Our Shrinking Tax Base

It's the numbers that are getting to be alarming. The Federal payroll is growing at an alarming rate and with every job added to the Federal payroll; we get another non-contributor to the tax rolls. Federal employees do not contribute to the treasury; in fact, their income is a drain on the treasury. Regardless of the importance of the job, a Federal job contributes nothing to the money that the Government needs to spend.

The numbers of Federal employees add to the others in our society who not contributing to the economy. Those groups include our prison population, social-security recipients (retirees), the military, and those on welfare. This is a large portion of our population and growing. The strain on the rest of society that is supporting this large aggregate of non-contributors is also growing.

There is a lot of talk about people's mortgages that are upside down, but when the number of contributors to the treasury dwindles to the point that they cannot keep up with the demand from the government, our society can look forward to the complete Socialization of our economy. This is scary stuff.

If you haven't heard, the Obama administration has allegedly given China the option of imminent domain over US territory as collateral for our debt that China holds. If true, Obama is mortgaging our country to satisfy his spending spree. The Chinese can see the trouble we are in and have demanded assurances that the dollar holds its value. There are a lot of blogs reporting that Hillary Clinton did in fact surrender the right to China to seize assets in the United States as part of an agreement that China would continue to hold and purchase our debt.

Snopes' is reporting that the claim is false and you can read their statements here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/domain.asp My problem with the Snopes' account is that their rebuttal is based on logic rather than produce proof for their stand.

To read the viewpoints from the perspective that Obama has made that agreement with China, do a search in Google using this search criterion. "US gives China option of imminent domain" I would give you a website to go to but there are so many that I did not want to choose. None of the sites listed are familiar to me so on that regard - caveat emptor. Also, keep in mind that the internet is full to the brimming with conspiracy nuts.

I only bring this to your attention because of the theme of today's article about the declining tax base. The policies that Obama is advocating will drive the value of the dollar down and can make us vulnerable to the Chinese demand for payment of our debt. If we continue to grow the government, then we will become a progressively poorer Nation. Our real wealth lies in our industriousness and our ability to produce. But we are rapidly losing that edge as we progress to the welfare state. The risk/reward incentive is undercut by the notion that life is not supposed to be challenging. --There is a limit to how long the prosperous among us will continue to tolerate the shenanigans of an ultra Liberal Government. It is a mathematical certainty that those we depend on now to finance the Government will seek and find greener pastures elsewhere. It is already happening on a small scale, but it will not take much for that trickle to become a torrent.

Cheers,

-Robert-