My blog's subtitle says I'm "libertarian-leaning." A reader asked me what that means.I believe the free market yields the best products and services for the most people. However, free-market capitalism in today's and especially tomorrow's global, high-tech, information-centric, high-IQ-requiring economy, will leave MOST people unable to compete and therefore, without receiving charity, destitute.
Socialist and liberal-democrat policies provide that charity, albeit with mind-boggling inefficiency. Part of that forced taxpayer charity, alas, likely includes our paying for an ever more bloated government, often hiring three low-performing people to what one reasonably competent, motivated person could do, work that may be only marginally beneficial to and even hurtful to society.
I cringe, for example, at the net effects of governments' massive regulatory and paperwork and financial requirements even of small business. A partial list: Workers Comp, SSDI, Social Security, ADA, FMLA , EEOC, MediCare, ObamaCare, Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodds-Frank--and then there are the state and local government mandates!
That virtually ensures that the U.S. will be--not withstanding blips--in a permanent jobless nonrecovery. How can U.S. companies compete with China, India, etc., when U.S. salaries are three times as high, and on top of that, all those government burdens?
Especially with the people most likely to be highly productive, non-violent citizens having the fewest babies, there are no really good solutions.
4 comments:
Limit the number of children any one couple can have... by doing so we eliminate youngest, oldest, and middle problems, but we also eliminate people using children to plump up their welfare check, and the number of careless parents and the dead beat children that come from them. It works in Asia; why not give it a shot here?
I agree with Denise. Family planning commitments must be part of any government charity program.
I for one believe that we should investigate inter-generational welfare participants and offer them the cash value of their yearly benefits in exchange for voluntary sterilization.
Also, reform current laws that if you have one child already, having another will not qualify you for more benefits. The only thing the government should sponsor is family planning counseling and subsidizing the more permanent and effective methods of birth control, namely sterilization, the pill and any Norplant like inserted devices.
We should not be subsidizing single parenthood of the most unqualified to parent, which was the end result of welfare expansion.
Any current welfare claimants should have their checks tied to both their child's behavior, attendance and school performance (like maintaining a C average). Right now it's only tied to attendance in places like NY. For kid's with behavioral problems, pay for the counseling only and don't give a bigger check. Same with the dysfunctional parent of said child. Don' give them more money; pay for services to enable them to become independent and productive.
That being said, anyone who seeks public assistance of any kind should also be screened for mental health issues like depression which frequently are disabling and can be perceived as laziness.
But we do need to pay people to stop breeding not having children.
Here's one man's idea on how a libertarian government might work.
When India produces as much per person as the U.S. produces per person, then U.S. salaries will equal Indian salaries.
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