It is difficult to read or listen to the news and miss the economic reality of the day. Global economies, both large and small are failing. From Greece teetering on the edge, to Spain, France, Italy and Britain, the story is the same. Ireland now fears it may need a second bailout.
Tough times continue in America with painfully high unemployment and deepening debt. President Hope & Change who promised so much has accomplished so little.
California, the eighth largest economy in the world, is unofficially bankrupt. Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown revealed last week that his state deficit zoomed from $9.2 billion to $16 billion in five months.
Brown’s Legislative Financial Advisor, analyst Mac Taylor, said Friday that Brown is likely underestimating the disaster by another $1 billion.
To add more misery to Californians, the budget gap could widen further. Taylor estimates that tax revenue may fall by almost $400 million in the fiscal year.
The governor’s solution for this fiscal Armageddon is to cut social services and increase taxes. Now too late, the former should have been done through draconian slashing years ago. The latter is simply more of the same stupidity that forces those who can to flee the state further depleting tax revenue.
It is ridiculous to believe increasing the tax burden on Californians, wealthy or otherwise, will solve this crisis. California already has the nation’s highest sales tax (that impacts the poor too) and near highest income tax rates. This is a perfect time to remind Governor Brown of Ronald Reagan’s warning. President Reagan noted the problem isn’t a lack of revenue. It is an overabundance of spending.
That brings us to the “L” word – liberalism – meaning higher taxes and less freedom. Liberalism is the poison that destroys everything it touches from entire countries and their economies to families, personal incentive and even lives. There exists not one piece of evidence to suggest that liberal ideology, has ever provided a lasting solution to any problem or crisis. Quite to the contrary, almost every problem facing man today is made worse when emotionally based liberalism is applied.
The coming global economic collapse is not the fault of the rich. It was not born out of sound fiscal management, strength of character, faith in God, traditional families or unselfish caring (and tough love) for those who need a hand up rather than a hand out.
The unfolding and unstoppable worldwide fiscal calamity was planted in the faulty belief that government can meet the needs of the human condition. That lie begat other lies such as – the wealthy few owe a lot to the many. It is liberalism acquiescing to the many who demand larger shares of rewards they did not earn, that has helped force all of us to this precipice. The constant punishment of success on their behalf by power hungry political thugs has created this actuality where finding a good job makes searching for a needle in a haystack look easy. Unfairness, the buzzword of the day, is the size of government largesse, not any perceived, uneven playing field slanted in favor of one group over another.
The only way to reverse the inevitable is for common sense and accountability to break out across the globe. Those who riot in response to pleas for austerity in Europe are not solving anything. The takers are the problem and they offer no solution. They have nothing to give back but more whining. To suggest otherwise is tantamount to sticking ones head in the sand.
Those who continue to ignore reality and refuse to accept necessary and severe austerity are in for a world of hurt. Prepared or not, an economic crash is coming.
Impressive….some good digging to uncover the source of escalating fiscal calamity.
California was “unoffically bankrupt” in 2009, as commercials indicated at the time. This will be the forcasted double dip, what will fix this, is anyone’s guess. I don’t think anyone person has the answer. But, we could look to Austrailia, for some answers.