The Destruction of Any Society…
will probably happen not too long after it begins to reward consumers and penalize contributors. If you live in a democracy, it becomes your responsibility to police this.
Some warning signs from my country:
- Bailouts. When those companies who are reckless in their consumption of money (both theirs and other’s) and get “bailed out”/rewarded with more money from taxpayers, it can’t be a good sign.
- When they tell you to do your part by spending money. I’ll never forget when I watched President George W. Bush ask Americans to go out and spend money. It was a blatant appeal to consumerism.
- When governmental departments are penalized for spending less (and thus contributing back) than they had budgeted by having their budget reduced the next year. Consume it all and it gets replenished the following year.
- When the tax code rewards consumption. If someone uses a home equity line of credit (HELOC) to go out and buy something consumable, they get tax relief. This basically amounts to the government trying to encourage you to convert your non-liquid, non-flexible assets into liquid flexible assets. The hope is that you will spend the money which in turn will help the economy. And it’s true. As least temporarily. What it does not account for are rough spots in the housing market. Rough spots that one might easily overcome had not tapped out the full value of their house. Yikes. But couldn’t that lead to a massive foreclosure spike? Yep.
These are just a few examples…have you noticed others?
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