PeakTrader.com

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PeakTrader said...

Government exists, because people pay for its services.

However, when the quality of the service becomes too low or the price becomes too high, it's almost impossible to cancel the service.

Government can maintain its poor quality or high price services by charging enough people too little, while charging other people too much.

In spite of the poor quality or high price of government services, some people find ways to succeed.

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Real value is when someone earns $1 million for creating $2 million of value for society, for example.

When someone earns $1 million to create $2 million of value for society, he's already paid his "fair share."

It's government that's not paying its fair share by spending and squandering $2 million for $1 million of value.

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Many people make false assumptions.

They've seen the growth of government and the rise in living standards.

So, they've assumed bigger government raises living standards.

A hundred years ago when the U.S. had strong deflationary growth and small government, Americans were much poorer than today.

However, it was inevitable living standards would rise over time. It was a question of how fast.

If government remained small, U.S. GDP would be much higher (from exponential growth).

And government may be larger today as a smaller proportion of a larger GDP.

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Larry G said...

how many great entrepreneurs have there been in countries without significant govt/civilization?

why is Apple in this country and not in Nambia or Thailand?

Jobs did not graduate from college but you can bet that he receive a good education paid for by taxes collected by govt.

You can bet that the majority of people who work at Apple got their STEM degrees from American govt-supported Universities, eh?

how many college dropouts could become entrepreneurs like Jobs did in countries like India and Afghanistan or Sudan?

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PeakTrader said...

Some people, like Larry, seem to believe big government creates success.

Then why is the E.U. so far behind the U.S.?

Why were there so many great U.S. entrepreneurs before big government?

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Jon said...

Then why is the E.U. so far behind the U.S.?

Europe has been gaining on the US.

http://bigwhiteogre.blogspot.com/2011/07/us-vs-eu-economic-growth.html

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PeakTrader said...

Jon, when a government bureaucrat "earns" $50,000 to redistribute $20,000 for the poor (i.e. after paying the bureaucrat's salary, pension, health care, etc.), that's counted as GDP, although he didn't really produce anything.

You need to look at the U.S. and European real economies to see that Europe has not only lagged the U.S. for over a hundred years, it has lagged badly.

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http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28997633&postID=4322493695994347233

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PeakTrader said...

"One of the healthiest features of this recovery continues: the public sector continues to lose jobs."

That's because the country is going broke from this train wreck.

What about losing Social Security. Is that also "healthy?"

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The employment situation is worse now than at the trough of the recession, because 125,000 to 150,000 jobs are needed each month just to keep up with population growth.