Some conservatives increasingly reject America's well-established classical liberal traditions of laissez-faire and free choice. These conservatives insist that we need a strong state to "make America great again." They're wrong.
Even if the COVOID-19 virus turns out to be more severe than the skeptics give us reason to think it is, we can get through it. We cannot survive the end of the division of labor. It would be the finish of civilization as we know it.
Printing up paper money—which is the Fed's solution to nearly everything—will not bring about a miraculous replacement of the lost goods and services or repair broken supply chains.
Even if discretionary spending stays flat, total government outlays are estimated to increase by more than $1 trillion, significantly above any measure of tax revenues. And that is without considering a possible recession.
Today's neoconservatives have found common cause with the Left in destroying those who disagree with them. In fact, this habit of denying a forum to any and all dissenters has a long tradition in the conservative movement.
As the government continues to pile up trillion dollar deficits, when interest rates return to a historical norm, interest payments on the national debt may exceed payments to Social Security recipients.
Middle-income households and workers haven't been disappearing. They've been moving into higher income levels, while the lowest-income groups have been getting smaller. But another recession could erase many of the gains made over 20 years.
