California: The US in a Petri Dish

It amazes me that the obvious can be so readily ignored. The government has devolved into a tremendous wealth transfer apparatus. People get elected to office on principle and then once in Washington they shed the mantle and apply the basic truth that political longevity comes from distributing bread and circuses to the masses. Reward your base and punish your nay-sayers.

Currently it doesn't seem to matter which party the panderer claims to represent. Sure, you can find a more extreme flavor of corruption on the left side of the aisle, but don't doubt for a minute that the supposed good guys on the right are equally venal.

The excesses of the current administration aren't appreciably different in any aspect except for scale. Which raises questions, the answers to which are obvious.

Can any reasonable person believe that bundling vast sums of money and sending them off into "shovel-ready" government programs will really result in creation of stable jobs and increases in free-market productivity? Can government run a complex industry better than trained management? Can everyone have everything and all of it be paid by the top 2% of wage earners?

California is so broke that they can't even borrow money to pay their bills. They've spent it so fast they can't even issue the tax refunds that are owed. They are sending out IOU's to indicate recognition of debt but nothing more. Try to stimulate your landlord, utility company or grocer with an IOU.

The Economic Truth for America from the Sacramento Lab

I like this particularly well-crafted paragraph:

The federal picture is so bleak because the Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. I would imagine that he would be the intergalactic champion as well, if we could gather the data on deficits on other worlds. Obama has taken George W. Bush’s inattention to deficits and elevated it to an art form.

The problem is that the uneducated and unwashed in America simply don't comprehend that goods and services must be paid for and that industry fettered in governmental red tape cannot compete or be successful.

Until we realize those simple truths we are doomed.