Bill Bonner describes how the government, with too many of the people’s blessings, got us into this mess. According to Mr. Bonner this interaction between the governed and their government was responsible for an impoverishment of the masses:

They demand that the feds ‘do something!’…not realizing that the feds — more than anyone else — are responsible for their misery:

The feds tricked them into spending more than they could afford — with artificially low rates and EZ credit.

The feds loaded them up with mortgage debt — thanks to their federally subsidized mortgage industry.

The feds practically invented sub-prime mortgage debt; and directed lenders towards the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the society.

The feds enticed old people into complete dependence — with the Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare programs.

The feds led the young into debt too — with easy student loans that effectively transferred money from them to the education industry.

The feds jimmied the health system into such a mess that Americans now spend 45 times as much as Cubans…and have the same life expectancy.

The feds’ funny money system caused the export of millions of good jobs to emerging markets.

Many other items could be added to this list.

The Daily Bell has their own opinion:

One would think after a century of the most vicious kind of regulatory democracy that things would generally be better. But are they? No, of course not.

They are much, much worse. The reason for this is that the concept has root that people need “leaders” and that only government – the bigger the better – can provide prosperity and create the conditions necessary for civil society. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As we are seeing now, governments do not create wealth; they drain it. Governments do not provide peace; they ruin it. Governments do not guarantee the perpetuation of civil society; they abrogate it. These are the unfortunate facts.

Government cannot be fixed by better government. Government cannot be fixed by the right leadership. The only way to make government better is to make it smaller. The best government in our view governs the least.

Suffice it to say that President Reagan described the problem long ago when he declared that government was not the solution but the problem.