'Jellyfish,
Left by the Tide,
on the Shore',
Galveston, Texas,
2001.
Governmentalism is not an ideology. It is a method of taking control of money, people, resources, and existing forms of government.
It is old news that the federal cumulative debt which climbed to $25 Billion from 1935-1981 now is $14.3 Trillion in 2011, only 30 years later.
Debt then largely was due to World Wars I and II, The Korean Conflict and other military actions, and the Vietnam War. The exponential rise in federal debt is attributed to military-industrial expense and the enormous growth of the social welfare-industrial complex.
What has changed to produce such exorbitant amounts of debt? Part of this may be attributed to the loss of voter and voter representative control of governmental policy and spending.
In the military sector, 'declared wars', after attack on the US, have become a thing of the past. Military expense can be incurred by the President of the US, acting as 'Commander in Chief', rather than by the consent of Congress. 'Who is to blame' strategies may deflect the anger of voters at election time, from Congressional Representatives and Senators to the current President and Administration. However, the debt incurred remains, and is increased by interest on the debt, year after year after year.
The same is true of the growth of the debt incurred by the social welfare-industrial complex. Court-ordered busing for desegregation happened through federal judges, political appointees, not elected officials. The impetus arose in metropolitan areas, where it was decided that 'inner city' colored students from low property value/low property tax neighborhoods were not achieving in school as were their suburban contemporaries. School districts were re-arranged to get tax money from higher value suburban neighborhoods and regions to support large metropolitan public school budgets. News reports revealed large amounts of lost money due to fraud in these 'inner city' area school districts. In some areas, state government took control of school districts to fund schools and provide standard education to all students in that state.
Education and funding continues to be problems. 'Inner city' students and parents have demanded vouchers to attend private schools. This is expensive and further complicates the problem of how to keep public school systems up to standards.
Part of the problem almost never addressed is the relative cultural value of education. The North Atlantic/European US population base values education and insists children go to school, do their homework, and try to do their best. This value is not uniformly held in ethnic populations. Many colored populations often believe 'getting along' or racial or ethnic 'community-building' is more important than literacy and basic school skills, in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Many Mexicans and other Central/South Americans in the US believe it is more important to get a vegetable cart, become a street vendor, or in some way go into business and start earning money early in life rather than go to school. Sometimes this may be necessary to have a place to live or food to eat. Sometimes it reflects a different view of society and how to survive or achieve.
Education too has become a focus for government contracting. Public schools as proposed by John Dewey were to provide teachers, basic supplies, books, paper, pencils, blackboards and chalk, and warm, dry rooms for students to learn how to read, write, and do arithmetic.
As budgets have dramatically increased, so have complaints about the educational efficacy and public safety of the public schools.
Taking issues too far for part of the population has produced unfairness for taxpaying voters who are told they are responsible for the new debt on a 'per capita' basis.
Yemen today is an example of what happens when government expands to take control of business and the entire economy. Riots and violence in the streets has spread there as in other North Africa-Middle Eastern regions. The Yemeni government seeks to quell the riots with socialist government style social welfare promises of more jobs, increases in job income, benefits, and assistance programs.
But when the government itself is in debt, what funds are available?
The UK has taken the remarkable stance of accepting that the British economy is not growing currently. The UK announced 4th quarter 2010 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has declined into the negative range. Social welfare programs are being reduced. British sales taxes have been increased.
The US still equates large money amounts with growth of the economy. Unfortunately, what is actually growing is debt. Cumulative debt, known as the federal deficit, involves interest on annual debt and is now 93% of GDP. Cumulative debt in the UK is about 50% of GDP.
Similar strategies to balance the annual budget, tax and other revenues with expenses are used in both countries. Clinton used this strategy during his administrations. Obama discussed this 'new balance' concept. But the cumulative debt continues to increase with interest, despite no new principal amounts added.
The bigger problem with government debt in Western countries is the basic assumption that tax payer revenues will cover government spending. When this does not happen a sort of tax aggressiveness occurs. Tax-collectors and people or groups who want funding attack taxpayers for money. Tax returns too frequently are re-written to put larger tax due amounts on government revenue accounts. This also is done to benefit tax-collectors; many now 'outsourced' in privatized tax-collection businesses of their own, seek wages, salaries, incentives and bonuses for themselves from tax revenue.
This is not an issue in 3rd world countries where socialists and military dictators make up their own budgets as they takeover governments. As the US immigrant population grows, this major difference in how governments are financed creates many disputes. Many European Americans, who have been in the US for 3 or 4 generations, have been more respectful of their countrymen, and do not demand more tax dollars from them. Unless they rely on government contractor income, they are wiser to not increase their own tax burden at tax time by demanding more government money or services for themselves or their causes.
Email mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com to comment or request a copy of this or other blogs posted by mary for monthlynotesstaff on http://monthlynotes21.blogspot.com (http://monthlynotes.blogspot.com through '21') on www.google.com. See http://monthlynotes18.blogspot.com or '19' for bloglists of titles and URLs.
Graphic: 'Jellyfish, Left by the Tide, on the Shore, Galveston, Texas, 2001, copyright mkrause381@gmail.com or mkrause54@yahoo.com.
Reference: 'Tackling debt in the UK: Liberals and conservatives work together by David Kerr, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, VA, Sunday, March 15, 2011.
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