Welfare Democracy and The Ancien Régime

Enemies of democracy and reason such as fundamentalist religion and leftist ideology interrupted a good historical trend which ended in disaster for the world the last century in the growth of the fascist, theist, militarist and communists states. Before democracy, power in the Ancien Régime relied on three segments of society: the monarchy, clergy and aristocracy, divided into three sections: the First Estate, (clergy), Second Estate, (nobility) and Third Estate, (the rest of us poor suckers). The Ancien Régime with the help of old money, has reasserted and transformed itself into modern times. Its First Estate is now the Military Industrial Complex, the Second Estate is the modern autocratic paper monetary oligarch (including the press and political machines) and the Third Estate is still the rest of us suckers. The New Ancien Régime like the old has its privileges: In the First Estate: the right to earn a living at war; war for the sake of war. In the Second Estate: the right of politicians to support the growth of the state and the right of intelligentsia to support Keynesian/socialist monetary policies no matter how thoroughly both these ideas have been refuted, (and no matter how dangerous they are to democracy and the future of the world). In the Third Estate, we have the right to consume no matter how little we’ve produced–we have a right to sit on the sidelines and pray. It is a good life for pets; God is on our side.

In The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria maintains that countries which simply hold elections without broad-based modernization, including economic liberalization and the rule of law, end up becoming illiberal – or welfare – democracies. Institutions of law, governance and liberty must painstakingly precede democracy. If this is true, then we must wait centuries before the world is democratic. It will be too late!

In the world of ideas – the ethereal domain – militarism, pro-statist-philosophy and socialism have lost all the intellectual battles they’ve fought yet today they are the true power brokers of the First and Second Estate. How have they won for losing? It’s a little like a riddle. In Canada the First Peoples Nation has literally been put on the welfare roles since the beginning of confederation. Shame provoked it. Capital “L” Liberalism maintained a bankrupt idea through the decades. It hasn’t served the First Peoples well; some would conclude it has oppressed them. They represent four percent of the population and receive annual subsidies in the billions of dollars, pay no sales tax and receive many economic incentives, yet their homicide rate is higher by a factor of five, they make up 20 percent of the prison population, 35 percent of their numbers on reserves are on welfare and they have three times the suicide rate of non-aboriginal youth. They’ve been allowed to take a pass on the hard task of wealth creation. To get a work ethic, economic reality must force you to get out each day to work. A work ethic is a tough thing. Nobody will do it unless they have to, but to do it is the only way to economic independence and happiness – this then is human nature – if you knew a gift of a million dollars would destroy you, you’d probably take the money anyway.

We need to reduce the influence of the New Ancien Régime before democracy is directly threatened. The Military Industrial Complex which historic circumstance has fostered on the world can be transformed by a revolution of peaceful democratic nations uniting under one banner of producer economies. When America’s business system collapses due to its unsustainable debt load this well may be a time for real revolutionary change: a switch to true economic conservative philosophy for the world. The last great depression triggered by the “Fed” was blamed on Wall Street. The statists of both the Left and Right are trying to do the same thing again.

Think on my side. If the US government and it’s citizens owe -$100 trillion–they are indebted much more than this–and are printing up $800 billion for banks and $25 billion for cars, why not print $100 trillion and become totally solvent? If only you could write a check to yourself to pay your bills. You know in your heart and mind that what the governments around the world are doing is treating currency like magic. You know they don’t know what they are doing. None of it makes sense. The cost of the growth of this much state is your liberty. The autocratic monetary oligarch which America has crafted over the last 90 years in paper money can be widely restricted with a monetary gold standard, the banning of lobbyists at all levels of government, the protection of the press from global corporatism, public financing and time modifying of elections. It is not all about the state. In the new regimen, business and government should be separated as much as possible. Institutions like the Federal Reserve Board should be replaced by direct government arbitrating the market guided by conservative international financial rules.

 

       Government Tax, 2005               Real Government    
           Revenue as a                   ownership of the economy 
        percentage of GDP              percentage of GDP, 2005

            OECD Average 39%                  OECD Average 45%
United States 29%                               32%
Britain 37.4%                                       45%
Australia 31.5%                                    34%
Japan 28%                                           31% 
Germany 38.4%                                   46%
France 45.4%                                      49%
Netherlands 43%                                  48%
Sweden 53.2%                                     56%
Denmark 49%                                      53%
Norway 41.9%                                     46%
Canada 37.2%                                     43%
EU Average 43.6%                               47%
 

With the current economic crises, how long before it averages over 50%?
See below the progression in the last decades. Source:  Cato Institute