Maggie's Farm

"most successful large economies in the world are all mixed systems" ! You say that to support your belief that this is a good thing. Taxes and big government is to freedom and productivity what parasites are to living things. They suck the life blood out of them. Prior to modern farming methods all farm animals suffered from parasites so bad that eating uncooked meat could kill you. This "mixed system" was never the less quite successful to borrow your phrase. But was it good or necessary? The reason that every successful large economy has these "mixed systems" is the same reason why lawyers sue rich people and not poor people. The unsuccessful economies are not good candidates for the parasites you extol. Once a society becomes productive and the citizens acquire wealth the parasites (Obama, the Democrats, the people on welfare the liberals, etc.) show up to suck the life blood out of the productive. The reason is simple; free stuff. The parasite in a farm animal takes advantage of the animals industry and ability to move around and consume food. The parasite simply takes a portion of this food either from it's intestines or from it's blood supply. Arguably the left wing politicians have perfected this system as well and take our wealth from us sometimes even before we "digest" it. But the downfall of all parasites is that they kill the host. The 19th century farmer would do his best to prevent this and typically the best he could do was lose 35-50% of his animals to illness due to the parasites. But the parasites are mindless (wow this meme fits the Democrats so wellm don't you think?) and they don't stop at taking a mere 35-50% of the hosts life blood (wealth) they want it all and eventually they will kill the host. This happens in politics and nations too. We will fall someday and it won't be because we worked too hard or kept too much of what we earned; we will fall/die because the parasites took too much. Now it odesn't happen overnight or even during a single term of a president (Obama might well be the exception) so we humans don't always connect the dots. And of course the parasites lie to us (the human parasites) telling us our country is dying not because we are taxed too much but because there are still a few wealthy successful people who have avoided a full blown parasitic infection and we need to tax the rich more. Most humans cannot follow anything that takes more time then a football game so the parasites are quite successful in blaming others (Bush's fault). We will one day fall as a nation as all nations do and when it happens it won't be because we were allowed to keep 50% of our personal wealth it will be because the parasites finally were able to take most of our wealth, they won't be happy with the 35-50% they can steal and still keep the support of the useful idiots. Successful large economies don't flourish BECAUSE the parasites take 35-50% of their wealth they flourish in spite of it until the numbers of parasites and the sheer volume of their "take" exceeds our ability to succeed.

I'm sure that there is someone who wants the many wasteful programs the government supports with our tax money. The lure of "free stuff" makes voters out of people who otherwise would never vote. Such is the Democratic process.

“Once the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic.” – Benjamin Franklin

I don't consider SS to be "free stuff" It takes in enough money to pay the retirees and the federal government owes it $4 trillion it borrowed. It is not and should not be a safety net. It should be administered like a 401k or an IRA not like welfare.