"-Be careful of the government you ask for. If you ask it to treat you like a child, don't be surprised when you get spanked. And don't be surprised when a culture that accepts being treated like children by its government becomes childish, adolescent, spoiled, and incapable of taking care of itself (see large swaths of American society.)"

Could not have put it better myself - DAN YOU ARE THE MAN!

I've been reading the Daily Reckonings' entertaining analysis of the coming world economic disaster for more than 5 years and yourself, Bill, Addison, Kevin, Dr Steve, James and the rest of the crew have pretty much forecast that this is where the world would eventually end up.

We have a situation in both the USA and increasingly in Australia whereby the 'neo-conservative rulers' of both countries in their desperate need to hold onto power at any cost have created an economic time bomb.

In Australia we have a ferret called John Howard who like his evil counterpart in America 'knowingly and criminally' miscalculated the TRUE rate of inflation in order to keep interest rates low so as to get himself and his party re-elected!

In years to come he will be reviled as the man who single-handedly condemned the next generation to never being able to own a home.

And even though the evidence of his crimes are there for all to see - the ostriches still have their heads in the sand and refuse to see or listen and intend to vote again for this lunatic.

Whilever sheep like these keep following their leader with blind obedience and refuse to open their eyes and ears to the truth - nothing will ever change in our so called 'western democracies'

And as for so called - Western 'De-MOCK-racy' - it has proven to be no better or less corrupt than any other discredited system - it too is exploited by the few who control the levers of power to the disadvantagement of the majority.

The neo-conservatives who have single-handledly presided over the economic disaster that now confronts the world should have their leaders gaoled and their parties disbanded by law.

These parties have a hell of a lot in common with the Nazis - except they don't advocate the killing of Jews and Gypies - and explains why many neo-conservatives from the 1930's and 40's were admirers of Hitler and his views.

If the 'born to rule' attitude that characterises neo-conservatives is allowed to have it's way they will surely succeed in creating a system not unlike the old feudal system of the European middle ages - whereby a small group of fabulously wealthy landed gentry will have the impoverished masses toiling away in their servitude.

There are of course heaps of market failures where Government has a coordinative/legislative role. Allocation of natural resources such as water is one of them.

At the end of the day most conservatives would agree that there is a role for a welfare safety net. The question is how much? Without a safety net civil society becomes less civil and 80 year old ladies start begging on street corners (as I have seen in many developing countries).

No, I don’t wish to protect my meagre resources behind a double razor wire electrified fence and I don’t wish to own half a dozen attack dogs as pets. I would prefer to pay a little tax to avoid this outcome. If this means a closer distribution of income and the creation of opportunity for disadvantaged kids then so be it.

Solutions must be practical and we won’t find them in either socialist or neocon text books & mantras.

Take the governments from our lives! Those who in US - vote Ron Paul!

Why don't they just print new money every year to cover their (budget) expenses.... that way we'd all still share in the cost by having a dollar that just depreciated in value each year..... and if we were productive, then maybe it would even appreciate each year!!!

We're not tied to gold or anything else....

So why not?

Wow, wouldn't that reduce the size of the government payroll!

... and all those people could be put to use doing something productive...

Great policy !! Sounds like a Green Party election winner to me.

If we had limited government, we could limit the amount of tax. It might only cost 5% of our GDP to cover public roads, police defence and the courts.

Anything beyond that is a waste. A piece of crap health system, piece of crap education system, a public broadcaster whose ratings are low, and environmental laws that encourage people to do sit still and die. No thanks.