The morning after
The era of big government is back.
Yes, I know, contra Bill Clinton in 1996, it never left us. But I'm talking culturally, in the public mind, the zeitgeist. Gone are the days when large numbers of people believed Ronald Reagan's rhetoric (if only on the rhetorical level) that government is the problem and not the solution.
I sensed this coming back in July: "For better or worse — likely worse — every indication is that more people will seek solutions to their economic problems at the ballot box come November."
Events have borne this out with voter turnout yesterday of 64% — a number that smashes any turnout figure from Great Depression days.
In that same July post, I took note of a survey:
70% of respondents to a Rockefeller Foundation/Time magazine survey say government should do more to help people struggling through current economic circumstances. (Unfortunately, the pollsters did not inquire where this money might come from.) Among people age 18-29, the number shoots up to 86%. And they're the age cohort that we're told will turn out in higher numbers than has been the case in recent decades.
And that was before everyone's 401(k) became a 201(k). Now, not only are people looking to government for solutions, they're blaming the "excesses of capitalism" for the present state of affairs — as if Team Bush's near-doubling of the national debt, massive prescription drug program, and bailouts for the finance sector have anything to do with capitalism. But that's where we are.
All of this adds up to immense expectations placed on the shoulders of one man this morning. Scary stuff. But my wife observed a palpable sense of burden in the countenance of the president-elect last night — as if he's aware the savior-like expectations people have of him are far out of proportion to what one person can possibly bear.
If he can keep the adulation from going to his head, then at least his administration might pursue whatever bungled big-government policies it adopts with some measure of humility.
Hey, in an election where limited government didn't stand a chance no matter who won, it's the best we can hope for.
Update: The interest in the I.O.U.S.A. DVD bundle is so intense, it crashed our ordering system just before the midnight deadline last night. So we're extending it till midnight tonight. Both the major-party candidates ignored the screaming-big national debt, but that doesn't mean it won't go away, or that it won't affect you. Details here.
Sphere: Related Content
“The era of big government is back.”
Get real! It never went away.
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
buwahahahaha………….I’m ready for Obama to pay my rent and my gas. Oh excuse me, I’m ready for you rich white guys to pay my rent and my gas. All hail the redistributor in chief. Reparation city here I come!!! Sorry to rub it in. But it’s a new world and capitalism is dead
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
So tell me again how Obama is going to get parents to invest in their children with the aim of growing up to be productive members of society??
I missed that speech on his way to the White House.
No really I did miss that :/
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Wasn’t it Mencken who called elections “an advance auction on stolen goods?”
Turn-out in my “cultured college-town” was 84%!!!!!
Universities seem to attract the most gullible people…
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
So I guess now we have Biden’s crisis to look forward to. How did that go again…?
In the next six months some kind of crisis is going to happen and WHEN we, the Obama Administration, respond to it - you’re going to panic and think it’s the wrong move. It’s then that you’re going to have to ‘trust’ us.
…just can’t wait to find out what the hell it was that he was talking about.
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 4:59 pm
I’d rather take from the rich and give to the poor than steal from our kids and grandkids and give to the rich. It’s a shame the hypocritical neocons tout deregulation of markets as they tell people how they can live and die, and who they can marry. Or showering voters with fiscally conservative rhetoric while running massive deficits. Now that the tax burden shifts to those that have plundered our nation’s treasury, neo-McCarthyism runs rampant. Give me a break. What did you expect?
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
For those who think they will be getting free gas, housing, etc I would remind you of the old soviet model (which half my family lived under, and half escaped from), which had all of the wonders you spoke of. The housing was free. Six people in a 1-bedroom apartment. The gas was free, but you could only have it 3 mos of the year (hint: it’s colder there longer than 3 mos out of the year). They even sorted out greenhouse gases because you couldn’t afford more than a bicycle. Food was very cheap, but came with long lines and shortages. Hope you enjoy that “civilian military force” the O-man wants to implement too (they used to call that conscription). And to ensure the hapiness and harmony of the ‘homeland’ we’ll be sure to restrict travel. You wouldn’t want to leave such a paradise, would you?
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 5:36 pm
I’m with you Steve- levy taxes on them what gots the money. And they’ve gotten way way more of it ever since Reagan touted being rich as a god-given American virtue. But when a hedgefund manager gets taxed at 15% on his billion $ income and his secretary is paying 25% on a lot less income, something is way way wrong with Da System. Sure the rich will bitch, they think they’ve earned the right. But then, when have fat people ever enjoyed dieting? Hear that, justabrother? Its time for Reparations Big Time!!
Comment on November 5, 2008 @ 11:40 pm
Dr. Crow
The hedge fund manager’s secretary pays far more than 25%. She lives in a city and is hit by city income taxes, state income taxes, social security tax, and all the other taxes like sales and real estate property tax.
She ought to pay a higher percentage of her income in taxes than the hedge fund manager, though, since she and her children cost just as much to educate as the hedge fund manager’s children. Who probably go to private schools anyway.
We have a regressive tax structure. We should have a regressive tax structure. Get over it.
Comment on November 6, 2008 @ 12:07 am
My only question is, they gathered in Ulysses S. Grant Park. This is Lincoln’s year. What about John Wilkes Booth?
Comment on November 6, 2008 @ 12:35 am
Hey Justabrother, you are going to pay my mortgage, kids tuition, etc. I’m going to quit my job and live and leach off of you, sucker. That is, unless you join me in my cardboard house, where if you do, I’ve got dibbs on the top bunk!
Comment on November 6, 2008 @ 8:41 am
Both parties take your money.
The only difference is, one spends it trying to kill brown people overseas, the other just gives it to poor people here.
I can tell you which I prefer…
Comment on November 6, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
the fact is it was the Repubican Congress and Republican Preident that cut taxes for the rich and started two wars that they couldn ‘t finish and cost trillions more than they thought they would.
It is a fact that we have two parties that represent the rich and the well off.
Why do the rich who profit so much from the governnment policies and the status quo resent paying almost any taxes at all?
EVerybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows that the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor and the rich get rich
that’s how it goes
Everybody knows
L Cohen
Comment on November 6, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
Thoughts:
Stealing from the rich to give to poor is still stealing.
The top 5 percent of earners in the country already pay something like 80% of the taxes. The bottom 50% are net recipients.
Chew on that for awhile.
Comment on November 6, 2008 @ 7:43 pm
[...] the new president looked a little, well, burdened on election night, chances are he'll age a couple of years in the six-hour span between the [...]
Pingback on November 7, 2008 @ 10:47 am
Crow,
What on earth makes you think that a hedge fund manager only pays 15% in taxes? You’re getting that tax rate confused with dividends, R-Tard. It IS over 30% of “normal” income for the high earners, and higher on bonuses. Everyone bitches about them taking millions in bonuses, etc, BUT THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER HALF IN MOST CASES, JAKCASSES! The GOVERNMENT gets more of the money than those whom it is technically paid to. Where is the outrage about that? What the F did the government do for it? Less than the hedgie manager, I assure you.
I’m really getting sick of this redistribution bullshit. Obama made comments about Joe the plumber like, “How many plumbers you know. . . make $250,000 a year?” Aside from his lack of grammatical skill, he completely forgot about the guy, and pulled the reference out of context. The plumber does not make a quarter mil. He is running a damned business! He has employees, trucks, horrendous taxes already (corporate is 36%), maybe even benefits to pay for on behalf of his employees, and then, THEN, when he can finally get around to paying himself for work that he does, and the stress of owning and managing a business, he gets to pay taxes on that too (if it’s an LLC)! He probably wouldn’t make any more than his employees. He’s trying to build equity in a business, provide a service to those who need it, employ people, feed a family and pay rent or a mortgage, just like anyone else. And all of the asshole liberals think he’s one of the rich guys. Where is his incentive? If he pays more in taxes (and this holds true for any business) he has less incentive to buy the business in the first place, and for all businesses, if he’s making less, he’ll layoff, not hire more, or raise prices for the end consumer so that he can cover new, higher costs. A redistributive tax is going to be paid for by everyone, I can guarantee it. It’s just a shuffle to pander to the masses and get votes. Wake up you effing morons! To quote James Cook, “The achilles heel of Liberalism is their refusal to see the damaging effect of subsidies.” Taxing the “rich guys” more is going to reduce incentive for all to achieve. Why achieve anything anymore when the government will take care of you? Get rid of your resentment toward the rich! They achieved, started businesses, employ idiots that want handouts from the government by pick pocketing them! Way to degrade society to beggers guys, way to go!
You all need to go to Austrian school. NOW.
Comment on November 7, 2008 @ 5:36 pm