Skeeter,
>given the FACT that the current government spends what it spends and we can't change it, how would *you* pay the bill?<
I'll respond to this because it's an important question.
Your assumptions are false.
WE CAN CHANGE IT and WE DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR ANYTHING!
We just have to elect people that are willing to change things. People from both sides that are willing to change things run all the time. They just never get elected in sufficient numbers to change anything dramatically. They will get elected in sufficient numbers when the system collapses. But they may not change it in the right direction. It depends on which side wins.
In the mean time, IMO the proper course of action is to limit government spending increases to the rate of inflation. That way government would slowly shrink as a percentage of GDP because all the "real GDP" growth would accrue to the private sector and be used more effectively. We would also soon start living within our means instead according to our desires. At the same time, the government could continue to deliver on the things on which the government has made some people dependent in it's long history of stupidity.
To accomplish that, all the pyramid scheme type programs where promises are made before the government even knows what it is promising or what the resources will be like in the future (like medicare and Social Security) would require major overhauls (downward). There would also probably have to be a shifting of resources within the existing government pie to better fit the ever changing needs.
The one thing I would never ever do is exactly what you are asking me to do - PAY FOR IT. That's because it would be dumber than a rock and cause even greater problems than we have now.
Do I think it will happen my way?
No!
I think we will either run up deficits and eventually collapse the currency or raise taxes (on the rich, middle class, and everyone else), expand the promises, become more socialized, hurt the goose that lays the golden egg, stagnate, have lower standards of living than we would have had, have more problems that we would have had, have more poor and needy than we would have had, and wind up in a much worse place than we would have. So I try to prepare myself for the results of the stupidity of others.
I hope you will respect my desire to end this conversation now. I feel it's impossible to have a conversation with someone that is constantly accusing me of saying and believing things that I didn't say and don't believe in order to attack me.
Furthermore, I think you have the typical inconsistent and unprincipled view that allows you to say you believe in freedom but at the same time try to dictate your values when you deem appropriate but fight and complain when others try to dictate theirs. You miss the whole point of freedom. |
