05-16-2016, 12:40 PM
(05-16-2016, 08:45 AM)Anthony Wrote: And the demand for order is rising? It's plummeting - at least in the 1980s the right wasn't clamoring for abolishing the IRS altogether - which would mean at least a national sales tax, and maybe even a per-person head tax. They were content with a 28% top tax rate; even the "populist" Donald Trump would make it 25%.
Actually, it is the ability and confidence in the state to deliver order that is in question. In the twenties the US was a creditor nation but now it is the largest debtor. The ability of the Federal Government to tax and borrow are at or close to their maximum levels. That leaves printing, despite the protests of economic illiterates, which can only take you so far. When the dollar is no longer reserve currency of the world the US will have no choice but to scale back its spending.
This is probably part of a much longer term trend. See the works of James Dale Davidson and Lord Rees-Mogg for a better explanation. They were about twenty years ahead of events when they wrote The Great Reckoning.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. -- H.L. Mencken
If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action. -- Ludwig von Mises
If one rejects laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action. -- Ludwig von Mises