How does government wreck the economy? Anything that unbalances markets causes the markets to rebalance in
ways that costs people money and hurts the poor.
How does government wreck the economy? Anything that unbalances markets causes the markets to rebalance in
ways that costs people money and hurts the poor.
High taxes destroy the economy by destroying businesses and sending jobs overseas.
Under the current tax systems, the poor are taxed by Social Security, Medicare, Income, Property, and Sales taxes. Property tax definitely costs the poor who own a house. And under the current government-first laws, property tax can take a poor person's house away. But the effect of property tax on rents is hidden. That truth is that all of the property tax for the unit is paid from the rent payment. There is no other source of money to pay the tax. So the tenant pays the entire property tax bill on the rental unit. In addition, business taxes almost double prices and cause job losses. Business declines twice as fast as the tax rates increase.
Government putting itself first hurts everyone else.
When poor people owe taxes, the government wrongly puts itself first. It takes all of the property of the poor away and sells it to get the money to pay the taxes. Instead, the government should not be taxing the poor at all. Greedy government doesn't care about the poor as much as it cares for its stupid self. Government greed also causes businesses to fail or move overseas. And government is about to make poor people spend more money if they want to keep watching their TVs, with the stupid conversion to digital TV. Government is too greedy!
Wage and price controls always have very bad side-effects.
Wage and price controls always create surpluses and/or shortages that are worse than the problem the controls were enacted to correct. The minimum wage causes a shortage of jobs. A wage ceiling would cause a job surplus. Maximum limits on prices cause shortages of products that cost more to make. The gas lines of the 1970s were caused by price controls, not an "energy crisis." Farm price supports cause surpluses. Government has no power to control the economy without making a big mess.
Government squandering money on expensive baubles.
Government overtaxes everyone to pay for lovely baubles that nobody needs, but that legislators want. This overtaxing affects everyone, especially the poor, through direct taxes, and indirectly through higher prices and rents caused by taxes. These baubles include fancy architecture, supporting the arts, sports and sports facilities, recreation facilities, swimming pools, ice rinks, all forms of entertainment, entertainment venues, walking trails, greenspaces, and other nonessential items. Every one of these baubles takes money from the poor, destroys jobs, and makes it harder for people to live on their incomes.
Even worse is the waste government creates on government contract jobs. Greedy government-worshiping officials don't want anyone to profit from government operations. So, instead of saving materials and tools from completed jobs for use on other jobs, and instead of selling the surplus materials at auction, government requires these materials to be destroyed.
Government overregulation costs everyone money.
Government overregulates everyone to create a "hazard-free world" that nobody needs, but that legislators want. This overregulation affects everyone, especially the poor, through higher prices and rents caused by the costs of following all of those regulations. These regulations include demanding safety beyond belief, fear of some substances, favoring artists' rights over other people, requiring exact procedures (to save inspectors' time), forcing people to change TVs, speed limits below the design speed of the road, wage and price controls, unproved environmentalist demands, attempts to stop the unproved globbal warming, attempts to legitimize sin, and overcontrolling what people can have with them in workplaces.
Every one of these regulations takes money from the poor, destroys jobs, and makes it harder for people to live on their incomes. They also make criminals out of otherwise honest citizens, taking people out of the workforce, and raising the costs of housing prison inmates. In addition, many of these regulations are not for real purposes, but to satisfy the tenets of the religion of Political Correctness.
Government debt drives out businesses and jobs.
When government borrows massive amounts of money, it takes money out of the lending pool. This drives interest rates up, and keeps businesses from obtaining loans they need to expand. It also drives mortgage rates up, making it harder for people to get homes. Government can not operate in an economic vacuum. Everything it does causes economic effects that affect others.
Government subsidies cost the economy two ways.
Government subsidies cost the economy at both ends. On one end, taxpayers pay more for the subsidies. On the other end, the subsidies prop up obsolete businesses that should have otherwise failed and made room in the economy for new businesses that can perform. But the worst subsidies are those where government provides something that private business could have provided, except that government wanted control over the service provided, and banned private companies from competing in that industry.
The worst case of this is where a government builds a facility for professional sports. It cheats taxpayers out of money for something nonessential. Private enterprise could have provided this at no cost to taxpayers. This wasteful government activity should be permanently banned everywhere. The professional sports rules that require the team with the worst arena to either upgrade it or move should also be prohibited. It is designed to steal money from taxpayers.
Import restrictions raise prices.
The idea behind import restrictions is to keep jobs in the country. But the troublemaker is overtaxation in this country, not imports. The high taxes make it cost too much to manufacture goods in this country. So the import restrictions make the poor pay the higher prices necessary to obtain the available domestic products.
Environmentalist regulations destroy wealth and jobs.
Many of the programs designed to prevent destruction of the environment are not based on facts, but on the religious belief of environmentalism. These beliefs are enacted into law without any scientific proof, or with "proof" based on bad science. Most of the "science" on globbal warming is bad science. There is nothing wrong with people voluntarily acting to save the environment at their own expense, but it is wrong to make other people pay for actions demanded by environmentalists to fix problems that are not even proved yet. Government has no right to act without proof.
Regulating our people to placate foreign governments.
When government officials regulate our lives and economy to placate the demands of foreign governments, they are unconstitutionally placing us under foreign rule. This is usually the result of a treaty signed by high government officials without any public knowledge or input. Such treaties have regulated our prices, limited foreign travel, extended copyright laws to the overlong time of a minimum of 95 years, and caused our cars to have certain changes they would not otherwise have. The result is a drain on the economy.
The bare truth is that government can't do good when it tries to do good. It usually causes harm instead.
Stop asking for more from government. You will regret getting what you asked for.
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