Dear Reader,
It seems to me that incentives count. Especially when talking about incentives provided by government. They have the ability to enhance the standard of living of a people or they can destroy the standard of living of a people. Our government in the USA is motivating the people to be corrupt, lazy, undermine marriage, disrespect religious officials, and to abort children. I may be wrong, but, I think that incentives like these are bound to lower the lot of Man.
Take corruption. I appears that most of the people running our present government are tax cheats. The American people look at Timothy Geithner and see him getting away Scot free from not paying $100,000.00 of taxes. ONLY for the years that were audited. It is most likely that he still owes on past years that were not looked into! When we look at our leaders, and they don’t pay their fair share of taxes, but expect us to pay the tax increases that they pass, is an incentive to not pay our taxes or at least chisel a little. But more importantly, it is also an incentive for the people to disobey the law. If a societies leaders are disobeying the law the people will disobey the law. They are simply following their leaders.
Punishing that which government doesn’t like is also an incentive. Like passing laws that will cause people who have been virtuous to be punished, so that those that don’t live as virtuously will be protected and helped, is a disincentive to do the right things. Keep your credit card paid off every month for example. The government has passed a law forbidding credit card companies from charging high interest rates to people who don’t pay their debts. The companies will have to pass on this added cost of doing business to those who are more fiscally responsible. Punishing those who have been frugal.
Rewarding those that were corrupt and who’s corruption led to the present recession that we find ourselves in is another example of incentives that make corruption more interesting to the average man. The government has decided to tax those that are being hurt by the downturn and give the largess to those that caused it. Can you say TARP 1, and TARP 2?
Lately every law and court order seems to be aimed at destroying marriage. Gay marriage is an example of this. Even in ancient Greece, where homosexual behavior was the norm, didn’t see a need for gay marriage. It was common for men to lay together. In fact homosexuality was elevated to political edict in Sparta under the laws of Lycurgus. Plutarch relates that Lycurgus said that a man would never turn in battle in front of someone with whom he is a lover. So why do we find such a pressing need? There are civil options that don’t have the religious, child rearing and societal significance of Marriage. We are told it is a matter of “fairness”. So let me get this strait… a gay man and a lesbian cannot legally marry? Of course they could. Why? Because marriage is not really about love. It is about child rearing. If marriage were really about love why would so many cultures have arraigned marriages? No… western literature and societal myth has made love the primary concern of marriage. This perversion of the reality of marriage has led to an atrocious divorce rate in the USA. Over fifty percent…
We were shown a murderer in the unbiased media who killed an abortion doctor. The fourth killed since 1992. The government is talking about stationing soldiers to protect abortion clinics. (Didn’t Publius (the Federalist Papers) have something to say about stationing troops among the public?) Meanwhile a nineteen year old Army recruiter was shot to death and another wounded by a Moslem convert. An act of domestic terrorism. Not a word in the unbiased press about it. Why??? I heard it on right wing talk radio. Not the place I would like to get news. But one must seek information where it is. If the unbiased media won’t do their job maybe we could import some illegal aliens to do it for them. They could go on the public dole. Like they espouse for the rest of us…
Today our government is pushing change. They claim it is change we can believe in. I’m starting to no only believe, but to tremble, for our future and the future of our children. Incentives do matter. Think about it. I have only mentioned a very few examples. What else, have I not mentioned, that the government is motivating the people to do?
Well, You get what you vote for…
