritarians in charge. Both
political parties are financed by Wall Street, the big banks, and
the military-industrial complex. Getting rich by being part of the
government class is the problem. Wealth achieved by hard work is
quite a bit different. Opening the door to this opportunity is
achievable by following the principle of life, liberty, and
property.
The economic interventionist system under which we live today
rewards those who benefit from government economic planning by the
Federal Reserve, access to government contracts, and targeted
special regulations to help one group over the other. The insiders
benefit during the bubble phase of the business cycle and are the
first ones in line for the bailouts. The poor, for whom welfare is
supposedly designed to help and for whom the politicians justify
the spending, end up with the crumbs while the Wall Street/banking
elites thrive in good times and bad. There are two problems. First
is conceding the principle that government has the moral authority
to redistribute wealth. Second is believing the redistribution will
be managed wisely and without corruption.
All government management ends up being unwise, corrupt, and
wasteful. The money interests inevitably prevail. Belief that
“good” bureaucrats and politicians can be found to manage the
economy and achieve equity in distribution is a dream that always
ends up a nightmare. To make even a modest attempt at this goal
requires government to use aggression against one group for the
benefit of another. This authority must be denied to government. We
must limit the government’s role to protecting equal justice in
defense of life, liberty, and property.
Currently the political system in America and in most of the
rest of the world is not motivated to seek this limited goal for
government. Thus the move toward unfair concentration of wealth in
the few and a dramatic increase in the number of people living in
poverty as the middle class shrinks. Since there is little
understanding of the economic system that is a major contributing
factor to the economic problems, it can be expected to exacerbate
social and class conflict. The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson
plus many similar incidents are signs of a serious economic and
political crisis that is not limited to police brutality and
runaway violence.
Police brutality and militarization may well induce a violent
event far beyond what we have seen in Ferguson. It also can serve
as an excuse. But it is not the root cause of turmoil. The real
cause is poverty, the entitlement mentality, and the breakdown of
the rule of law. Moral decay and the national police state are the
real culprits.
More police with improved training will not do much to deal with
this growing conflict. Bowing to entitlement demands from the
“victims” will not be helpful in a bankrupt system. We have too
many police, too many laws, and too much exemption of government
officials from the crimes they commit. Both adding police and
increasing entitlements involve expanding the role of government in
an effort to solve problems that too much government has already
caused. Government can only be expanded by diminishing the people’s
liberty. This problem can only be ended by maximizing liberty and
getting people to realize that self-reliance, hard work, and the
absence of coercive force by individuals and government is the only
way to reverse the downward trend from which we are suffering.
The battle will no longer be to get the government to pick sides
in a conflict between rich and poor, black and white, young and
old, or the lawless police versus the lawless demands of
entitlement recipients demanding their “fair share.” There has to
be an understanding that productive effort and self-reliance on the
part of everyone is required for a free society to thrive.
Our Liberties Under Attack
The economic and moral decay of American society is reflected in
the loss of liberties. This problem affects all Americans and not
just the poor in the inner city. Gradual erosion of personal and
economic liberty has proceeded for a century. The loss of our
liberty has sharply accelerated since the 9/11 attacks. We have
done to ourselves what no foreign enemy could have possibly
accomplished.
Government surveillance provides the state with information that
enables it to know our every move. The protection of the Fourth
Amendment is gone. Many Americans are comfortable with the
sacrifice of liberty for safety and accept the notion that
government’s key responsibility is to keep us safe. It’s a nice
dream but the truth is it can’t do it. One thing for sure: if it
tries, it will do so at the expense of liberty.
Welfare, for the rich or poor, cannot exist without the
sacrifice of the principal of property ownership. Though it always
starts small and justified for the “needy,” the principle of wealth
transfer incentivizes the special interests and the rich to obtain
benefit at the expense of the poor. This occurs in all societies
and inevitably grows to a point where the production of wealth is
diminished and the system collapses. This is what we are witnessing
today.
The growth of the state necessitates government surveillance of
all our financial transactions to enhance the collection of tax
revenues. Because there is never enough money for the “do-gooders,”
the tactics of the tax collectors have become more vicious.
Violation of our liberties is excused by the majority in order to
ensure that all people “pay their fair share.” When conditions
deteriorate, capital controls are imposed to prevent moving assets
out of the country. Our monstrous tax code reflects the
hundred-years development of our income tax system and is one of
the greatest invitations for our “caring” government to pursue the
impossible goal of the fair distribution of all wealth.
The vicious drug war, which dates from the early 1970s, provides
another excuse for knowing everything about everybody at all times.
Its selling point is to keep people safe from themselves. Pursuing
this principle guarantees that liberty will be decimated in the
process. It invites the government’s interference in our spiritual
and intellectual well-being. What one reads and believes becomes of
interest to the manipulators who want to care for us for our own
good. And they never rest from seeking this goal.
This concession to the state invites controls on everything we
put into our bodies: what we eat, drink, or inhale. It takes a lot
of bureaucrats, politicians, and money to manage the process. The
people, we have been told, are “too stupid” to make their own
decisions about their own lives. We are to believe that politicians
who invite themselves to rule over us are all-wise and that we
should be thankful to sacrifice our liberty for this “service.”
Authoritarians actually believe that we should be grateful to them
for all the good things that they do for us. We must remember that
if the people don’t rebel against a police state it only grows in
size and becomes more ruthless.
In addition to all these trends — which includes the federal
government monopolizing and administering medical care and
education — government surveillance becomes the darling of the
gurus who love the technology that allows the government to know
our every move, every day, without limits.
With the disaster of 9/11, an existing acceptance of government
monitoring, along with technological advances, helped allow a new
age to be ushered in that makes the horrors of George Orwell’s 1984
look less threatening by comparison.
The Federal Government’s War on Us
Tolerance is a favorable trait when it means acting without
aggression toward others, but tolerance of the monster that has
evolved in our government is not good. Instead of adding more
government agencies to spy on the American people, we should be
talking about eliminating the ones we have, at a cost the American
taxpayers of over $80 billion per year.
We have lived with the global war on terrorism for over 13 years
now, and the threat of terrorist attacks against Americans and
American allies is worse than ever. Though a global threat exists,
the greatest dangers for American citizens here at home have been
caused by our own government. Our government’s attacks on our
liberties have been overwhelming and worse than anything any
foreign power has ever done.
It’s the federal government that leads the charge in all our
domestic wars, which, in addition to the global war on terrorism,
include the war on drugs, taxpayers, and poverty, all of which
contribute to the constant war on our privacy. Today every American
is a suspect. Our president has established a policy that an
American citizen can be assassinated without even being charged
with a crime. The national police are made up of over 100,000
bureaucrats and police officials who carry guns to enforce federal
law on the American citizens. The Founders and our Constitution
intended that policing powers would be the responsibility of the
individual states. That was forgotten a long time ago.
Not only do employees of agencies like the CIA, FBI, and BATF
carry guns, employees of OSHA, EPA, Fish and Wildlife, and many
other agencies enforcing regulations do so as well. The notion of
total homeland security being provided by a heavily armed
Department of Homeland Security was foreign to America up until
just recently. Today, whether it’s riots in our cities or chaos
after a national disaster like a hurricane, the Feds are there
taking charge over all local officials and property owners, . It
shouldn’t surprise us that our local police departments have become
an arm of a runaway federal police mentality that mimics an
army.
The Founders did not even want a standing army. They wanted only
a militia. Today we endure, at the expense of our liberties, a
national police force armed like an invading military force. We are
destined to see a continued escalation of violence in our cities as
the internal conflicts grow. Instead of the police quelling the
violence, they unfortunately have become part of it.
It’s evident we have a national police force harassing the
people and failing to protect liberty and property. It fails to
quell riots while. Too often it incites them. We are also stuck
with a huge “standing” army, marching around the world and engaged
to some degree in over 150 countries, “making the world safe for
democracy” and serving as a private police force for American
corporations overseas.
The US Empire: Who Does it Serve?
When Obama announced a shift in geopolitical interest to the Far
East —– to keep an eye on China —– one TV anchor pointed out that
the move seems quite logical since we have a lot of “business
interests” in the region. It is, in fact, far from logical if one
looks at the tragic mess US government interventionism has caused
in the Middle East and the conflict the US government is stirring
up with Russia over Ukraine.
Old-fashioned colonialism was deemed necessary by various
European powers to secure natural resources along with control over
sea lanes and markets for selling manufactured goods.
European-style colonialism — supporting a mercantilistic economy —
came to be seen as politically unrealistic and unnecessary. When
free-trade principles were utilized, colonialism did not die; it
only changed form. Mercantilism in various forms and degrees drove
trade policies of nations with strong economies and militaries.
Though the United States is the world’s military powerhouse,
controls the oceans and airspace, and has a presence in the four
corners of the earth, few people refer to America as a colonial
power. But in many ways it is, which has prompted our interests in
oil and mineral rich countries. We are frequently involved in
choosing the “elected” leaders, as well as hand-picking dictators,
in many countries as well. This is not exactly what the Founders
had advised.
International militarization of our policies is just as
dangerous to our liberties and economy as is the domestic policy
that drives our authoritarian governments to regulate our every
move. We are now subject to an out-of-control domestic police force
while the US military maintains our Empire overseas.
The “one percenters,” generally speaking, are internationalists
who are not champions of individual liberty and free trade. They
are supporters of managed trade and international institutions like
the WTO where the interests of the one percent can influence the
rulings that frequently have little to do with advancing advertised
goals of low tariffs and free trade.
The international monetary system is a powerful tool for the
select few. Easy credit, government guarantees, and generous
contracts are a great benefit to those in charge. Non-compliant
nations, or any country that is deemed unfriendly, can be punished
with severe sanctions without moral or economic justification. US
corporations benefit from our military presence worldwide. The
military-industrial complex profits not only by selling weapons to
the US government, but also by being the world’s chief arms
provider.
It is a fact that many weapons we send into areas such as Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Syria frequently end up in the hands of our
enemies. ISIS obtaining US weapons led to the US military then
taking action to destroy the weapons. The military-industrial
complex is immediately available to replace the weapons while
earning generous profits. This is great if you happen to be an
insider manufacturing or selling these weapons. It is quite a
lucrative business, all at the expense of the American
taxpayer.
The United States military presence around the world provides a
“private” police force to protect US and other international
companies against any local resistance or leaders that turn
unfriendly. Our military presence overseas has nothing to do with
protecting our freedoms and defending our Constitution. Those are
lies and are used for the purpose of gaining the support of the
American people for wars that should never have been fought. After
long periods of tragic losses and expense, the American people
generally wake up and realize what has happened. But what we need
to do is wake the American people up earlier and get them to
realize that the resistance has to be heard from the people when
the government is
preparingfor war, not after the war has begun or even
ended.
Military personnel are idolized, and, if any one raises a
question on whether or not all soldiers are universally “heroes,”
that person is accused of being unpatriotic, un-American, and
unsupportive of the troops. In fact, the real heroes are the ones
who expose the truth and refuse to fight foreign wars for the
international corporations. Disengaging our troops from around the
world and refusing to defend American neocolonialism is pursuing a
course compatible with the qualities that Americans claim to stand
for.
Liberty at home is never enhanced by war abroad. Preemptive wars
are especially antagonistic to the goals of peace, commerce, and
honest friendship. War “is the health of the state,” it has been
said, and the state is the enemy of liberty. Wars overseas justify
the wars at home against the American people. It is expected that
liberties will be sacrificed when a country is at war. Pro-war
neoconservatives are blatantly honest by arguing that for freedom
to exist the sacrifice of liberty is required. This admission is
truly discouraging. It hardly makes sense that voluntarily
sacrificing liberty is worthwhile, if the goal is to preserve
liberty. Time is short to reverse this trend.
Not only are our policies destructive to liberty, the economic
costs are prohibitive. So far the bills have not been paid, but
they are rapidly coming due. Both the deeply flawed policy of
military interventionism abroad and the failed errors of central
economic planning at home are now threatening our liberties and our
general welfare. The recent breakout of violence in our cities
between police on one side and people who have been thrust into the
stagnation of poverty as a consequence of bad government social and
economic policy on the other side should not be a mystery if one
could see the forest for the trees. Economic problems are
“blowback” and unintended consequences of well-meaning welfare
programs that have been usurped by the powerful special interests
demanding benefits off the top.
Yes, it’s tempting to believe the falsehoods of economists who
claim that transferring wealth for fairness sake is beneficial, but
history shows that it never works. The same humanitarians argue
that all spending is crucial and beneficial, deficits don’t matter,
borrowing is good, and taxing is the equalizer. If government still
comes up short they say just turn on the printing presses. That is
the philosophy we have been living with for 85 years, and the
evidence is now in. It is clear to most Americans that these
policies have not worked. Yet they are not ready to concede that it
is less government and more freedom that is the solution.
The obsession with continuing all the same policies has
increased our poverty, increased violence between the classes, and
lowered the standard of living for all except the elite one
percent. And worst of all, the sacrifice of liberty was for naught.
Losing both liberty and the right to truly own property undermines
the ability to create wealth. When this process gets out-of-control
the economy goes into a death spiral, in the beginning of which we
currently find ourselves. Without a correction to the basic
understanding of the proper role of government, the downward spiral
will continue.
Blowback All Around: We Are Less Safe
Economic blowback and unintended consequences is one thing, but
blowback from our needless and aggressive policies around the world
is another, and every bit as dangerous. As we find ourselves
increasingly engaged economically and militarily around the world,
we can expect many more attacks on American interests. With so many
military personnel abroad, they will be the easiest targets to be
hit. But attacks similar in nature to the 9/11 attacks will remain
a threat to our homeland. We will not be attacked because we are
free and rich. The attacks will come from angry people who have had
friends and relatives killed by America’s careless and often
vicious use of our military force in their countries.
It is not that difficult to feel resentment against a country
that comes thousands of miles from home and bombs, invades, and
punishes with sanctions, other countries that have never initiated
force against it. As long as our foreign policy remains the same we
can expect serious blowback attacks — and for them to increase in
number as our prowess is diminished. Economic factors will
determine this, and the loss of dollar hegemony will aggravate the
situation.
The US government’s foolishness in foreign affairs has plagued
us for 100 years. The escalation of our presence around the world
since 9/11 continues. It is a policy “bubble” of gigantic
proportions. This “bubble” of intervention is about to burst. Any
serious look at our last 13 years of intervention around the world
should convince all skeptics of how foolish, dangerous, and
expensive it has been. The US operates with an attitude that it has
the power and therefore the responsibility to be involved in
deciding almost every foreign leader, whether elected or appointed
as a dictator.
We have been engaged in picking and financing political factions
in revolts in countries including Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, Ukraine, Somalia, Nigeria, the
Philippines, Liberia, Georgia, Haiti, and Lebanon.
These involvements impose a huge tax and inflation burden on the
American people. Trillions of dollars have been spent, and the debt
continues to mount. The abject failure of our efforts in Iraq and
Afghanistan elicits a loud call from the neoconservatives for more
money, troops, weapons, and bombs, with zero hope of a successful
mission. ISIS, now considered our greatest threat, is not even a
country, but our occupation and destruction in the region motivates
even a ragtag bunch to expel foreign forces from their homeland.
ISIS has rallied enormous support and resources to undermine our
allies in the region. That assessment is difficult, of course,
since it’s hard for anyone to identify exactly who our allies are
and distinguish them from our avowed enemies.
US foreign policy has helped create the disastrous situation in
Syria. We declared that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad had to go. We
supported rebel factions. We armed them. They turned on us and used
their American weapons against us with an amazing resistance headed
by the ruthless ISIS, an outgrowth of al-Qaeda. It’s quite an irony
that ISIS is well entrenched in northern Iraq, since before we
decided to invade Iraq and kill Saddam Hussein no al-Qaeda were
present in Iraq. Now the neocons are getting their way and American
forces are returning with reinforcements and weapons to save
Baghdad from the jihadists.
No one can make this stuff up. It’s too bizarre for fiction.
Unfortunately, with the help of the media and our government, the
American people have remained oblivious to the stupidity of our
policies of the past 13 years. A day will come though when the full
cost of this policy is dumped on the American people. Then they
will get the message. Then it will be too late to gracefully exit
and restore sanity without cataclysmic changes being forced on us.
The major challenge will be the survival of our liberties.
What to expect in 2015?
Foreign Affairs
More American troops will be sent overseas to places like Iraq,
Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine. There will be no military
victories to brag about. More American military personnel will be
killed in 2015 than in 2014. Military contractors will be used in
growing numbers and their casualties will not be counted as
military casualties.
The Ukraine civil war will not end, and the United States will
be further bogged down in this conflict. Relations with Russia will
continue to deteriorate. The neocons in Congress will gain even
more influence over our foreign policy. Punishing sanctions will
continue to be made more severe and push Russia further into
China’s sphere of influence. Gold will gain credibility as we
isolate the Russians from the financial markets.
Sanctions on Russia will alienate Europe against the United
States. The British oil industry will suffer from the “conspiracy”
of the US and Saudi Arabia to drive oil prices down to punish
Russia.
The military-industrial complex will continue to thrive and make
even more money with the greater influence of the neocons in the
new Congress. Supplemental budgets for the military should be
expected, along with covert assistance and additional foreign aid
to finance the management of our Empire.
Our enemies’ strength will grow and prompt even more abuse of
American citizens’ privacy and free expression. We should not be
surprised if there is a reigniting of the conflict in the Balkans.
The first of the color revolutions in 2000 in Serbia can hardly be
claimed a permanent victory. Generally, bombs from outsiders don’t
solve internal problems. Those problems must eventually be solved
from within a country rather than from outside interference.
The US and NATO announced that the 13 year war in Afghanistan
has ended. There has been neither the pretense of "Mission
Accomplished" nor an admission of outright failure, along with an
exodus. In reality the war has not ended and instead will continue
for a long time. No victory for US policy is possible. The conflict
will actually spread and increase in intensity since our goals are
undefinable and therefore the war is un-winnable.
Sanity will not return to US leaders until our financial system
collapses — an event for which they are feverishly working
Domestic issues
An honest assessment of the economy will not reveal any
significant improvement in 2015. Inflation will continue to plague
us, possibly even with the government-rigged CPI figures showing an
increase. But the true inflation of the Fed’s credit creation, as
well as the subsequent mal- investment and the various bubbles
bursting will accelerate. Debt in all categories will continue to
increase at unsustainable rates. The Fed will not permit interest
rates to rise — at least on purpose. Eventually the market will
demand that rates do rise, however.
Tax revenues will continue to rise, aiding the policy of the
government spending the people’s money rather than those who earned
it. Regulations, even with (or maybe especially with) a Republican
Congress will continue to increase and make the Federal Register
more incomprehensible. Friction between the middle class and the
one percent, many of whom are living off government privileges,
will escalate further and be reflected in confrontations especially
in the large cities. Financial currency controls will continue to
expand especially with cross-border transactions.
Blowback and unintended consequences from our sanctions and
foreign policy in general will continue to threaten our domestic
security and our economy, as well as our liberties.
Relations with Cuba will be improved with the president’s effort
to resume diplomatic relations, but the radicals and isolationists
who oppose free trade will place roadblocks in the way and slow the
process.
A major geopolitical or economic event, greater than the crisis
of 2008, is fast approaching. The precipitating event will be a
surprise to the majority of politicians and economists. There are
many “next shoe to drop” possibilities, and one could happen any
time or any place.
Wall Street will be protected, and the trillions of dollars of
big banks derivatives will be absorbed by the Fed, the FDIC, and
ultimately by the American taxpayers in the next financial crisis.
There’s no doubt the poor will get poorer and the rich richer until
the spirit of revolution in the people calls a halt to the
systematic destruction of freedom in America.
Conclusion: Toward a Peaceful Revolution
Authoritarianism has overtaken our economic system as the
welfare mentality takes over at every level of government. Once the
initiation of force by government is accepted by the people, even
minimally, it escalates and involves every aspect of society. The
only question that remains is just who gets to wield the power to
distribute the largess to their friends and chosen beneficiaries.
It’s a recipe for steady growth of the government at the expense of
liberties, even if official documents and laws written to limit
government power are in place. Planting even small seeds of
monopoly power in the hands of a few people in government, whether
democratically elected or not, will always metastasize like a
cancer. This was Jefferson’s concern when he advised that “[t]he
tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time.” He believed
the people must warn the rulers that taking up arms against the
government is legitimate if the government fails to protect the
people’s liberty.
This should be a consideration. But if the spirit of liberty is
not alive and well in the hearts and minds of the people, violence
alone against the government will not be a solution. History has
shown that, more often than not, people who rebel against abusive
governments, whether run by kings or modern day dictators, do not
gain much — overthrowing one dictator and replacing him with
another just as bad.
A clear understanding of the nature and source of liberty is
required for revolutions to be beneficial. Restraining the few who
thrive on the use of force to rule over us is the challenge.
Fortunately they are outnumbered by those who would choose liberty
yet lack the will to challenge the humanitarian monsters who gain
support from naive and apathetic citizens. All positive revolutions
must be philosophic in nature to make a difference. Violence alone
achieves nothing.
Before we can actually restore our liberties, we most likely
will have to become a lot less free and much poorer. This is sad
since correct and workable answers are available to us if only the
people understood them and demanded liberty and honesty, rather
than being dependent on excessive government power and believing
the false promises of politicians.
Even with the problems we face today and the bleak outlook for
the coming year there’s much to encourage us. During this next year
there will be the continuation of many more people recognizing the
failure of government to create peace and prosperity. More
widespread understanding of this truth is required in order to
bring about a successful revolution.
The freedom movement, especially with many young people
involved, will grow in numbers and influence.
Current monetary policy and the Federal Reserve will continue to
lose credibility, especially with the next bailout. Although “too
big to fail” will stay in place, it will further alienate Main
Street America causing it to rebel against the system.
The real problem of course is that too many “stupid people”
are IN our government and have high visibility on the major TV
networks.There will be plenty of people, not officially
associated with government, who will rebel against various
governments around the world. The sentiments supporting secession,
jury nullification, nullification of federal laws by state
legislatures, and a drive for more independence from larger
governments will continue.
We should not be discouraged. Enlightenment is not nearly as
difficult to achieve as it was before the breakthrough with
Internet communications occurred.
Besides we must remember that “an idea whose
time has come” cannot be stopped by armies, demagogues,
politicians, or even Fox News or MSNBC. The time has come for the
ideas of liberty to prevail. I smell progress. Let’s make 2015 a
fun year for LIBERTY.
