Independence Day and These Insane States of America

Happy Independence Day.  On the 237th anniversary of the founding of our nation, we should reflect on the future direction of the country.  The present may seem bleak, but I am very optimistic about the future.  Before we examine the future, here are some examples of the current insanity.

• The Affordable Care Act has proven to be anything but.  Businesses are busy cutting health insurance benefits, young people will have to pay much more and the government's outlays are rising when it is awash in debt. No one, and I mean no one, ever proposed anything like the current law during any campaign for office.  The Congress took every flawed feature of the previous system and expanded it, and called it reform.
• We live with a system that keeps milk prices high, and prices go even higher, if Congress doesn't set price floors for dairy farmers. 
• Those who believe that Carbon emissions cause global warming are unwilling to use the simplest method to reduce emissions, a carbon tax, instead heaping new regulations on industry of dubious effectiveness.
• We rely on a currency that is publicly acknowledged to be manipulated.
• Sequestration has done nothing to change the long term budget outlook of the U.S., yet it is pilloried as draconian.  According to the CBO, "Under Current Law, Federal Debt Will Stay at Historically High Levels Relative to GDP."

So why the optimism?  First, I think that this insanity is doomed to collapse. We are already seeing the ACA start to unravel with yesterday's announcement of the delay in business penalties for failure to comply, which begs the question of the government's willingness to force individuals to comply.  

Second, we are catching a lucky break because there are no serious global competitors to our economic supremacy right now.  China's state sponsored capitalism is proving unsustainable. The Europeans are, well, European, awash in fresh crises every few months.  India isn't yet ready to grow, even if they are the chief long term rival.  

Third, I have faith in the freedom loving DNA of our people.  Eventually we figure things out and we are figuring out that big government, big labor and big business are bad for freedom; especially in combination. We are slowly, but effectively, fighting back.  

James Bennett and Michael Lotus have written a book about their own optimism called "America 3.0."  I am not particularly enamored with the title, but it is a convenient short hand for the idea that we are entering a new epoch.  The America 2.0 of big government and mass production is giving way to new modes of economic development and delivery.  The old system is collapsing due to its complexity and internal contradictions.  A new system has yet to arise, but it should value liberty for the individual, if it is to succeed.  Perhaps more on that in a future post.



Stuff You Should Be Reading

You should be reading the Burning Platform blog because the federal government doesn't want me to read it. Jim Quinn of Burning Platform had posted a decent article about hatred for Obama in Egypt on Zero Hedge so I thought to look them up and here is what I got:

Arguing for freedom is somehow suspicious?  I think it is their full throated defense of Snowden that is the real reason for getting blocked. (I deleted the full name of my B-Daddy log in, other than that, the picture is a replica of what I got.)  No, I did not submit the unblock request.