Excerpted from Thesis 2013: Statism. FREE at GordonTLong.com
In 'The Road to Serfdom ', F.A. Hayek showed how governments, supported by a collectivist mindset, always tend towards totalitarianism. Even the most libertarian government thus far created, the government of the United States, has slipped incrementally towards totalitarianism over the past two centuries, more noticeably since 911 and most alarmingly since the 2008 financial crisis. This is because it is an inherent trait of a government. Planned or random crisis events inevitably accelerate the process.
The degree of socialism in the United States increased substantially after the establishment of the Federal Reserve System (1913) and the measures taken during the Great Depression (1929-46) which it created. Ever since the early 1900's the United States has had a two-party system dominated by what must be labeled 'socialists'. This is because, the Republican Party has always advocated conservative socialism. The Democratic Party, which in the 19th century favored libertarianism, advocates social-democratic socialism.
Left, Right and Centre, are all forms of socialism. We may call them "social-democratic socialism" (the Left) and "conservative socialism" (the Right). They are both socialism because they both share the principle that the government should "run" and "mold" society, by using legal force and intervention to transfer property and personal wealth as part of the political scientists' process of 'redistribution of wealth'.
The differences are only in the particular ways the government should run society - the methods it should use, and who, exactly, should be the recipients of government wealth transfers and who should pay.
In particular:
- Social democrats tend to prefer heavy taxation, large wealth transfers to the poor, and nationalized industries, and oppose price controls, regulations and behavioral controls.
- Conservatives tend to prefer lower taxation, a smaller welfare state, regulated (cartelized) industries, price controls, product and behavioral controls.
So long as people are divided by Left and Right, Democratic and Republican, the US is prone to being influenced by factions who transcend party politics and from behind the scenes could possible exert strong control over the United States. They could do this by maintaining power over public opinion and hence over the course of government. Steadily, the United States has been travelling down the road to totalitarianism, and many people have not noticed, possibly because they are only looking at the position on the Left-Right paradigm.
The Expansionist US Central State
Like the sun coming up in the morning, Central State planning and expansion predictably leads to state spending exceeding the rate of the real growth of the state's economy. The US Central State has been no exception and has been relentlessly expanding faster than GDP since the 1950s with only two notable exceptions. The dot.com bubble in the late 90's and the housing bubble in the early to mid 2000s. These artificial bubbles were created by Monetary Malpractice aimed at creating desperately needed growth to support excessive spending and debt levels.
What historically kills the expansionist state beast, is when debt reaches the critical point of debt saturation. This is the point where government borrowing is so pervasive that it forces total debt to grow to enable it to leverage ever smaller growth levels of an economy captured by a debt stranglehold brought on by the expansionist central state. The structural imbalance of state expenditures and revenue leads to structural deficits. This is the situation the US presently finds itself in, and is to be fully expected, when the central state is allowed to assume a larger expansionist role. Like a cancer it will insidiously and relentlessly expand unless operated on. The sooner the operation the better the chance of survival.
Unfortunately, we are in denial, as the cancer grows and the quack doctors suggest more spending. Similar to 'blood letting' by medieval doctors, the diagnosis is flawed and will only accelerate the demise of the naive and dependent patient.
"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." ~ President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The growing public dependency on US government programs may not be simply the outcome of current economic conditions. The Cloward Piven strategy outlined how by impoverishing the middle class through crushing reduction in real disposable income, while taxing the private sector into submission would result in a growing central state and increasing transfer of power to it. Unsound money is a key tenet in the impoverishment of America and thereby achieving such a strategic outcome.
For the central state to assume more authoritarian control, public support will increasingly be based on a perception of a required redistribution of wealth from the rich to the growing number of poor. Redistribution of wealth is the goal, but in reality it is from the poor to the government and to those who feed at the government trough. To better understand how this occurs we all need to fully acquaint ourselves with the Cloward Piven strategy. Frankly, it all sounds eerily familiar with what is going on around us on a daily basis.
Ty Andros at Tedbits.com has laid out in an extensive downloadable presentation on the perils of the Cloward Piven Strategy.
Cloward Piven Strategy
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Create ever-growing constituencies DEPENDANT on the government for their livelihoods directly through entitlements, social safety nets and government suppliers in the private sectors!
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Regulate and tax the private sector into submission (healthcare, banking, small businesses, real estate, autos) and demise while legislating demand to their crony capitalist supporters.
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Politicize and control the allocation of credit (mortgages, student debt, consumer financial protection agency, Dodd Frank, etc.)
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Control the public schools and teach dependence, childlike trust in government and that you are ENTITLED to something for nothing (health care, food, pensions, disability insurance, shelter) and not taught to think for themselves versus conventional schooling of self reliance, ability to solve problems, logic, importance of hard work, reading, writing and arithmetic and the lessons of history.
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Have a main stream media report misinformation as FACTS for the useful idiots created by the public school monopoly.
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Create growth in government and its obligations that COMPOUND faster than economic growth and tax receipts.
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Debase the currency to impoverish the middle class and create desperation for growth, while removing the obligation to pay for their BENEFITS (47% of the country pays no fed taxes).
"When you rob Peter to pay Paul" - you can always count on Paul's support.
Rational Choice Theory
This is a theory advocated by the RAND Corporation, a leading public policy 'framer', which prescribes that when making any choice, an individual (or government) must act as if balancing costs against benefits to arrive at an action that maximizes personal advantage. It is intended to promote a social atmosphere of moral ambiguity in the name of personal and national priority. What it says is that the ends justify the means, and moral conscience is not a factor to be taken seriously if one wishes to be successful. It fosters the removal of questions of principle from the debate over social progress. Rational Choice propaganda commonly presents the target audience with a false conundrum. Remove all choices within a system, by force or manipulation, until the masses think they have nothing left but the choices the elites give them. It is the bread and butter of elitist institutions and is at the core of the push for globalization.
Policies of Insolvency
These are government PROGRAMS written into LAW which CONSUME more then they PRODUCE, impose large, new costs on the PUBLIC and private sector destroying PROFITABILITY. A large part of the funding has not been identified so it is PAY as you GO. This leads to national bankruptcy as funding runs out and the printing press is substituted for real income growth and declining tax receipts
Unsound money is a key tenet in achieving such a strategic outcome as Cloward Piven..
All of these rights (below), spell security. I ask the Congress to explore the means for implementing this economic bill of rights -- for it is definitely the responsibility of the Congress so to do." ~ Franklin D Roosevelt
Obama's Inauguration referenced "treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect". This is a specific reference to FDR's Bill of Rights.
Obama's 2nd Term 'FDR' Bill of Rights
- The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation.
- The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.
- The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.
- The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.
- The right of every family to a decent home.
- The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.
- The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.
- The right to a good education.
The Breeding Ground for Crony Capitalism
An expansionist central state is a fertile breeding ground for the Corporatocracy's strategy of Crony Capitalism.
- The public serpents regulate the competition out of business and customers into crummy products not suited to their best interests and leave the politically connected as the only game in town, at a higher price.
- In a capitalist economy, this is creative destruction where dinosaur corporations fall to more nimble competitors who give more goods & services for less. This will increasingly end that virtuous process.
- This is just the next nuclear bomb on capitalism, wealth & income generation and the economy by the terrorists inside the beltway.
- This is on purpose folks and the immensity of it is a testament to the size of the corruption. The victim is you and our economic prospects.
- The healthcare legislation is more poisonous than what I just outlined, in every respect, written in a back room and not by legislators but by their special-interest and crony capitalist supporters.
We Must Not Forget
- The laws and regulations outlined in the video (above) are falling on the private sector in waves, KILLING incentives to invest and build new businesses.
- These activities are designed to OVERWHELM and BANKRUPT the central government in Washington DC (District of Corruption) and collapse the PRIVATE sectors ability to generate growth, jobs and tax receipts
- They are rapidly doing so as Cloward Piven policies have accelerated since 2009!
- Continuation of these policies will bankrupt the United States and COLLAPSE the economy and federal government!
- When the collapse occurs a turnkey totalitarian state is in place to SEIZE power to save you. Can you say ATLAS SHRUGGED?
What government PLANNED crisis will emerge to TRIGGER this societal and economic collapse? This is what transpired in NAZI Germany before HITLER rose to power...
A significant amount of modern day work has been done and some is getting prime time attention within political framers such as the RAND Corporation.
The Statist "Lynchpin Theory"
John Casti, a Ph.D. from USC, "complexity scientist" and "systems theorist", a Futurist, and most notably, a former employee of Rand Corporation has pioneered the "Lynchpin Theory". Casti introduces his idea of "Linchpin Theory" in his book "X-Events: The Collapse Of Everything ", it offers perfect scapegoat scenarios for catastrophes that are engineered by the establishment. X-EVENTS are not some "random" event caused by uncontrolled "COMPLEXITY". This is engineered complexity with a devious purpose. The creation of the derivatives collapse was done with foreknowledge, at least by some.
According to Brandon Smith of the Alt-Market blog , Casti would like you to believe that political and social tides are unguided and chaotic; that all is random, and disaster is a product of "chance" trigger events that occur at the height of a malfunctioning and over-complicated system. Linchpin Theory argues that overt social, political, and technological "complexity" is to blame for the most destructive events in modern human history, and it is indeed an enticing suggestion for those who are uneducated and unaware of the behind the scenes mechanics of world events.
Eleven Scenarios Presently Identified by Statists to Collapse the Modern World:
- A Long-Term, Widespread Failure of the Internet,
- The Breakdown of the Global Food-supply System,
- A Continent-Wide Electromagnetic Pulse Destroys all Electronics,
- The Emergence of a New Global Geopolitical Order,
- Destruction of the Earth through the creation of Exotic Particles,
- Destabilization of the Nuclear Landscape,
- Drying-up of the world Oil Supplies,
- A Global Pandemic,
- Failure of the Electric Power Grid and Clean Water Supply,
- Intelligent Robots overthrow Humanity'
- The collapse of world Financial Markets
Security versus Innovative Risk Taking - The Forgotten Cost of Socialist Security
What is often forgotten is that within a capitalist system and a free society, there is a balance of risk versus security. This is one of the central reasons "socialism" eventually fails. Risk cannot be eliminated; it can only be suppressed or transferred to others. If you want growth, you must reward risk and innovation and foster a culture that accepts failure and low-intensity disorder as the norm. The public cannot expect the false state promises of security without fully recognizing that it will kill risk taking, innovation and growth and foster the crony capitalism feeding off the less risky public trough. Expansionist central states ALWAYS make promises it has no ability to deliver on without effectively 'killing the golden goose'.
It must never be forgotten, that government by its nature is parasitic. It creates no wealth and lives off the wealth creation of others through its authoritarian powers to legally confiscate and seize. This is a fact, no matter how well intentions the public perceives the governments intentions to be.
"Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government". ~ Nobel Laureate in Economics, Milton Friedman
The Obsolete Concept of "Central State'
My co-host at Macro Analytics, Charles Hugh Smith has expanded his work on the 's' curve to show Why Expansionist Central States Inevitably Implode .
Contrary to what the central planners want, the whole notion of a central state is now obsolete. Technology now makes this possible and growing social unrest and a Crisis of Trust will soon demand it. We can fully expect those with political power and its need for control to restrict this change in every manner possible. The lifecycle of the expansionist central state is coming to a close for many natural reason. Some of these phenomenon include:
- The notion of the NODE versus HUB,
- The notion of HIERARCHICAL versus RELATIONAL,
- The notion of TOP DOWN versus BOTTOM UP Revenue distribution,
- The notion of SECURITY versus RISK
These notions are explored in the video: RIP: Our Expansionist Central State
Conclusions
The central state within the United Statism of Amerika has a strategy and a plan to expand its power and control. It is a plan that will transform the United States from Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" to george Orwell's "1984".
The plan will fail if "we the people" recognize what is happening.
Recognition gives the people the power to stop what is happening!
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