Comments on: Our Welfare State
By Jim Glass on 01-21-12
Our Corporatist StateYes, Lets’s shrink government and regulations even more so we can all look up with envy at
Somalia. You fail to mention “lack of oversight” is what gave us this mess.
It always amazes me that someone with zero knowledge and even less ability to fact check will
spill forth such drivel of personal opinion.
“What value has been added into the economy by the US government’s financing and construction
of such a comprehensive system of road, highway and port infrastructure? How many people have
based their entire livelihoods on the existence of this infrastructure? How much less expensive and
less time consuming has this infrastructure made people’s lives? Has this not generated wealth?
What about telecommunications and electricity infrastructure built either directly by government or
by monopolies under government concessions? What about the original broadcast infrastructure
that launched the industry that enables so many of these talking heads to earn a living? What
about the creation of the internet? How about all the innovations associated with the space
exploration program or the military? The fact is these are all big ticket items involving great risk and
very very long investment time horizons – the types of investments that the private sector
generally avoids. Yet it is simply impossible to credibly argue that these government investments,
financed by collectivized wealth have not been of enormous value to the society and enabled
millions to generate wealth of their own. You can argue in theory all you want about the superiority
of the invisible hand in rationing resources, but the fact is that much of our society’s wealth has
and will continue to be created by government.”
by MistaBling
By hotfishmt on 01-21-12
IT…should be mentioned a lot of this debt is due to THE YEARS…..AND DECADES OF….PORK BARREL….the stuff adds up to Multi Billions…all in the name of some elected
officials…that have for decades handed out Pork Barrel projects…to their respective states
and the end result is wasted BILLIONS to gain/favor upcoming elections.
And sad to say…all elected official in Washington DC….are GUILTY AS HECK…..of
handing out the tax funds under the guise of GRANTS…..ENDLESS GRANTS.
By Westside2 on 01-23-12
Sometimes the bathwater needs changing, but we must be mindful not to throw out the baby when wechange it. And, if you can’t appreciate babies then you should probably fix this problem first.
By reggie on 01-23-12
It must be noted that the majority of our debt came from deficit spending in GOOD times. Reagan doubled the national debt and Bush 2 trippled it during good times whial borrowing
money to give a tax reduction to his base. You remember, “the haves and the have mores”.
Blaming the victims of this destruction of our lifestyle is a standard right wing tactic. Ignoring
the unearned wealth transfeered to the top 1% by the proven failure of the supply side scam
also requires disregarding the pertinant facts. Both of these undefendable positions are
secured by total allegiance to a political philosophy of greed.
The puzzeling part is, why do so many of the victims still favor their own downfall to further
enrich the 1%?
By sotaxed on 01-26-12
What caused the current mess was not a lack of regulators or regulations it was the fact that no one was doing their job as is the case with most of our gov. be it fed. state or local. As for value
added I would say not much. When we pay taxes in montana the money should take care of the
needs but in most cases it adds to the burden with more state and local employees and
equipment. With all the good years Montana has had you would think we would have a nice
savings account but to even fix a roof we need a levy or stimulas from the feds.
The views expressed in the comments section do not reflect those of the Beacon.