the chariot of state is driving over the cliff

Our debts have been rephrased as "entitlements." They are the fiscal dimension of "human rights." Everyone has a "right" to a pension, and to much else besides, regardless of whether he put his share into the piggy; or whether Nanny absconded with what he did put in.

Those who prudently saved against the contingencies of this world, have subtly numbered themselves among "the rich." And, "tax the rich" is the received solution. For generations now, "progressive" politicians, imposing "progressive" tax systems, have been making an example of the prudent. The cultivation and manipulation of envy is at the heart of all political schemes for income redistribution, and parties of the Left have been building their client base upon it.

Hence the gradual division of every electorate between the Party of Entitlement, and the Party of Tax Cuts: the one to increase spending, the other to limit revenue, until the gap between income and expenditure has grown to oceanic proportions. In a pinch, the government pulls both ways at once, as poor hapless Obama is now doing because his Party of Entitlement is about to be mooshed in the U.S. midterm elections. In addition to more ruinous "stimulus" spending, he is now promising tax cuts (for everyone but "the rich").

There, as here, the chariot of state is driving over the cliff. In every Western polity of which I am aware, the entitlements are backed with the force of law, and cannot be withdrawn with anything like the ease with which a government can cut the police, the military, and essential public services -- even on paper. Thus, at the moment when fiscal catastrophe strikes, we find the government has already "downsized" the instruments of public order.

Artigo de David Warren

PS: Em Portugal, o espectro político ainda não está polarizado entre os defensores dos Direitos Adquiridos (Entitlements) e os do Choque Fiscal (Tax Cuts). Neste momento só temos dos primeiros, mas a realidade está a bater-nos à porta e o espaço político que se vai criar não vai ficar vazio.