IS AMERICA TOO BIG TO SUCCEED?
Posted by Tim Bryce on September 2, 2015
BRYCE ON POLITICS
– Is this as good as it gets?
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We have all heard about companies being “too big to fail,” particularly companies in the automotive and financial industries where the government spent taxpayer money a few years ago to bail them out. Today, I am more concerned that America is too big to succeed. Let me explain.
Capitalism is no longer working well in America, probably because we have embraced Socialist policies. Had capitalism worked correctly, the companies who screwed up in the last decade should have been shut down and replaced by other companies. That’s how it works, survival of the fittest. By accepting the government bailout, the companies became obliged to the government and were not free to make their own decisions.
Most people do not realize the government heaps on new regulations every day, approximately 25,000 every year, a staggering number which inhibits how business is conducted, certainly not to promote growth. American companies are also saddled with the highest corporate tax rate in the world. No wonder the country suffers with a minimal Gross Domestic Product rate and jobs are shipped overseas due to stifling policies.
The federal government is a bloated bureaucracy and the largest employer in the country. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (opm.gov) in 2014, there were 4,185,000 federal employees; if you deduct 1,459,000 of military personnel, you are left with 2,726,000 people running the government. The only other company coming close to this is Walmart, which is listed as number one in the Fortune 500, and employs 2,200,000 people. The #2 – #10 companies in the Fortune 500 include such heavyweights as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, General Motors, Phillips 66, General Electric, Ford Motor, and CVS Health. Accumulatively, these companies employ 1,486,000 people, which should give you an idea of how large the federal government has become.
The 2.7M people running the government are charged with enforcing the bountiful rules and regulations. To do so, they monitor not only the performance of businesses, but they can now access information on every citizen, including their finances, criminal background, the titles and deeds of possessions, driving history, social security and welfare entitlements, job history, even their medical history. Everything is monitored by the state. For those believing “Big Brother” is coming, it is already here.
Interestingly, the more government invades our privacy, the less we know about the workings of the government. Accountability and transparency is a myth. So the question becomes, “Who serves who?” In a Republic, the government is supposed to be the servant of the people, but this doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. Today, the American public is subservient, and required to pay for the same government who controls them, thereby causing frustration and outrage. Bottom-line, the government is viewed more as a deterrent to personal and professional success as opposed to an expediter.
America has a fine work force, along with the most inventive and innovative businesses in the world. However, we are being asked to fight with one arm tied behind our backs, sometimes two. At our current rate, what we can expect is a minimal or negative GDP, a mounting federal debt, high taxes, unemployment, and an expanded welfare state. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is, this is the best we will ever get. Unless we can get government to work for the American people, and not the other way around, we better get used to it.
Keep the Faith!
Note: All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies.
Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com
For Tim’s columns, see: timbryce.com
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Copyright © 2015 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
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Tim Bryce said
A K.O. of Washington, DC wrote…
“Federal government is what is in the way of America from being the great nation that it has always been. Crony capitalism has replaced free markets because it is the same zero sum mentality in control that also thinks that if a big company is allowed to fail, jobs will forever be lost. These people cannot see the economy as the resilient, dynamic force that naturally cleans itself and operates at its peak efficiency if left alone.”
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Tim Bryce said
An M.B. of Orange County, California wrote…
“If it were possible, I’d give more than the sum total of parasitic government “employees” “likes” to you for this article, Tim.
BTW, I think your totals (minus the important ones, like military personnel & local LE) are quite low. IMO the figure is closer to 10% of our entire population, which amounts to around 24 MILLION, including the “behind the curtain” un-elected, unaccountable, lawless bureaucrats.
I recently heard that in LA City & LA County , the total of “employees” “working” for the city county amount to close to THIRTY % of the total available “work force.” Something is VERY wrong with that picture.
Doubly wrong, because their salaries, benefits, & perks for the “jobs” they supposedly do are way BLOATED in comparison to equivalent private sector jobs, are unsustainable & totally out-of-control.
On another front for the decline of America, 0bama’s Saul Alinsky Marxist economic policies have caused great damage to the Private Sector and to the Middle Class, intentionally and by design.
This includes the creation of EIGHTY-THOUSAND PAGES of new draconian business-strangling regulations PER YEAR since he entered the Oval Office in January, 2009, a “grand” total of 480,000 pages of new draconian business-strangling regulation.
You see, when you want to convert a republic over to a totalitarian oligarchy, a Private Sector and Middle Class are enemies of Marxism and must be destroyed. Hence, the agenda of ‘equalization’, redistribution of wealth (wealth and property confiscation), all tenets of ‘communalism’, being of course communism.
Obama’s (and his Offshore Handler’s) ultimate covert agenda in the coming oligarchy is to establish a “One-Party Jobs Patronage Slave System” patterned after the Communist Red China model.
In order to achieve this anarchy must be attained as the pretense for Martial Law and the conversion activation will then follow. Thus, this is why it is necessary, essential and vital to collapse America, economically and politically. In addition, I believe America is headed towards a Neo-Civil War in the midst of this.”
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Tim Bryce said
A P.J. of Delhi, India wrote…
“Crony capitalism = bribe = socialism. and there is no space for bribes in capitalism because the mechanism is such. so defining bribes with the term “crony capitalism” should be avoided.”
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Tim Bryce said
An M.H. of Phoenix, Arizona wrote…
“Cut, clean and dry thanks Tim!”
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Tim Bryce said
An L.A. of Los Angeles, California wrote…
“I basically agree – the government sets things up in the name of protecting the public but then gets involved deeply in a game they don’t do well in. Government workers, including politicians and depts. heads feel they have an obligation to make laws and rules to keep their job (never to repeal outdated ones or check if other laws and rules apply) to justify their salaries and make their mark. Many government workers then decide to interpret on their own what laws and rules mean and enforce them as they see them (ideologically many times) and if you want to change their decisions then you go to court, where its costly even if you win. Too much government, again.”
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