Do You Think the U.S. Government is a for-profit enterprise?

1) I was going to say no due to the existing wealth of its founders and the lack of an entrenched and therefore financially dependent royal family; but then I think about the legally mandated quasi-monopoly on postal service, the War for Cheap Black Labor, Black Hills, Banana Wars, Operation Ajax in Iran and our troops in Saudi Arabia.

2) Yes. Our real GDP will eventually decrease as sound business/economic practices, investment opportunities, capital and American talent are spread out across the globe; that means less money and less credit, which means more trouble if we don't start paying down our debt by running long-term budget surpluses.

3) A federal bankruptcy would likely bring about an economic depression coupled with anti-government sentiment bordering on anarchy. In a country as populous and diverse as ours, that could spur a civil war or retrenchment to totalitarianism on the right (fascism) or the left (communism). The dominoes that fall after the biggest power in the Western Hemisphere goes under lead straight to genocide and/or World War III. This all sounds alarmist until you consider that this is a double-digit trillion-dollar problem.

 

If the government got serious about running a profit by laying off unproductive employees with guaranteed jobs. It's far to common to see people get a job with the federal government, because they are afraid of being laid off somewhere else.

 

i think the federal reserve banking corporation is a for-profit enterprize

 

For the record, I think the democratic process is the smoking gun in our deficit crisis. In fact, perhaps the one saving grace of the culture wars is that it gives politicians something to promise other than impractical tax cuts or subsidies.

I would rather just legalize everything and separately add a deficit tax or something to our sales tax. I don't know whether or not the government can produce and effectively market commercial goods to match the gross and tax revenue that the private sector can.