Unintended Consequences Of The Left

Are all unintended consequences of the left unintended? Absolutely not, sometimes if they quack like a duck...By todays standards would we have judged Hitler, Stalin, or Mao as being well meaning politicians who may not of thought through the unintended consequences? The liberals will open the door and welcome the next Hitler into power. Like Sen. Kennedy he will propose a little tough medicine for the good of the Country. He will attempt to divide the classes to further his agenda. He will ask us to give up a little liberty in order to attain financial security for all. We are an aging society, "beware of liberals bearing gifts".

How Much Debt is Too Much, Or What Happens Next?

Let's discount the Icelandic experience, or the one in Argentina. And assume we can still float paper ad infinitum. And then let's look at the Pres. Clinton experience. When the government assumes an every growing position in the economy private industry is pushed further out. And the space that would otherwise be filled with a private co. is now a government entity. And as Pres Clinton discovered when he cut the deficit by sunsetting some government programs and consolidating or closing others is that a "black hole' is created. That is the space that was formally occupied by these entities has now created a void. And a protracted recession insued, the longest in US history, characterized by deflationary pressures. Pressures created by the existence of a "black hole". The same aggregate demand that was created by these make work jobs created a vacuum when they were shut down. And it took time before private industry could take up this space.
Private industry theoretically can exist forever, by definition government programs are only supposed to last until they have achieved their end. Unless you believe they are merely make work endless go nowhere programs that go on forever? You can't have it both ways

Why do we even listen?

Why do we even listen to the left. By engaging with these intellectual yahoo's we give them more than credibility, we allow them to define the playing field. The argument is allowed to be defined in their space. The question becomes not whether their view is rational but rather how can we exist without it. National health care being the latest in a long line of can't live with outs. Somewhere between trying to introduce tort reform and expanding competition in the insurance industry we were hijacked by the national health care nuts. Why, or how did we allow this to happen?
The issue of health care reform is of less importance than the issue of big brother trying to direct our lives. The government is hell bent on trying to destroy middle class values by replacing hard work with big government. The distinction between the middle class and those people on government assistance is getting smaller every day. The stigma of "being on relief", of being dependent on the government for your daily bread is gone, and along with it the existence of a hard working middle class.