http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2009/07/26/an-historical-analogy/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:49:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2009/07/26/an-historical-analogy/#comment-329022 boqueronman Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:41:06 +0000 http://www.dinocrat.com/?p=11419#comment-329022 I came to offer much the same point that F makes in his/her comment. The incentives for all politicians is to get reelected and gain power. The mechanism for that is to "buy" votes with taxpayer funds for voter constituencies and to "buy" campaign contributions with subsidies and regulatory protection. The targets for these actions may differ - small-medium business and religious voters for Repubs and minorities, lawyers, unions and the over-educated for Dems - but the objective is electoral success. One might argue that favoring one of these set over the other will produce better results and commit fewer mistakes, but the rules of the game are known and understood by both sides. As I see it what we are witnessing is the collapse of the Welfare State model of government, i.e. we are burning the last remaining bits of "Be All, Do All" government furniture right now. "Recovery" and "green shoots" are illusions until the debt bubble (private, financial and GOVERNMENT) is well and truly popped with asset values reverting to the mean and the demographic transformation (consuming and investing Boomers to penny pinching retirees) is nearing its end. Neither party appears able to comprehend what is taking place, let along offer a compelling roadmap for structural transformation. Where do we go once "the capital is in ashes"? Interesting times. I came to offer much the same point that F makes in his/her comment. The incentives for all politicians is to get reelected and gain power. The mechanism for that is to “buy” votes with taxpayer funds for voter constituencies and to “buy” campaign contributions with subsidies and regulatory protection. The targets for these actions may differ – small-medium business and religious voters for Repubs and minorities, lawyers, unions and the over-educated for Dems – but the objective is electoral success. One might argue that favoring one of these set over the other will produce better results and commit fewer mistakes, but the rules of the game are known and understood by both sides. As I see it what we are witnessing is the collapse of the Welfare State model of government, i.e. we are burning the last remaining bits of “Be All, Do All” government furniture right now. “Recovery” and “green shoots” are illusions until the debt bubble (private, financial and GOVERNMENT) is well and truly popped with asset values reverting to the mean and the demographic transformation (consuming and investing Boomers to penny pinching retirees) is nearing its end. Neither party appears able to comprehend what is taking place, let along offer a compelling roadmap for structural transformation. Where do we go once “the capital is in ashes”? Interesting times.

]]> http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2009/07/26/an-historical-analogy/#comment-328925 F Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:23:36 +0000 http://www.dinocrat.com/?p=11419#comment-328925 It's not that the Republican party is worthless; it's that the same ruling class that peoples the Democratic party makes up the ranks of the Republicans too. Our political leaders are so distracted by the opportunity of enriching themselves they forget (if they ever knew) why they were elected in the first place. Term limits are looking better all the time, but they don't seem to work out very well where they have been instituted. F It’s not that the Republican party is worthless; it’s that the same ruling class that peoples the Democratic party makes up the ranks of the Republicans too. Our political leaders are so distracted by the opportunity of enriching themselves they forget (if they ever knew) why they were elected in the first place. Term limits are looking better all the time, but they don’t seem to work out very well where they have been instituted. F

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