Diawa, i disagree with you. The problem is the massive cuts on social programs, coupled with massive cuts to taxes on uber rich, coupled with massive tax give a ways to uber corps (the corporate welfare expenses), are destroying the fabric of the USA. You can parrot all the 'get govt small,' so the 'free market' can work, all you want. You sound like the Tea party. However, saying it over and over again won't make it true. The free market is a myth - and its rigged against small fry - including small businesses. many uber-corporations pay ZERO taxes, and get massive amounts of cash from the US gov't. Why hasn't that been 'cut?'
Also, remember that the Fed Reserve Board chairmen, almost every year tells us that a certain amount of unemployment is 'good' for the economy. Well if being unemployed is 'good' for the economy, (everyone else derives a benefit) why then are the unemployed punished (economically?). Is this an economic version of the 'untouchables' of the traditional Indian Caste system?
Do yourself a big favor and listen to some other economists like Richard D. Wolff. Our economy was strong when the top tax rate on the upper income portions of the uber rich 'earners' (leeches) ' was 91-93%. Yes, 91-93%. Check out your history books. Get the long view, the big picture. Shrinking govt has only one result, removing the only force little small fry have to collectively compete with the giant uber rich Goliaths, (and their uber-size weapons, called corporations) in the rigged free market. Wail all you want that the uber rich, and their uber corps can't possibly balance the budget, over time, but unless they begin returning their ill gotten gains from the last 50 years, and start actually paying actual taxes - the class war they are mongering on the people will escalate -and no one will have anything.
The last time wealth was concentrated so disproportionately in the US as it is now, was the roaring 20's. Financial speculation was massive. The fed govt had been forced out of any regulatory roles. "Free Marker" so-called was supreme. "The business of America is business," the president proudly proclaimed. And then the great depression hit. And when Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally put people to work, (the New Deal) the infrastructure of the US was enhanced greatly, and people were working again. (Yes, WWII turbocharged the recovery.) People had jobs again, people had dignity. Now? Most people i know work three part time jobs, end up working and traveling about 55-60 hours a week, minimum wage, no paid time off, no benefits, no medical. Its that or slide out completely. That's the economic reality for most people now.
Funny thing, at the height of the New Deal, when the us gov't committed massive amounts of wealth to shoring up the poor and dispossessed folks, a cabal of uber rich Americans plotted a coup against the us govt. They even enlisted a US officer - big-brass (general?), to help them. He played along, then blew them in. Funny, its never in the regular history books - especially in High School texts.
Yes, rail all you want about the evils of big gov't and how big business will fix everything. Then 'the fix' will be in, big time - LOL. I will choose big govt over plutocrats any day - because the govt - given enough voting, rallies, and political force, can be moved. Corporations are conscious-less constructs that separate individual responsibility from individual profit taking (dividends). Further, they enable people to do evil, and benefit from that evil, by manipulation, schemes, etc., that most people would never do to their next door neighbor. But "its not personal, its business." So its OK?
