"Stimulating Our Way to Rock Bottom" by: Ron Paul

[ThoughtCriminal]

Stimulating Our Way to Rock Bottom

With attention turning to the next big economic stimulus package, questions are still swirling about our economic troubles. How did we get here? How do we get out? As usual, Washington has all the wrong answers. According to many politicians, we got here by not spending enough, not consuming enough, and not regulating enough. Now government, like some mythical white knight, is going to ride in to save the day by blanketing the economy with dollars, hiring an army of new bureaucrats, creating make-work jobs, and sending everyone some form of a bailout check. The debate seems to focus on whether this will cost enough to save the economy, or if this is just a “down payment” with much more government spending to come. Talk like that would be comical, if the results weren’t going to be so tragic.

The results will be worsening economic woes until we learn our lesson. But instead Congress is behaving like drug addicts who must hit rock bottom before they are ready to face reality. They are playing foolish games with the economy now because they are thinking only of political expedience. This talk of job creation is a perfect example.

Contrary to the belief of many, the goal of the economy is not job creation. Jobs can be a sign of a healthy economy, as a high energy level can be a sign of a healthy body. But just as unhealthy substances can artificially give the addict that burst of energy that has nothing to do with health, artificially created jobs just exacerbate our problems. The goal of a healthy economy is productivity. Jobs are a positive outcome of that. A “job” could be to dig a hole one day, and fill it back up the next, or perhaps the equivalent at a desk. This does no one any good. But the value in that paycheck ultimately has to come from taxing someone productive. Some think this round-robin type of economic model is supposed to get us somewhere.

Politicians and bureaucrats have already done their fair share to ensure that jobs in the private sector are prohibitively complicated and expensive to create. They are now shocked that the economy is shedding jobs, and want to simply create hundreds of thousands of jobs to make up for the job losses, through another so-called economic stimulus package. The private sector must be permitted to do that, but instead they are massively burdened with taxes and webs of red tape and regulation. Washington’s bandaids will only prolong this agony. The Austrian school of economics teaches that only a free market economy, unencumbered by onerous government controls, creates long-term prosperity. Politicians, however, tend to be notoriously short-sighted.

I am left with these questions – who is going to be left standing to tax in the private sector to pay for all these public sector make-work jobs? Is Washington really to be considered some sort of savior for creating unproductive jobs in place of the productive jobs they eliminated?

We are at an economic dead-end and those in power are in denial. The truth is our economic problems are due to loose monetary policy, central economic planning, and the parasitic expenses of government. Unless we assess these problems honestly, we unfortunately have a long way to go until, like the junkie, we hit rock bottom.

[Tango Victor]

Very well said. I'm afraid unless these folks come to their senses we may go into in a death spiral in which we cannot recover.

[jerkin]

Hard to believe that the man had so little support in his quest for the presidency.

[Dredly]

Hard to believe that the man had so little support in his quest for the presidency.

Ron Paul is not an electable candidate, he never will be. There are WAY to many people out there who want MORE gov't handouts, not less.

Obama ran on the "We will give you everything you want" platform, and he won by a comfortable margin. Ron Paul ran on the "Earn your own way" platform... and he never even made it past the first 2 - 3 months without being blacklisted.

The gov't WANTS us to NEED them. They NEED it, as soon as we aren't relying on them for every little item then they start to lose the power that they have over us. As long as they have a hand in every aspect of our day to day lives then they are controlling us and they are in power. AS soon as this stops then suddenly a nice comfy gov't job isn't nearly as much fun anymore.

He will never be president... what a shame. he is exactly what the US needs

[PocketProtector]

Very well said. I'm afraid unless these folks come to their senses we may go into in a death spiral in which we cannot recover.

I think the truth may be: The Left wants it just that way.
There's a great Rahm audio clip declaring that this economic disaster not be wasted. That now they can probably get things passed that they wouldn't have dreamed of before and to not waste the opportunity.
I will post it when I find it again.....enlightening to say the least.



Oh and another $350 B on the way. These are going to be Historic times.

[andrewjs18]

Ron Paul is not an electable candidate, he never will be. There are WAY to many people out there who want MORE gov't handouts, not less.

Obama ran on the "We will give you everything you want" platform, and he won by a comfortable margin. Ron Paul ran on the "Earn your own way" platform... and he never even made it past the first 2 - 3 months without being blacklisted.

The gov't WANTS us to NEED them. They NEED it, as soon as we aren't relying on them for every little item then they start to lose the power that they have over us. As long as they have a hand in every aspect of our day to day lives then they are controlling us and they are in power. AS soon as this stops then suddenly a nice comfy gov't job isn't nearly as much fun anymore.

He will never be president... what a shame. he is exactly what the US needs

ditto...what a shame.

[original gunner]

Ron Paul should get to work. Does he want to revive the dollar? He is very academic and disconnected in his remarks. He could be viable in 2012 if he produces something other than ideas. Im not totally sure of his intentions but I like him generally.

[Carnes]

He will never be president... what a shame. he is exactly what the US needs

If more people had more confidence he might have a chance. Obama won because he had people united behind him, "Yes we can" ring a bell? Paul lost because the majority of people that like him say, "He'll never be president." If you really think that Paul is what the US needs you may want to try supporting him. It is easier to get more people to come on board when they see other people already on the wagon. At the very least, please stop with this, "He will never be pres" crap because it is really damaging to Paul's chances of actually making a difference.

If every single person who likes Paul would stand up and say, "He is the right guy for us. It is going to be a fight, but dammit I am going to do the best I can in supporting him," I think he would have an excellent shot at becoming POTUS.

[Dredly]

If more people had more confidence he might have a chance. Obama won because he had people united behind him, "Yes we can" ring a bell? Paul lost because the majority of people that like him say, "He'll never be president." If you really think that Paul is what the US needs you may want to try supporting him. It is easier to get more people to come on board when they see other people already on the wagon. At the very least, please stop with this, "He will never be pres" crap because it is really damaging to Paul's chances of actually making a difference.

If every single person who likes Paul would stand up and say, "He is the right guy for us. It is going to be a fight, but dammit I am going to do the best I can in supporting him," I think he would have an excellent shot at becoming POTUS.

Ron Paul is the president of Americans who believe in the Constitution... aka: the minority

[Lougotzz]

dredly you are right on. I wish more people think like you. We got troubles big troubles!!!