Funeral for Welfare

Say your goodbyes to the Great Society and all the various federal programs associated with the War on Poverty. The federal government is surrendering.

I had not been aware of this previously when I predicted it was all about debt slavery and economic control. I may have been wrong about a general conscription of some sort; that was just extrapolating. However, I had seen concrete evidence of the intent to economically humble the US so as to make all resources and assets serve warfare. From the old “guns-n-butter” model, we know more warfare (guns) means less welfare (butter).

However, we now have solid evidence Obama is using this debt ceiling theatrics for plausible deniability. Given he has been the consummate liar on everything else, why should we believe him now when he claims he wants to protect the welfare programs? Indeed, the George Washington blog quotes several people in a position to analyze in detail. They all have been saying this very thing: Obama planned from the start to ax federal welfare outlays. To maintain his election constituency, he will pretend he’s a progressive liberal to the end, who really wants to raise taxes and fund welfare programs.

Instead, he knew this was coming and will perform his TV role to the conclusion of the program. But according to the script he has to finally cave and cut those programs because the Boehner and friends “forced” his hand. He gets to blame the GOP for being impossible, and it will be presented as the only way he could save Social Security and VA checks. Okay, so those will be cut the next time. But at least no one talks about cutting the military except a couple of nut cases kept on hand just for their shock value.

Say goodbye to Welfare.

Notes in Passing on Theory of Government

There is such a thing as good government. You aren’t likely to see it, but it won’t hurt to know something about it so you’ll know how to criticize what we do have.

1. Prophets have always condemned credit and interest because that’s God’s Law. God is better at human economics than we are. A credit-based economy, with a credit-based currency, is not better than the ancient system. Everybody wants to forget humans are fallen. When credit is strictly non-interest based, used only to help the poor get by as God says it should be used, things can’t get any better. Granted, a primitive economy suffers ups and downs based on the human tendency to miscalculate and mis-allocate resources in pursuing meeting human needs. It cannot be prevented. All attempts to dampen the natural ups and downs only make things worse. In a debt-based economy, you grant unlimited power to the creditors to manipulate the economic cycles to their benefit, and it will never match the needs of the broader population. Regulations will always be broken, because regulators are human. Nobody is that good; give someone power and it will always go wrong. You cannot craft a system which guarantees stability, because you cannot craft a system better at handling human failure than the one God described long, long ago.

2. No human on this earth can possibly be competent to manage an economic system bigger than a village of 75-100 people. Given the average quality of those likely to rise to such a position, a safe limit is 50 people. Putting the wisest people into groups and committees will actually reduce their capability for anything more than simple cooperation and coordination between their various individual responsibilities. Committees cannot decide anything really important; decision is always an individual exercise. Never trust anyone who likes committees, and especially trust no one who likes to govern.

3. Given Breivik himself bluntly stated the need to support Zionism, that question is settled. But another is emerging. I’m willing to bet at least some part of the Norwegian police were in on this from the start. Where did he get the official uniform? Their explanations of how it took so long to respond to the scene on the island don’t add up. This I say as a former cop. Cops are people, too. There have always been a significant portion of every police force up for sale. In this case, I’m willing to bet a significant hope from allowing Breivik to succeed was creating that missing element of fear. Norwegians are too peaceful and secure in their insular society to permit easy manipulation of their politics. Having dared to challenge the Zionist political orthodoxy, the first step in forcing them back onto the reservation is to make them fear and distrust. Granted, one should never trust anyone in a uniform, but this is a perversion of that virtue.

4. Did you notice the falseness of the Norwegian peace? It was based on centralized control. It worked because the economy was quite solid, and folks were comfortable. This left them extremely vulnerable to the lone gunman attack. With all the hassles and the false sense of safety, no one else was armed on that island. Indeed, no one even thought in terms of disabling the gunman, and there certainly was no one competent to consider it. A true pacifist is ready to fight for peace. Not in the sense of clobbering everyone until they are forced to be peaceful, but a real pacifist recognizes genuine threats to peace, and is ready to die for it. Had I been there, I probably would have gotten shot eventually, but not before I had done my best to either rush, or draw the gunman into a trap. I’m willing to bet he would not have imagined anyone daring to hit back with improvised weapons. Peace is not the absence of violence, but the determined opposition to it. The most peaceful society is the one that hates war because it understands it all too well. Good people don’t want control, but will exert it only so long as necessary to keep it from the hands of others.

5. Any plan of government which assumes human nature can be shaped and modified is doomed to failure. If you plan realistically for a normal background level of death and destruction instead of trying to create an artificial bubble of safety, you will approach the best things can be. Normal human activity is risky, variations are a necessity. Planning for maximum allowance in human variation is wisdom. Planning to stay out of the way as much as possible is moral goodness. Having something better to do, and always being frustrated because governing keeps you from it, makes you a morally fit ruler. Peace is not having everything under control, but is reducing chaos to a tolerable level of least harm. Wisdom is recognizing when you cannot and should not try to control.