One of the great ironies of American politics is that most politicians who
talk about helping the middle class support policies that, by expanding the welfare-warfare
state, are harmful to middle-class Americans. Eliminating the welfare-warfare
state would benefit middle-class Americans by freeing them from exorbitant
federal taxes, including the Federal Reserve's inflation tax.
Politicians serious about helping middle-class Americans should allow
individuals to opt out of Social Security and Medicare by not having to pay
payroll taxes if they agree to never accept federal retirement or health care
benefits. Individuals are quite capable of meeting their own unique
retirement and health care needs if the government stops forcing them into
one-size-fits-all plans.
Middle-class families with college-age children would benefit if
government got out of the student loan business. Government involvement in
higher education is the main reason tuition is skyrocketing and so many
Americans are graduating with huge student loan debts. College graduates
entering the job market would certainly benefit if Congress stopped imposing
destructive regulations and taxes on the economy.
Politicians who support an interventionist foreign policy are obviously
not concerned with the harm inflicted on the middle-class populations of
countries targeted for regime change. These politicians also disregard the
harm US foreign policy inflicts on Americans. Middle- and working-class
Americans, and their families, who join the military certainly suffer when
they are maimed or killed fighting in unjust and unconstitutional wars. Our
interventionist foreign policy also contributes to the high tax burden
imposed on middle-class Americans.
Middle-class Americans also suffer from intrusions on their liberty and
privacy, such as not being able to board an airplane unless they submit to
invasive and humiliating searches. Even children and the physically disabled
are not safe from the Transposition Security Administration. These assaults
are justified by the threat of terrorism, a direct result of our
interventionist foreign policy that fosters hatred and resentment of
Americans.
Some "military Keynesians" claim that middle-class workers
benefit from jobs in the military-industrial complex. Military Keynesians
seem to think that the resources spent on militarism would disappear if the
Pentagon's budget were cut. The truth is, if we reduced spending on
militarism, those currently employed by the military-industrial complex would
be able to find new jobs producing goods desired by consumers. Even those
currently employed as lobbyists for the military-industrial complex may be
able to find useful work.
Few things would benefit the middle class more than ending the Federal
Reserve. The Federal Reserve's inflationary policies erode middle-class
families' standards of living while benefiting the financial and political
elites. Middle-class Americans may gain some temporary benefits from Federal
Reserve created booms, but they also suffer from the inevitable busts.
As I write this, the dollar still reigns as the world's reserve currency.
However, there are signs that other economies are moving away from using the
dollar as the reserve currency, and this trend will accelerate as the Federal
Reserve continues to pump more fiat currency into the economy and as
resentment toward our foreign policy grows. Eventually, international
investors will lose confidence in the US economy, the dollar will lose its
reserve currency status, and the dollar bubble will burst.
These events will cause a major economic downturn that may even be worse
than the Great Depression. The main victims of this crisis will be average
Americans. The only way to avoid this calamity is for the American people to
force Congress to free them from the burdens of the warfare state, the
welfare state, taxation, and fiat currency.
