Excerpts from a post today on Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis. Our children will look back at our time, at our childish mis-management of a great nation, and wonder how these things happened. What will we tell them?
It need not be like this.
Governor Granholm’s Four Pronged Platform To Make Michigan Pop:
- Make kindergarten mandatory at taxpayer expense
- Require teenagers to stay in school until age 18
- Hire 500 educators to train 3,000 nurses at taxpayer expense
- Turn criminals loose on the street earlier
Michigan Business Tax Recap:
- Michigan passed $600 million in business tax relief along with a business tax overhaul.
- This in theory created 111,000 winners and 34,000 losers.
- This also created a $600 million budget shortfall.
- To make up for the shortfall Michigan passed one of the most convoluted service taxes in history.
- Everybody hated the service tax bill including those who passed it, yet the governor signed it anyway.
- It was not repealed until after it went into effect.
- A mechanism is now being put into place to return any taxes collected.
- The net effect was yet another $600 million budget shortfall.
- To make up the shortfall, a 21.99% surcharge on the new Michigan Business Tax was put into effect.
- The surcharge lasts until 2017. Democrats and Republicans alike voted for this compromise.
- A revised winners and losers list is not yet available that I could find.
Michigan’s foolishness exceeds that of its fellow States, but it is a close contest. Note Mish’s comments on California and Ohio. Stay tuned for similar news from Florida.
Past posts about this long drama
- The post-WWII geopolitical regime is dying: Chapter Two
- Good news: The Singularity is coming (again)
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As someone who benifits for experience both within and just outside the USA, and looking objectively. If I were to choose one way to characterise the current situation, and what’s causing this decline across the board, it would be this.
The failure to take RESPONSIBILITY for one’s own decisions, destiny, and the conciquences.
I’m convinced that in a hundered years hence, when scociolgists and historians study the rise and fall of Pax Americana, that will stand out clearly as a root cause amoung the underlieing difficulties that brought this about. MaXimillian
The Roman people also grew tired of serving in their own military and hired foreign mercenaries to do that for them. The United States military has recently considered significantly increasing recruiting non-United States citizens to make up for personnel shortfalls. Myself, I am no fan of the United States of America’s all-volunteer military. I think we need to restore the draft.
” I think we need to restore the draft.”
Yeah, right !
OR, or, we could simply drop the notions of bogus wars of conquest, including the GWOT, and start concentrating on our own issues, taking responsibility instead of blaming the Middle East for everything, and anything, and minding our own bussiness.
I know that’s crazy talk. MaX
I agree. For a powerful example of this, see Christian Meier’s biography “Caesar.” He describes how by the Roman people grew tired of governing themselves, perhaps finding the burden to great to bear. Inevitably, strong men came forward to take this load from the people’s backs.
If we will not govern ourselves, it is foolish to complain about the decisions of the elites who do so.
I do not understand why the late Roman Empire recruited barbarians. The Empire was largely demilitarized, with the Legions a tiny fraction of its population. Why could they not recruit citizens? Perhaps foreign mercs were cheaper (the late Empire was often broke).
As for the draft, perhaps we would need fewer soldiers if we abandoned our Imperial ambitions. For example, we still have 2 brigades in Germany, apparently because they cannot protect themselves if Russia invades.
“I do not understand why the late Roman Empire recruited barbarians.” FM
I’m not saying it’s so, this would be purely speculation, but consider the manner in which the USA employs Mexican immigrants and illegals. Ask yourself why ? Answer your own question perhaps ? Max
We all know why we employ illegals — they are less expensive. But we don’t enlist them in our Armed Forces, let alone rely on them for the bulk of our military forces. Rome did the *opposite*. Turned their own people into serfs, and hired foreigners for their military.
The late Roman Empire employed foederati – auxiliaries from the border regions – because the average Roman citizen had “other priorities” than the military. Indeed, referring to them as “barbarians” was just another way of expressing contempt for those who were too foreign and ill-educated to do proper Roman jobs and stupid enough to join the military. The average Roman citizen at this time thought that his incredibly privileged situation was his by right alone, without any need to exert himself to maintain it.
Of course this is not a viable long term attitude. And so when the money ran out, and the Huns started pushing South Alaric marched the Roman border army – the Goths – to Rome and sacked it.
pw001 — Do you have any references on the late Empire’s inability to recruit Roman citizens for the Legions? I have long been curious about this, but never did any research to find an answer.
Some good commentary here:
Sorry to toot my own horn, but try this essay:
http://thepopulist.net/?p=3
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