Comments on: McClintock schools Congress and President on fiscal cliff

By: Hondo

Hondo — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:52:14 +0000

I do wish Mr. McClintock would stop boring us with these pesky facts. No one reports them anyways.
Hondo….

By: CalWatchdog

CalWatchdog — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:34:34 +0000

Dyspeptic – you are right. The CATO institute explains this really well: “The economic conception of society is an affront to the conceit of those who would impose order from above. Economic forces defy the will of authoritarians seeking to mold social outcomes. Human beings respond to each government intervention by rearranging their lives so as to minimize its disruptive effects. The resulting outcome may thus be different from and even opposed to the intention of the intervention.”

and more…

“In perhaps the best chapter of The Road to Serfdom, Hayek details “Why the Worst Get on Top” in totalitarian societies. The chapter begins with a quotation from Lord Acton: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Hayek then elaborates the Actonian insight.

There are strong reasons for believing that what to us appear the worst features of the existing totalitarian systems are not accidental by-products but phenomena which totalitarianism is certain sooner or later to produce. Just as the democratic statesman who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans, so the totalitarian dictator would soon have to choose between disregard of ordinary morals and failure. It is for this reason that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending toward totalitarianism. Who does not see this has not yet grasped the full width of the gulf which separates totalitarianism from a liberal regime, the utter difference between the whole moral atmosphere under collectivism and the essentially individualist Western civilization.”

Katy

By: Dyspeptic

Dyspeptic — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:05:57 +0000

From a purely political perspective this whole fiscal cliff charade is a can’t lose proposition for King Barack. He gets to back the idiot Republicans into a corner and force them to break a promise, thereby destroying what little credibility they have left with their voting base. And, he gets a mostly symbolic tax increase on the 2% which will do nothing to reduce budget deficits, about which he cares doodley squat. As an added bonus, he gets to throw hundreds of thousands of people in the hated private sector out of work while providing them with extended unemployment benefits which will turn them into grateful government dependents. Brutally cynical of course, but pure political gold.

Hayek was right, the worst among us really do end up running things.