57 Comments

Nice essay Geary. For once I find myself to your right tho.

> But what is more interesting is not how much is taxed, but rather how is it spent?

Yes. I don't ask how big the government is, I ask how well it spends my money. Mind, the default position should be small government.

> China taxed around 24% of all wealth generated, compared to roughly 40% in America

But if one looks to China for an example, one should not pick and choose -- the commies also exercise absolute state power anywhere and everywhere and they practice central planning reaching out for decades.

> the nonselective high density public housing projects of the post war period were an amplifier of social ills and a disaster of equal magnitude wherever they were tried, for the simple reason that they were indiscriminate.

Yes, not a cure, but an amplifier. If one wants to study failure, one looks to the American housing Projects of a few decades ago. Like the War On Drugs, it could not have been worse if it had been designed to be the worst.

> Direct commissioning of zero interest debt for citizens is another case entirely.

My jaw drops. Sounds like something Maduro might think up. Too socialist for me. Anything 'free' is going to be abused.

> With student debts we could even consult the actuarial tables to set thresholds for repayment by degree type.

Sounds like another bureaucratic black hole. Nope, some gentle subsidies might be in order but 'free' education just gives us more people with 'education' beyond their intelligence.

> We need a better system for Government to own up to its mistakes

Decades ago I saw a documentary on the American GAO, maybe it's not there anymore but it seems that back in the day bureaucrats would shit themselves if they heard that the GAO was on their tail. Seems these folks were to governmental waste and bloat and sloth what Heinrich Himmler was to Gypsies and Jews. Up here we once had a Auditor General who decided she'd seen enough corruption and she blew the whole thing wide open. Efficiency is possible. Watchdogs can be employed.

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The Chinese are outperforming the West only because they began at the bottom, which the West left a while ago. So making that comparison is false. Big anything is bad in my eyes, whether that's corporations or governments. We now have the worst of both worlds leading the charge on vaccines, poverty and a few other faves. The results speak for themselves. Small is still beautiful...

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“ Virtually every societal problem which has occurred since, whether it is lower rates of fatherhood or mass incarceration (the two are inextricably linked), is a function of these shifting priorities in government spending.”

Music to this conservative’s ears!

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That is news to me, but clearly, you have a point. Horrible times we live in ..

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Nov 19, 2021Liked by Geary Johansen

Progressives damage everything they touch. The lure of free stuff is destructive to any free society.

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Nov 18, 2021Liked by Geary Johansen

Taxes are necessary for any country. They are also necessary to enable business to thrive. Who builds and maintains the infrastructure networks, the health services etc. All of the latter are essential.

Free enterprise is necessary for a successful country. Innovation does not come from government and in fact the best one can hope for from government is to create an environment where innovation can thrive.

Government set rules and standards are necessary. Regrettably, without these there are businesses which will despoil and harm both the environment and people to make money.

If we look for examples of where this might be happening we have to focus on the West not China. Sadly China under Xi is going down the authoritarian, imperialist route. The US despite its many flaws is still the example to follow and I don't see a stagnating state. Certainly chaotic at times but this is a function of freedom. If they can avoid the Republican or Democrat crazies from imposing their will on the country they are still set to continue their pre-eminent position for the foreseeable future.

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Nov 18, 2021Liked by Geary Johansen

Why is it government can build a new road or bridge, or new water supply system, or new sewage system (perhaps one of the really true 'common good' actions government does because market competition in them is not practical), but then look to doing "the next thing" rather than ensuring they maintain those systems and improve them?

Why must we suffer crumbling schools, roads, bridges, sewers and water systems? Because we let politicians jump to some "next great thing" to buy voters and repay special interest donors that they will build while refusing to maintain what they previously did. And then when they finally get around to fixing it, they pretend they are doing the most amazing thing.

And while I support smaller government and greater liberty and reduced special interest impositions, preferring liberty and free markets and free association in a voluntary-first society, I would fully go along with government programs if they were fully paid for by taxation applied equally to all (and the rich would therefore continue to pay the lion's share). At least then we'd have "honest" government, doing what the people say they want by proving it by voting their dollars, not just their worthless political vote (my vote is roughly worth 1/170,000,000, and that's just my vote for another person who never met me and who then votes however he or she wants).

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Nov 18, 2021Liked by Geary Johansen

Methinks conservatives innately believe too much government is ‘bad’ because they observe its corrosiveness on the culture & economy.

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