Maggie's Farm links to a provocative article by James V. DeLong about the role of special interests in destroying our country:
"a democratic republic can survive and flourish as a welfare state, one
in which a reasonable majority of citizens votes to provide protection
against a selected set of risks and to pay for it. Conflicts will occur
over the specific boundaries and burdens, but these are incidental. But a democratic republic cannot long survive as a special interest
state. The destruction of economic value is too complete, as interests
channel the money into unproductive uses—housing and education bubbles;
alternative energy; battalions of compliance officers; a ruling class
that depends on the iron rice bowl of the government giving its members
jobs telling the masses what to do."
"As Jay Cost documents in Spoiled Rotten: How the Politics of Patronage Corrupted the Once Noble Democratic Party and Now Threatens the American Republic,
the Democratic Party has become “a kind of national Tammany Hall whose
real purpose is to colonize the federal government on behalf of its
clients.” Its coalition of True Greens, public employees, unions,
feminists, trial lawyers, crony capitalists, academic and foundation
dependents, victimization advocates, and poverty profiteers understands
this very well, and holds together despite considerable internal
antipathy."
Read more here: http://www.american.com/archive/2012/june/its-not-a-welfare-state-its-a-special-interest-state
No comments:
Post a Comment