A Dangerous Servant or a Fearful Master (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Government would have us believe that it’s a vital, necessary and beneficial institution that’s always “here to help us”. We’re expected to trust all governmental institutions as benign, even when government spies on us or manages the economy in ways that seem incomprehensible.
But is today’s government truly our benefactor? Or, as George Washington once observed, is all government “like fire—a dangerous servant or a fearful master”?
I agree with Washington. Government is, at best, a “dangerous servant”. I see the relationship between most people and their government as adversarial rather than beneficial. In fact, I regard government—not just our own, but every government in the world—as the principle enemy of their nation’s people.
It doesn’t take intelligence to see this truth. It takes courage.
We don’t want to see our government as our enemy. We want to believe government’s various slogans and claims of beneficence. For example, when government sends our military to fight in Viet Nam, Iraq or Afghanistan, we want to believe that our soldiers are “fighting for our freedoms”.
But to those who take comfort in believing that our soldiers are fighting for our freedoms, I’d say “name two”.
In other words, can you name just two “freedoms” (freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, etc.) that have been threatened by any foreign adversary in your lifetime? Can you name any two such freedoms that have been fought for and won or preserved by our military?
I can’t.
In fact, when I think about American freedoms being lost, I see only one institution in all the world that’s persistently depriving the Americans of their freedoms: the American government.
Russia hasn’t taken my freedom of religion. China hasn’t limited my freedom of speech. Iraq has done nothing to restrict my right to keep and bear arms. Instead, in each instance when American freedoms are being restricted, diminished or lost, the cause for those lost freedoms is found primarily in Washington DC.
• The problem of government adversity is huge, growing and scary. How can you and I fight or even resist the almighty government? Isn’t it more comforting to see government as our friend than as our “dangerous servant”? Don’t we usually look the other way and avoid facing truth while we wait hopefully for another president to be elected, or for whichever political party is currently “out” to come back “in” to power?
After all, this is America—God’s chosen country, right? Surely, our freedoms will inevitably be restored when the current politicians are voted out and new ones voted in—right? We won’t have to fight for our freedoms. Instead, someone else will do the fighting for us. After all, our government must be working for our best interests. While gov-co might make some mistakes from time to time, it will correct those mistakes as soon as they are apparent—right?
Wrong.
If government were really working for the best interests—and especially the freedoms—of average Americans, we could expect that at least some significant government initiatives to be undeniably beneficial. Sure, government may inadvertently institute some idiotic or even oppressive programs from time to time (the Patriot Act and domestic spying programs come to mind), but government also institutes some programs that expand our rights and freedoms, too—right? I.e., if half of significant government legislation and rules are oppressive, at least half are beneficial—right?
Wrong—and wrong.
Make a list of legislation you know to be oppressive and another list of laws that truly serve average Americans. If government intentions were truly “benign,” you should be able to point at least some legislation that increased our rights and freedoms rather than our oppression.
Call me a pessimist if you must, but so far as I can see, government never gets it right. I can’t think of a law in my lifetime that expanded my freedoms. Worse, gov-co’s persistent failure to “do right” is evidence that gov-co intends to oppress us.
Diminishing freedoms and rising oppression aren’t aberrations or mistakes. They’re the result of government’s adverse relationship to the American people and determination to render us subjects rather than free men.
Our enemy, the government, isn’t destroying America by accident—it’s by intent.
It’s not hard to see that truth, but it is hard to face that truth. Facing that truth requires courage.
Sure, some special interests like gays, illegal aliens and multi-national corporations may cheer big government for expanding their rights. But I can’t recall any significant legislation that benefited average Americans in several decades. Instead, increased rights for special interests inevitably come at the cost of former rights and freedoms of the now-shrinking middle class.
Yes, the 5% of Americans who are gay will have the right to “marry,” but the 80% who believe in God will see their faith (which declares homosexuality to be an “abomination”) diminished. 20 million illegal aliens may cheer for amnesty, but a similar number of native-born Americans will lose their jobs. Multi-national corporations may applaud the removal of tariffs and the increase in “global free trade,” but the majority of American workers will see their wages and standard of living decline as they’re forced to compete head-on with cheap Chinese labor.
• The term “Quantitative Easing” (QE) describes the Federal Reserve’s post-2008 policy of injecting over $2 trillion in fiat currency into the economy. QE’s purpose is to increase the domestic money supply to a point where people spend more freely. It’s presumed that as consumers spend more, more products and services will be purchased, employers will hire more employees, unemployment will sink, and the resulting economic “stimulation” will end the recession.
QE has seemingly worked insofar as the economy “stabilized”. Admittedly, the economy hasn’t “recovered” from the recent recession, but it hasn’t collapsed, either.
Still, after four years and $2 trillion of QE, a question lingers: Why hasn’t QE caused more inflation?
The Economic Collapse blog answered that question in an article entitled, “The Federal Reserve Is Paying Banks NOT To Lend 1.8 Trillion Dollars To The American People”. The banks have not only received nearly $2 trillion but have also been paid by the Federal Reserve to simply sit on those QE funds and not lend them to the American people. Since most of the $2 trillion spent on QE never reached the public, QE also failed to precipitate massive inflation. But, more importantly, those QE funds also never stimulated the economy.
“Back in 2008, U.S. banks had less than $2 billion of excess reserves parked at the Fed. Today, they have almost $2 trillion. In less than five years, the pile of excess reserves has grown nearly 1,000 times larger.”
University of Texas Professor Robert Auerbach explained:
“One reason that the excess reserves grew [from $2 billion to nearly $2 trillion] is that in October 2008, one month after the financial crisis began, the Bernanke Fed began paying interest on bank reserves. Although it has been [only] 1/4 of 1 percent interest, this risk free rate was not low compared to the Fed’s policy of keeping short-term market rates near zero. The interest banks received was and is an incentive to hold the excess reserves rather than lend to consumers and businesses in the risky environment of the major recession and the slow recovery.
“The Bernanke Fed is now facing a $1.863 trillion time bomb (that they helped create) of excess reserves in the private banking system. If rates of interest on income earning assets (including bank loans to consumers and businesses) rise, the Fed will have to pay the banks more interest to hold their excess reserves.”
I.e., if interest rates rise significantly, banks will have an incentive to take QE funds out of the Fed and start lending it.
Worst case result? A potential “avalanche” of nearly $2 trillion—about 25 times the current QE3 of $85 billion/month—pouring into the economy. That $2 trillion could cause hyper-inflation, dollar devaluation and a possible economic collapse
I don’t expect to see a “worst case result.” I doubt that the banks will suddenly release all $2 trillion parked at the Federal Reserve into the economy.
But if Professor Auerbach’s report is true, it follows that the Fed chairman Bernanke and President Obama must have known that nearly $2 trillion of QEs 1, 2 & 3 have not yet reached the economy and has therefore had no “stimulative” effect. If so, how could anyone in government have honestly supposed that QE would ever stimulate an economic recovery?
If gov-co knows that—as administered—QE wouldn’t foster an economic recovery, it follows that government doesn’t want an economic recovery. They seemingly want a recession/depression for reasons that may advance government power, but will cause great poverty, lost rights and possible chaos for most Americans.
Gov-co is undeniably here to help the banks. But is government really here to help average Americans? Or is gov-co here to impoverish us and reduce us to the status of subjects and dependents?
It doesn’t take intelligence to answer that question. It takes courage.
• How ‘bout illegal aliens? They’re the folks who allegedly “take the jobs that Americans don’t want.” But do they take the jobs we don’t want? Or do they take the wages we don’t want?
According to The Washington Times (“Immigrants account for all job gains since 2000: native-born workers’ employment has fallen”),
“Immigrants—both legal and illegal—have accounted for all of the job gains in the U.S. labor market since 2000 . . . . A Center for Immigration Studies report . . . says 22.4 million immigrants of working age held jobs at the beginning of this year, up 5.3 million over the total in 2000. But native-born workers with jobs dropped 1.3 million over that same period . . . .”
Illegal aliens aren’t employed because they’re adept at English or snappy dressers. They’re employed because they work cheap. As they “take the wages American don’t want,” they help depress average Americans’ incomes. Government must know that by granting amnesty to illegal aliens, they’ll help deprive more “native-born” Americans of their jobs and their former wages.
Do you think government that allows, encourages and even rewards illegal aliens is “here to help us”?
• Here’s another example of government working against the American people. According to The Economic Collapse (“Wall Street Banks Extract Enormous Fees From The Paychecks Of Millions Of American Workers”), an increasing number of U.S. companies pay their workers with payroll “debit” cards rather than checks.
“Today, there are 4.6 million active payroll cards in the United States, issued by some of the largest banks—including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. The big problem with these cards is that there is often a fee for just about everything that you do with them.”
There’s a $1.75 fee for withdrawing earnings in the form or cash from an ATM machine. Want a paper statement? $2.95. Lost card? $6. There’s even a $7 fee if your card been inactive for a while.
Admittedly, it’s not government that’s collecting those fees, but government has passed laws that allow big banks to systematically extract huge fees from the working poor.
CNBC recently explored the problem:
“These fees can take such a big bite out of paychecks that some employees end up making less than the minimum wage once the charges are taken into account . . . . Devonte Yates, 21, who earns $7.25 an hour working at a McDonald’s in Milwaukee, says he spends $40 to $50 a month on fees associated with his JPMorgan Chase payroll card.”
If Mr. Yates is employed 30 hours a week, his after-tax earnings might be about $600 per month. $50 in fees each month equals an 8% “tribute” that Mr. Yates has to pay the banks for the “privilege” of being paid by debit card rather than by check.
If you were a banker, how’d you like to receive a 5% to 8% tribute on the monthly incomes of millions of American workers? The profit potential would be enormous. But, is it fair that—after government imposes an income tax on however much the workers earn, and a sales tax on whatever the workers then spend—that gov-co allows banks to rip workers off for another 5% to 8% for the “convenience” of using payroll debit cards?
Are these payroll card fees evidence of that government is here to help us or here to exploit and oppress us? Is government working for our best interests—or for the bankers’ best interests?
It doesn’t take brains to answer these questions, but it does take balls to face those questions.
• And then there’s the Affordable Care Act—“ObamaCare”. What a cartoon, that is—hmm?
ObamaCare was initially sold as “health care” for all. But, in fact, ObamaCare was intended from the onset to be “rationed”. Rationing means that ObamaCare was never intended to provide adequate health care for everyone. In fact, under ObamaCare, there’s a good chance that the total quantity of health care available to Americans will actually decline.
As a result of rationing, ObamaCare includes a proviso for what’s come to be called “death panels” composed of bureaucrats who will decide who receives or is denied access to limited health care resources. In general, if two people are vying for a similar costly medical procedure and one of them is 20 years old and the other is 65, the government will provide health care for the 20-year old (the “human resource” who will likely work and pay taxes to gov-co for another 45 years) and leave the 65-year old (who may pay no more income taxes but instead collect So-So Security from government for the next 20 years) to die.
In this way, ObamaCare will reduce health care costs by shortening life expectancy of the elderly and thereby reduce government’s pension liability to senior citizens.
Is government “here to help us” when they pass programs likely to reduce our life expectancy?
• ObamaCare was initially sold as “free”. In fact, it will be prohibitively expensive for many people. The basic “bronze” program will probably cost about $5,000 per person per year. Those taxpayers who don’t want to cough up the $5,000 can expect to be fined by the IRS.
Even Congress (which enacted ObamaCare without bothering to read the bill) is upset by the costs. Whoever drafted ObamaCare neglected to include an exception for congressional staff members. Since ObamaCare is so expensive, it appears that Congress will lose many of its own staff who can’t afford the ObamaCare insurance premiums.
Therefore, Congress has been holding secret hearing to figure out how they can amend ObamaCare to exempt themselves and their staff. Of course, there are no secret hearings to exempt all the rest of the “chumps” (taxpayers) out there in TV-land. ObamaCare will be great for the great unwashed, but not good enough for congressional staff. (As George Orwell warned in Animal Farm, “All animals are created equal—but some animals are created ‘more equal’.”)
And here’s the punch line: Despite ObamaCare’s original intent to provide health care for the uninsured, the Wall St. Cheat Sheet reports (“Here’s Who Obamacare is Leaving Behind”) that,
“Expanding Medicaid is essential to the Affordable Care Act’s two-part strategy for covering the uninsured—but because many states have not expanded Medicaid coverage as President Barack Obama initially planned, nearly two in three uninsured low-income Americans who would qualify for subsidized coverage under the act might just be out of luck. . . . Of the 15 million potentially eligible adults, 9.7 million live in states that have refused to expand Medicaid . . . . The fact that a majority of people most in need of access to health care will likely remain uninsured is a predicament unforeseen by the president and congressional Democrats who designed the provision. The law’s pledge that all U.S. residents will be able to afford health insurance will not be fulfilled . . . .”
Gee, there’s a surprise. The geniuses in Washington DC designed some “signature legislation” that no one—not even Congress—can stand or make work.
On one level, it’s hilarious. Government of the people, by the morons and for the banks.
But it’s not funny. It’s evidence that government is either grossly incompetent or intentionally subjecting Americans to legislation that we can’t afford and may not survive.
Every time we see major legislation, it means big trouble for the average American and middle class. Result? The middle class is shrinking while the lower classes expand. The trend is strong, persistent and without obvious exception. That means it’s intentional.
America is being intentionally destroyed by its own government.
• And then there’s gold.
The US Treasury reportedly holds over 8,200 tons of gold—the world’s largest reported stockpile. That’s the American people’s gold.
But our stockpile of gold hasn’t been audited since A.D. 1953. We’re led to believe all that gold is in Ft. Knox or the New York Federal Reserve’s vaults, but we can’t actually check and see. We’re supposed to take and trust government’s word on the matter.
OK—but who is dumb enough to trust the government’s word on anything? Does any living adult who’s interested in the rates of inflation or unemployment or the size of the national debt believe the government’s “word” as to those numbers is even close to accurate? Isn’t it common knowledge that government routinely lies to us about economic indicators so as to avoid diminishing “public confidence”? If so, why should anyone automatically believe government’s claims that we still have all 8,200 tons of gold?
Many observers contend there’s good reason to believe that our government has been secretly selling the US Treasury’s gold to foreign banks and governments for a decade or more. If so, much, most, maybe almost all of the 8,200 tons of gold that Americans are supposed to own may be missing.
If gov-co has secretly sold off some substantial portion of the US Treasury’s gold, it’s no small thing. In the event of an economic collapse, and the resulting loss of the US government’s credit, we’ll need that gold as capital to rebuild our economy. Without that gold, any coming depression may be much deeper and longer than might otherwise be the case. Without that gold, an entire generation of Americans could be deeply and indefinitely impoverished and perhaps subjected to a reduced life expectancy.
Secretly selling our gold is arguably an act of treason.
• America is being destroyed by its own government. The evidence of that destruction isn’t hard to find, but it is hard to face. That destruction will continue until the American people find the courage to admit that government is not “here to help us” but is, instead, the “dangerous servant” that’s morphing into a “fearful master”.
Want an economic recovery?
Well, you could read a lot of books and articles and write letters to the editor or Congress.
But if you can’t find the courage to fight for freedom, I guarantee that you’ll be both a subject and impoverished.
If you really want an American recovery, first thing you do is grow a pair sufficient to see the truth and then force Congress to serve our general welfare rather than special interests.