Big Government

Sponsored by Nicholas Maier.

For all of the talk about Kamala Harris being a socialist, she certainly does not advocate socialism of the kind we have seen under the old USSR or Mao’s China. Instead, her version has characteristics of Italy in the 1920s and the more notorious German version of the 1930s.

The Harris-Walz campaign has adopted “freedom” as its watchword slogan, but it is a version of freedom that is more fitting for something from one of Orwell‘s works than freedom in the classical sense.

In its so-called war against “hate,” the state determines who are the villains and then instructs everyone else to hate the “haters.” As one might expect, the state then engages in a campaign of vilification and intimidation against the newly-designated enemy.

While some economists are lauding the idea of the “entrepreneurial state,” the reality is that such a term turns the very concept of entrepreneurship on its head. By nature, the state cannot act as an entrepreneur.

Remember when progressive governments outlawed church gatherings but sanctioned sex orgies? Yes, it really happened. 

When discussing the homeless situation in the US, Star Trek does not usually come to mind. However, one episode from about three decades ago was both insightful and prophetic in presenting what would be homelessness in San Francisco.

FEMA’s very existence and response mechanisms are fundamentally flawed.

Storms like Helene and Milton ought to drive us to recommit to and expand the very institutions that have made natural disasters more survivable for so many, not to abandon them out of some false hope that bad weather can be eliminated. 

America is always on the verge of finally having "honest government." Of course, what passes for “honest government” is a government that efficiently takes wealth from productive people and transfers it to those who are politically-connected.