Government Means Perpetual Crisis
If we look around, then, at the crucial problem areas of our society—the areas of crisis and failure—we find in each and every case a “red thread” marking and uniting them all: the thread of government. In every one of these cases, government either has totally run or heavily influenced the activity. — Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty [emphasis mine]
As I write this wildfires are still burning around Los Angeles, and social media posts are aflame about the $770 payments government is offering to victims of the disaster. Further igniting their rage is the fact that billions of their former dollars continue to flow into contractors pockets to fight wars almost anywhere except here. Adding to this was the discovery that fire hydrants had no water, the LA fire department had ignored “extraordinary warnings of life-threatening winds,” and the reservoir in Pacific Palisades was dry.
And where was LA mayor Karen Bass? Attending a cocktail party in Ghana when the Palisades fire erupted.
Since government collects its revenue coercively, either through direct taxation or monetary inflation, citizens have little recourse for protest beyond what they are already doing. The standard practice of marching with protest signs or disruptive sit-ins might offer some psychological relief but not much else. Government doesn’t take orders from citizens unless they’re closely connected in some nefarious way, such as through blackmail, cronyism, or lucrative campaign donations.
Anger often drives people to the polls periodically but government controls those as well. Not by coincidence is “none of the above” ever found on the ballot.
The good news is government, as it exists, with its Ponzi scheme fiscal gap of some $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities and its insatiable appetite for meddling where the public can’t see it, will likely spend itself into oblivion, while exponentially-rising technology will be available to create a better life for the rest of us.
The lust for intervention
“God is power,” wrote George Orwell in 1984, and to interventionists of all persuasions for whom economic law is flexible and uncaring, “God” finds its realization in the State. As Mises wrote in Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis,
In order to promote their plans [interventionists] flatly denied that there is any su
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
