Tag: economics

Booms, Busts, and War

You had the Depression (bust), followed by Pearl Harbor and WW2, and the post-war boom. This created the perception of the Greatest Generation. But the media has failed to put things into perspective and the boom, bust, and war cycle continues to this day. Maybe the current generations are under-rated.

Many overlook that the Internet bubble 90s were a period like post WW2, booming without external threats. That bubble popped and then what did we get? 911.

911 was like Pearl Harbor, plus you have Aphghanistan (Taliban), Iraq (Bathists/Sadaam), Syria (Bathists/Assad), Libya (Khadaffi), Pakistan (Bin Laden killed there) and many other wars and pseudo-wars since then.

Now the ‘war on terror’ has gone on 16 years , which is actually much longer than WW2 was. Unlike the cold war its a hot war, rather than a standoff.

Other than Pearl Harbor the US was not attacked during WW2. Whereas war on terror massacres here in the US by foreign (inspired) cells have been at least once a year almost.

I don’t think the major media has done a good job of putting modernity in perspective. When the history books are written a hundred years from now the War on Terror will be considered to have been WW3, and the Generations of X and Millenials will be considered to have been fairly militant and forthright.

Bloated Governments Should Pay Taxes

What if instead of taxing individuals, individuals (society at large) taxed the government? With the taxes from the government enriching Joe Six Packs, benefits could be cut , since people would have the cash to cover unforeseen circumstances. This would shrink the government.

What rate would you have to tax government spending at to get the government to shrink?

Once the government becomes half the economy
why should the private sector/individuals be taxed rather than the government itself?

The way to do this in practicable terms is to have the government pay quarterly dividends to taxpayers, by selling off its assets to private companies. Such assets would include foreign military bases, national forests and coastlines, and the rights to things such as offshore drilling off of Florida. When a private individual cannot pay their taxes they often have to go to the pawn shop and sell something or have their wages garnished. This should be reversed and the government should sell off its own assets instead, and have their income garnished, to impose fiscal austerity, thereby ultimately shrinking the government, while increasing the private sector’s share of the economy.