This Crumbling, Bankrupt Empire
An Aging, Bankrupt Empire
by Doug French
LewRockwell.com
The U.S. government has created borders within the country’s borders at every airport in the country. Technologies abound in ticketing and check-in on one side of the border while commerce thrives on the other. In between is a massive government apparatus requiring that shoes be kicked off, laptops be unpacked, and less than 3.1 ounces of liquid be carried in any one container. The only technology in sight is the offensive porno scanners. And for those that refuse scanning, a brutish pat-down is administered.
These Transportation Security Agency (TSA) borders are guarded by 58,401 bureaucrats in blue, at a cost this year of $8.1 billion. The taxpayers must not spare any expense in convincing themselves that the government is making us safe.
The arbitrariness of rules at borders is brought to mind in the opening pages of Charles Goyette’s sobering new book Red and Blue and Broke All Over: Restoring America’s Free Economy. Viewing borders from the air, one can hardly tell where they are, these imaginary lines drawn by governments. However, while the terrain on either side of a border may be identical, satellite imagining provides a stark contrast of neighboring countries where capitalism operates on one side of a border while socialism reigns on the other.
The native culture and language may be identical, but roads that are paved on the capitalist side, turn to dirt on the socialist side. While lights burn brightly in the capitalist night, those living under socialism are shrouded in darkness.
Within its borders, America once provided an example to the world of what free markets and sound money can provide. But as Goyette painstaking points out, those days are over. Today’s America is but an aging bankrupt empire. Not so different than the last days of Rome. Its armies spread thin throughout the world. Its treasure wasted long ago, government finances are in shambles, and it can only pay its promises with money it creates from nowhere.
While Republicans and Democrats bicker on Capitol Hill, each party is equally to blame. The various cable news networks root for one side or the other without realizing “that both parties worship in the same statist church and share obedience to the same economic priesthood.”
The Rest…HERE
