More Bastiat

Alright, I've mentioned Bastiat's broken window parable before. Here's a quick recap of the argument (modified just a bit):

• A clan of tax protesters storms the White House, smashing all the windows.
• The president hires a window repair man to fix the windows.
• Argument: This is good for the economy because it provides work for the window repair man.
  

Bastiat goes on to explain that this is a fallacy because you need to consider how that money would have otherwise been spent. Perhaps the Prez would have used it for speech therapy or something else that would benefit us all...

A current manifestation of this argument is that war is good for the economy because it provides jobs. This is a very potent argument used to defend the existence of the military industrial complex and aggressive war. But, this is really the same as breaking a massive amount of windows. We need to consider what other things the hundreds of billions of dollars could be spent on if we didn't have this war to pay for. Maybe we could even let our citizens keep more of their hard-earned money so they could use it for, oh I don't know, health insurance, education, skittles? Pretty hard to kill someone with skittles (although they are not good for your teeth).

Taking this further, everything is purchased at the expense of some other thing. It begs the question...what are our national resources best used for? What are our individual resources best used for? What do we need to pool our money together to accomplish through the state, and what portion of our income is best spent at our own discretion?

Imagine over one-third of your yearly income. Imagine writing a check for that amount. Then think of everything the federal government has provided for you. Then think about the possibility that intervention abroad has incited hatred making you less safe, that No Child Left Behind has deteriorated school performance and that the Patriot Act has violated civil liberties.

Then remember that those thousands of dollars have actually already been spent and are being used to pay interest on foreign debt. Then remember that every household is actually accountable for $400, 000 in public debt!

The system, our elected government, with the help of corporate influence, is being used for its own preservation at best, and our exploitation at worst. What is the solution? We must first hold the beast accountable with education, and starve it with cuts in taxes and spending. We need to stop using our resources to smash windows, and start using it to secure our individual security, personal sovereignty, and economic prosperity.