Back to the USSA
Welcome to the sovietization of an America we once knew...
(Source: Getty Images)
Bill Bonner, reckoning today from Poitou, France...
We are overcome with gratitude. We might have been born any time. But we were born in 1948, when antibiotics saved our life. We grew up when living was cheap and easy… and what luck!...we were so poor we could only go in one direction – up.
Nor were we burdened by any of today’s confusions. Would we be better off identifying as a girl? The thought never crossed our minds. Did we have a grudge against our parents… did society let us down… should we blame someone else if we were unhappy? We didn’t know it was an option.
We went to school when the Rolling Stones and the Doors were rolling out hit songs… and when it was still possible to ‘work your way through’ college. We started a business with almost zero financing…
…and were able to earn enough money to be able to live comfortably.
And then, more good luck… along came the internet that allowed us to move overseas, expand our business and explore other places, people, and cultures in depth.
And finally, here we are… wonder of wonders…
…in the 8th decade of our life.
Dumb and Dumber?
And now, the feds and the educated elite are putting on such a great show… such a rollicking, frolicking display; every day is a laughfest! A great Carnival of Claptrap. A Jamboree of Jackassery.
Just read the headlines:
Why I Feel Guilty About Being A White Mother
How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol
At signing, Biden says IRA bill will fight climate change, …
What a great world. What great fun! Yes… it’s a great time to be alive. Only… except… but… It’s too bad the feds are ruining it.
Wait. How could that be? The federal government has been around for a long time. So have the two parties. They haven’t wrecked the country yet.
Have they gotten dumber? More incompetent? More corrupt?
Yes, they have.
Hey, Big Spenders!
In our early career, the federal government was an obvious menace to civil society, progress and prosperity. But it seemed to be more or less under control. Yes, there were plenty of people who wanted to expand federal power and use it to realize their fantasies of a better world. But there were “conservatives” too – who were usually, or eventually, able to slow them down.
Senator Robert A. Taft, for example, led opposition to the New Deal. Ronald Reagan had decent conservative instincts but was hornswoggled by his own allies. Ron Paul continues to be a very lonely voice for restraint.
But the old conservatives have largely disappeared; they’ve been replaced by war mongers, dumbbells and big spenders.
“So what’s the problem?” asks the naïve observer. “You say the feds are leading us to Hell in a handcart. But as a percentage of GDP, they’re no bigger a nuisance today than they were under Nixon or Reagan.”
In 2019 the Federal Budget/GDP was 20% – almost the same as it was when Taft died in 1953. Then came the Covid Panic. The feds, from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders, pretended that the threat of the coronavirus was like the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Without conservatives to stop them, they went on a spending spree. Federal outlays rose to over 30% of GDP.
Back to the USSA
But that’s only part of the story. Federal regulations determine where and how resources are used too. And the effect is cumulative. George Washington University has a Regulatory Studies Center. It keeps track of “economically significant” regulations, which it defines as those having an impact of $100 billion or more.
When we were in our youthful prime during the Reagan years, the feds were promulgating about 20 of these regulations per year, with a total economic impact of at least $2 trillion. Today, Joe Biden’s team is on track to put forth 63 new regulations per year, with a total impact over $6 trillion.
These regulatory edicts represent a huge, and largely unnoticed creep of federal power. If we average the intervening years at 40 per year, we can assume a total cost of $160 trillion, or more than 6 times today’s GDP, since 1980.
That is a measure of how much bossier and more wasteful the federal government has become. It also helps explain why growth rates and productivity have declined. For the first time in our lives, neither is positive. Both are going backwards.
In effect, the US economy has been Sovietized, shackled by central planning. As we see in the latest boondoggle – the Inflation Reduction Act – Washington hacks increasingly decide what kind of car you will drive… what kind of kitchen stove you will use… where and how you will live. And as in the Soviet experiment of 1917-1991, the results are grim.
All we can do is laugh.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
Everybody blames the gov. for our woes. I blame you and me. Demand more free stuff and you will get it at your own expense. politicians will give away the moon and the stars to get your vote. I cannot believe the founding fathers did not include term limits for all maggots in government. When the voters are standing in the back yard scratching their posterior and screaming what happened tell them to go look in the mirror ; that is where their understanding should start. You do a great service to the country Bill and I appreciate what you do. Thank you.
Khrushchev 60 years ago...."Your children's children will live under communism. You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept communism outright; but, we will keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you will finally wake up and find you already have Communism.” This is from a Twitter post by Nikki Halley. Fact checkers say it is false, however I can remember my mother repeatedly saying that Khrushchev said that my children would be communists, so it may be that the press interpreted what he said. At another time, Khrushchev actually said “I have already said that the words ‘We will bury capitalism’ should not be taken literally, as is done by ordinary gravediggers who carry a spade and dig graves and bury the dead. What I had in mind was the outlook for the development of human society. Socialism will inevitably succeed capitalism.” Either way, here we are.