The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

It is a fact that every great historical empire has had its day, and then gone into decline . . . Greece, Rome, England flourished for a time and then became weak and corrupt, losing the courage and character that made them great. The United States may be coming upon its time of decline.


Whether the Democrats or Republicans have power seems no longer to matter in the least. George Bush increased the size of government more than Bill Clinton. Obama is increasing the government now as never before in American history. Even Reagan increased the size of government, contrary to what Republicans would like you to believe. The idea that the Nanny State will take care of you, guarantee that you have food, shelter, health care, is popular with young people these days who hold the boring details of economics and business in contempt, and with old people worrying about paying the mounting medical bills.

Both political parties have gradually, incrementally increased the size of government, so that a huge percentage of the populace now works for the government. Another huge percentage of the populace is dependent upon government largess to keep going in the form of welfare, food stamps, and various credits and subsidies. Those two segments combined now have control of the political processes. In the name of the "common good" they seize ever more wealth from those they condemn as evil: corporations, capitalists and entrepreneurs.

Some 60% of the populace pays virtually nothing in taxes, especially if you include "tax credits" or government payouts in the equation. The the non taxpayers are also the political majority, who rule in a democracy.

Those who produce the wealth by creating technology and businesses are held in contempt, and the wealth they produce is seized by politicians to redistribute to their needy greedy political base.

When the government bureaucrats and political parasites become the majority, in a democratic government, is there a way out? At that historical point, there is no longer any political limitation upon the power of the majority to simply seize what ever they want from the minority who created wealth by their intelligence, creativity and hard work. The political majority is now free to eat the rich as the Roman mobs demanded their bread and circus.

And please note that every dollar spent by the government for "public works" and every dollar spent by some "non profit" institution must be first produced by some capitalist swine who first created it in some business. If there are no business profits, government will collapse and non profits will go bankrupt.

But what happens when the rich are fully consumed? What happens when the golden goose is eaten? It seems to me that sooner than we like, we may find out the answer to this frightening question.