It's easy to be gloomy about America's future, but it can be inspirational to turn it around by looking at ways to rejuvenate this great nation. by Paul Benedict
(libertarian)
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
As gloomy as some prognosticators sound about 2011 (see "2011 Will Begin With Hope and End With Despair"), it is tempting to be even more negative about the coming decade (see "Relativism, Rome, and the Fall of the West"). Not only are there systemic weaknesses in our financial markets, one must factor three decades of high-handed governmental arrogance that has repeatedly ignored the common sense of the common man. Whether it a fanatic lack of wisdom among the political elite or a more nefarious connection between the price of running in a U.S. election and the international forces of multinational corporations and banks (also known as SPECTRE), it is hard not to believe that the end of American liberty is eminent.
But this is America. It is theoretically possible that we have elected hundreds and hundreds of competent people to replace the banal. Moreover, the younger generation is better than we were. They are more akin to the greatest generation than were of the lost generation. The valueless sons of the sixties may be handing this next generation a land with obstacles to liberty as thick as some on the beaches of WWII. I'm not sure it that will stop them. Still, if I can fall on a grenade to help them, I'm willing. They're worth it. Here are some grenades we can all fall on; here are ten big government emplacements it would be nice to remove for those that follow us:
Ten Goals for the 112th to the 118th Congress:
I. When dismantling the great society. Do NOT follow the California model for shrinking government. A. Do NOT go with across the board cuts. End whole departments. Why?
You get more bang for your buck: Department heads make more than ten non-seniority holding workers who, due to government unions, are the ones that always get cut first. These younger workers are the only one who provide real services anyhow.
Governmental departments are like octopi the arms grow back. You must kill the head.
II. Completely Restructure Taxation
A. Soak the Rich: find a way to do a flat tax (see "Soak the Rich...". The only tax incentives should be to get rich.
B. Any citizens who pay less than the flat tax rate and all other federal giveaway programs should be subsidized only by tariffs. If one does not like tariffs, stop giving away the working man's money. (Have you seen our trade balances? We cannot lose a trade war!)
Rediscovering the tariff will weaken the power of the Fed. Currently, the Federal Reserve endeavors to control trade by regulating the value of the dollar. It's apparent how that is working out.
III. Abolish U.S. involvement in the United Nations. We'd be better off facing a nuclear holocaust than hanging around with this group of misanthropes. Live free or die. There are some things worse than death.
A. Immigration "reform" goes here. Enforcing our national laws is very unpopular among the "imagine all the people" U.N. pie in the sky group. Tell all of these "friends" to find their own country to ruin.
Stop letting illegal residents vote in California!
IV. Restructure health insurance around free choice, state's rights, and personal responsibility. (See "Wrinkles on the GOP's Health Care Solutions...") Drug abuse should be legal, but those involved in substance abuse should be deprived the right to all social programs. They can have their own risk pools for health insurance.
V. Privatize Social Security by allowing young men and women to invest their payroll deductions into their primary residence, stocks, bonds, and commodities (see "How to End Social Security in Our Lifetime...").
VI. Drill baby drill! Drill like there is no tomorrow. We can make America internationally competitive again with inexpensive energy and a work force inspired by a sense of their ability to work hard and grow rich.
VII. Rid this nation of institutionalized socialism. Reform the American Unions.
A. End all government workers' unions. We have one already. It's called a ballot box.
B. Stop yelling about how rich the Policemen and Firemen are getting! It's an obvious race to the bottom and the most bizarre effort at class this nation's ever witnessed. Most union members, though, would love to vote on where there dues are being spent. Therefore:
C. All union expenditures should require a majority vote by members. It can be done online. Who knows, perhaps profit sharing, not higher wages (which only result is more dues), will become the cry of unions.
VIII. Eliminate all quotas and all rights "to things." Positive rights, are those a serf may demand of a liege lord. We are neither serfs nor liege lords. We are Americans. This common heritage is our common bond. By the way the liege lords always promise but never deliver. By the time they fail to deliver, it is too late for those begging the boon have become powerless, landless serfs.
A. There should be no more gender entitlements in our military, our police, or our fire departments. Whoever serves meets the criteria of excellence or they are gone.
B. Reinstate DADT. There is no reason why one group should have the right to interject sexuality into the workplace when absolute silence is demanded of others.
We've already imported hypocrisy. Honor's dishonor, injecting sexuality into the military workplace, is now permissible if you are a homosexual. Honor was wrong and should be canned. So also it is wrong to tell everyone in your locker-room that you can't wait to break the USMJ by participating in homosexual activity.
IX. Reform national education.
A. Replace the Department of Education with a privatized testing corporation answerable, not to government, but to institutions of higher leering, parents, and businesses in the private sector. B. Encourage vouchers, homeschooling, private schooling and religious schooling... with this caveat: No educational system shall teach that murder is acceptable.
C. In state, publically run institutions of education: recognize and have reverence for the God of nature, not the God that is nature, but the God of nature as epitomized by the conduct and words of our founding fathers.
D. Eliminate sciences falsely so called.
X. Get out of debt. Too many Americans are born with a "life debt." Home ownership costs way too much because Americans have been duped into thirty-year loans. Transportation to work costs far too much. Capitalize and figure out how to work for yourself. Get out of debt.
Reform the Fed. It should not be a monster that feeds itself on American debt by tuning the engine of usury. However, an institution that insures American savings against white collar banking crime, by working to keep banks from failing in the panic of a moment, might be a good idea. Milton Friedman's ideas about a rational money supply are not without some merit. If we decide to tie the dollar to a commodity, something with intrinsic value like copper or oil would make more sense.
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