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Ron Paul: Govt Dependency Will End in Chaos
The media insists on characterizing statements about dependency on government handouts as controversial but in truth such statements are absolutely correct. It’s not that nearly half of Americans are dependent on government; it’s actually more than half. If one includes not just people on food stamps and welfare but also seniors on Medicare, Social Security and people employed by the government directly, the number is more like 165 million out of 308 million, which is 53%.
Some argue that Social Security and Medicare benefits are a right because people pay into these programs their whole lives, or that we need a government safety net in place for people who fall on hard times. However, this all becomes a moot point when the funds people depend on become worthless due to government default or rampant inflation.
This is less an issue of dignity or dependence on government, and more about the deceitfulness of government promises.
The Fed recently announced that it plans to keep interest rates near zero and keep buying near worthless assets from banks indefinitely. This enables Congress to spend without having to take deficits or the debt seriously and there is every indication they intend to spend with impunity until the system collapses. There are no brakes on the runaway train. The federal debt ceiling law does nothing to limit spending. The ceiling will have to be raised yet again perhaps before the year is out. What is happening in Greece with austerity measures and riots in the street will happen here within a decade according to some realistic estimates if we do not find some way to fiscally restrain our government.
There is little point in a debate about being entitled to healthcare or food or shelter from fellow taxpayers if the whole system has collapsed. And, with the way our politicians have taken over and mismanaged vast amounts of resources, collapse seems almost unavoidable. Yet the number of Americans who have significant dependency on government is dangerously high, and I honestly fear for them.
Worse, corporate welfare is also at an all time high with no signs of diminishing. Though it is hard to quantify, Tad Dehaven at Cato has estimated that the government spends nearly twice as much on corporate welfare than on social welfare. Both parties are equally guilty. More and more, the business sector is learning to rely on taxpayer largesse in one form or another. They used to be solely concerned with providing a better product to the consumer at a better price. Now, success on Wall Street depends entirely too much on having the best lobbyists on K Street. If one includes the employees of “private” businesses who depend on government contracts, grants or bailouts, there are even more people dependent on government in some way.
Government does not create resources when it taxes people and prints money; it merely redistributes the wealth, while supporting a massive, wasteful bureaucracy along the way. Government is a giant, blood-sucking parasite on our otherwise healthy economy. For too long we have entrusted too much economic power and influence to irresponsible politicians in Washington. It’s the chaos that ensues after they run the system into the ground that will be so painful for so many people. But realigning our economy with the free market and away from government mandates and handouts must happen in order for it to thrive again.
The answer is not to keep asking government to do more. The answer is to extricate our economy and ourselves from the grasp of Washington DC as much as possible now, before our dependency becomes our downfall.
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So true. The parasites will end up starving, freezing or killing each other over scraps of food in the end. Within a few months of the impending collapse, they will all be dead and gone… good riddance, they are a cancer on America.
And of course anyone with a brain and a bit of honesty and knowledge of history knows that Ron Paul speaks and is speaking the truth. But unfortunately we also know that the majority of the country isn’t listening, and as a matter of fact just doesn’t want to hear it. Saddening…maddening…disgusting…disheartening…terrifying. God help us….
I have heard it many times from ‘social security’ recipients – “I paid into the system, I am entitled to take out”. They never say how much they paid in, or if they will stop collecting payments when that number is reached. It’s “until death”, which proves it’s not a ‘savings plan’, but a theft from the next generation. Government is the ‘god’ of America, and unless these voters who trust in man are stopped, they will vote themselves the destruction of America and the world.
Always the fault of the government. Sure ! It is funny that this comment does not tell that 60% of Washington spendings go for defense not welfare. So where does that Ron Paul takes his figures when I can find that he is lying to us.
Again and again, these old chants of liberal right have been stating that the fault comes from the government nothing more, nothing less.
He fails to mention the problem comes from: the US economy will never come back since they have outsourced all manufacturing to countries where people are not respected and receive slavery salaries.
The answer is not to keep asking the companies to do more. The answer is to extricate our economy and ourselves from the grasp of the defence spending which waisting the US economy as much as possible now, before our army becomes our downfall.
Can we continue to listen to those who keep saying the same stories over and over again ? Especially when they do want to position the issues and problems with truth ?
Come on ! There is nothing very social happening in the USA. This text is just a big farce. The problem is within the corporations which were allowed to steal away from the simple people.
Ron paul is the only one to tell it like it is,the fact that the u.s spends more on military than all other countries combined in not news,and the fact is it doesnt matter because things are going to keep going like they are with no change till the collapse finally stops the madness,the u.s. has been bankrupt since nixon took us off the last of the gold standard,it doesnt matter period.