Part I: Population Decline and the Economy: It's Up to Us

Part I: Population Decline and the Economy

In last week’s post I wrote that the world is in danger of running out of people. The population explosion we’ve been badgered with for decades is a convincing piece of progressive hype. What we really have is a disconcerting population decline among all Americans and throughout the western world. These issues impact the integrity and well-being of the family and our culture at large.

Population decline is at the root of our economic woes.  While many reasons are offered for our stagnant economy, few address one critical factor: we aren’t producing people as fast as we used to. People consume goods and use services, even very tiny people; thus fewer people means fewer products and services are needed. The result: the economy declines.

Quoted below is an adapted excerpt from a piece I submitted to the Daily Herald for my weekly column, Get It Right, which appears every Tuesday and is posted as a blog piece weekly on this site. The Herald declined to print the column, but I’ve included part of it here.

“In addition to the problem of a vanishing populace, falling birthrates always create a falling economy. Writing about Europe, Joel Kotkin states in Forbes magazine, May 30, 2012: “Europe’s economic disaster is …largely caused by…a demographic decline”. USA Today, Feb. 13, 2013, says, “There are no cases of peace and prosperity in the face of declining populations.” The Wall Street Journal, in its article titled America’s Baby Bust, Feb. 12, 2012, agrees: human well-being—innovation, investments, conservation—all drop when the population drops. So does a nation’s political power. The article concludes: “..the only thing that will preserve America’s place in the world is if… Americans …decide to have more babies…we simply must figure out a way to have more babies…” The proposed column continues, “Our economy and our biological survival depend on the birth of children… Anything less risks a demographic desert—a population wilderness of declining numbers and declining prosperity.”

An inevitable effect of population decline, as mentioned in the above excerpt, is the loss of creativity and inventiveness, both of which energize a bustling economy. When a nation thrives, it creates new products and creative ways to solve the nation’s inevitable concerns and conflicts. With declining populations, the diminishing demand for products and services in general discourages anything new.

Some incorrectly reason that there are too many people in the world. They offer as proof the starving populations in third world countries, but fail to see their political corruption. The pockets of greedy leaders are lined with money intended for public works that would improve the peoples’ lives. One evidence of this is the foreign aid Americans send to underprivileged countries. The aid never seems to reach the common people to change their condition. Their lands grow barren from poor farming practices, undernourished soil, and little rain—circumstances that could be remedied with education, irrigation, innovation, and public works funded by sound internal politics. American generosity would be only a backup, if necessary.

It bears repeating that there are no known instances in earth’s history of a bustling, vital economy coupled with a declining birthrate. Both grow together; both stagnate together. We have as examples Italy, Greece and Spain, the European triumvirate of failed socialist policies. All three have declining populations; all three have dying economies and resultant political chaos. Prior to its fall, the Roman Empire, which had succumbed to our current breed of political corruption and cultural deception, was desperate to build its faltering birthrate. Citizenship was offered to any who would come and increase the population: slaves, foreigners, even former enemies. Attempts to boost the birthrate failed, and so did Rome.

The population issue will be huge in coming years. Our current discussion will prove wise. In the meantime, welcome every new life into our nation to enrich it and help us remain economically and culturally stable.

Next week: Part III: What is causing the population decline?

Get it Right: Whining to the Feds

America is racing toward bankruptcy, with debts beyond any ability to repay. The debt clock stands near 17 trillion, with future combined federal liabilities (social security, prescriptions drugs, Medicare, ect.) at 126 trillion, an incomprehensible sum. Yet we still beg for federal funds. Why? The government has no money. To feed its gluttony, it borrows every cent it gives and vastly more. Why do we add to it, boarding a rapidly sinking ship, only to sink it further?

Conservatives routinely bewail the entitlement mentality. Lest we forget, cities, counties and states can embrace entitlement as well. Under our Constitution, the federal government has only 26 responsibilities: twenty for Congress and six to the president. Funding non-federal projects, such as Alpine's $750,000 flood mitigation project, is not among the 26 duties, yet that request graces the desk of federal bureaucrats.
It's not that the project is not necessary or good; it's just not a federal matter, and making it so embraces entitlement. If the project is necessary, it should be locally funded with citizen support, strong priorities, and a paring knife aimed at current expenditures.
America, under our original Constitution, became great through independence. As a basic system, anything non-essential fell to private enterprise. Anything essential for the community was funded there; ditto for the county, double ditto for the state. Each state was an independent laboratory; a sovereign body with the duty to care for its own. Beyond what all states needed, such as a national navy, unified postal system, uniform bankruptcy laws and patents, a universal monetary system, the states were the boss. There was no whining to the feds.
Things have changed! Now we "run home to papa" -- the federal government. But papa is broke; he has no money. His life savings are gone, he's in hock to the bank for a whole lot more than he owns and the banks have threatened to shut him down. Yet we still run to papa for funds. As an example, students go to him for loans -- almost half, 45 percent, of Utah graduates owe the Feds over $17,000 at graduation, with $1 trillion owed nationally. Their grandparents bought houses for that amount two generations ago. It is not one of the 26 federal duties to loan money to students. In a tight job market, can they repay, or will we excuse the debts as a down payment into Entitlement Villa?
How about if we leave Papa and support ourselves? Personal responsibility is the basis of a constitutional republic. Without it; with papa paying the bills, we cannot be a constitutional republic; we must be a socialist nation, where people, businesses, and governments need nursery care. The more money we take from the feds, the more they can dictate to us. You pay your bills, you make the decisions; someone else pays, he tells you what to do. Freedom versus control; it's a simple equation. Entitlement saps our strength, convinces us that we are helpless, and we become slaves. With our subscription to civic entitlement, we reap a culture of slavery.

Do we want freedom, or do we not? This is not a cake-and-eat-it-too deal, either we care for ourselves, or we let the federal government do it. Which? If freedom is our goal, personal and civic responsibility bid us abandon our place in line at the federal feeding trough, even for pet projects.
Probably all of us have partaken of the entitlement feast, though perhaps not knowingly or willingly. It has become a way of life, but it exacts an indelible toll. Federal money is habit forming. Like street drugs, it sucks your resolve, crushes your future, and makes you dependent.
What do we want? It's our decision: freedom, with its responsibility and self-sacrifice, or ever-growing social and economic slavery? We should actively make the decision, however, not continue to bellyache about entitlement while we practice it. Hypocrisy is not good for the soul.

Obamacare fixed by the Liberty Amendment

The Liberty Amendment as of 9/13

Individual liberty, freedom and sovereignty of the people will be restored in a representative republican form of government by clarifying the original spirit and intent of the Constitution. The Liberty Amendment will give back to the Constitution its full force and effect in limiting the powers and activities of the Federal Government and restoring those powers reserved to the States and to the people. The Liberty Amendment, proposed, could become the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. 

Text of the proposed Liberty Amendment

Section 1. The Government of the United States shall not engage in any business, professional, commercial, financial or industrial enterprise except as specified in the Constitution. Section 2. The constitution or laws of any State, or the laws of the United States shall not be subject to the terms of any foreign or domestic agreement which would abrogate this amendment. Section 3. The activities of the United States Government which violate the intent and purpose of this amendment shall, within a period of three years from the date of the ratification of this amendment, be liquidated and the properties and facilities affected shall be sold. Section 4. Three years after the ratification of this amendment the sixteenth article of amendments to the Constitution of the United States shall stand repealed and thereafter Congress shall not levy taxes on personal incomes, estates, and/or gifts.

The Liberty Amendment states that the Federal Government shall not operate business-type activities unless they are specifically authorized by the Constitution.
It provides a three-year period for selling or liquidating more than 900 agencies and business-type enterprises presently operated by the Federal Government without constitutional authority. Sale of these enterprises will bring in enough money to substantially reduce the national debt. Annual budget spending by the government could be reduced by more than fifty percent. Revenue from excise taxes on goods and services, and on corporation incomes, will increase at least twenty percent, without increase of tax rates.
This means that the annual revenue collected from the Federal Personal Income and Withholding Tax, the Federal Estate Tax, and the Federal Gift tax, will not be needed. So the Liberty Amendment will stop these three types of taxes, at the end of the three-year period

Current status

·       There are currently nine States which have already endorsed the Liberty Amendment. These States and the year in which they endorsed the Amendment are:

Wyoming ('59) • Nevada ('60) • Texas ('60) • Louisiana ('60) • Georgia ('62) • South Carolina ('62) • Mississippi ('82) • Arizona ('82) • Indiana ('82)

• On April 30, 2009 the Hon. Ron Paul of Texas introduced the Liberty Amendment into the House of Representatives, as House Joint Resolution 48:

Proposing an amendment the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.

Here is Dr. Paul's short speech introducing the legislation. And here are the full text and current status.

(Dr. Paul has previously introduced this amendment in: 2007, 2005, 2003, 1999, and 1998).

For more background information, please see The Liberty Amendment – its origin and progress.

The purpose of the Liberty Amendment

The purpose of this Amendment is to give full force and effect to the Constitution of the United States; to restore freedom and lost liberties to all Americans; and to restore sovereignty to the United States of America, the States and the body of the People.
The Liberty Amendment will renew personal freedom – the ability of individuals to exercise their God-given rights with a minimum of dependence on, and interference from, the Federal Government. It will restore to ourselves and to future generations the advantages which we inherited from our forefathers – advantages which made us the most fortunate people on earth.
Economic freedom, without which no freedom is possible, will be renewed by terminating federal competition with free enterprise and interference in "our" economy. When this has been accomplished, federal personal income, estate, and gift taxes will be unnecessary. So this Amendment will further renew economic freedom by terminating these taxes.
The Liberty Amendment is designed to regain the Constitutionally guaranteed powers reserved to the States and to the people. We are requesting that all States consider the urgent need to save the sovereignty of the States, the United States in its true Constitutionally framed Republic, and the Individual Liberty of all of our People.

Questions and Answers

Way back in 1975, Rep. Larry McDonald (D-Georgia) entered an excellent series of Questions and Answers about the Liberty Amendment into the Congressional Record. Even today, this is still one of the best explanations of the Liberty Amendment. Read it here.

The Liberty Amendment will win the battle on 45 issues all at once

The Liberty Amendment has been designed to fight all the multitude of apparently different battles at once – and win by restoring the Constitution to full force and effect. Once the Amendment is applied, a multitude of diversified battles will be won. Please read this important section.

ACTION FOR AMERICANS: HERE IS THE ACTION BY ANY AMERICAN WHO REALLY WANTS TO ACHIEVE RATIFICATION OF THE LIBERTY AMENDMENT

Since the purpose and design of the Liberty Amendment is to Restore Liberty in America, it is our goal to inform as many Americans as possible about how this amendment to the Constitution will accomplish this difficult task in our time. And since nine States, so far, have passed resolutions requesting Congress to initiate the ratification process, it is our intent to motivate all freedom loving citizens of the remaining States to request their State Legislators to pass a resolution endorsing the Liberty Amendment. This resolution should request Congress to initiate the preferred process of submitting the Amendment directly to the States for ratification and firmly insist that a Constitutional Convention only be called for the single purpose of ratifying the Liberty Amendment.

So now is the time – for everyone to work for the endorsement of the Liberty Amendment and for its ratification. We will have to work hard to convince our state legislators that they should introduce a resolution calling for the Congress to submit the the Amendment to the states for ratification. Please read this section to see how you can help! 

I've previously written about the Liberty Amendment, and mention it in Promises of the Constitution, vignette 12.6. Several of you have asked me about it. Below is the text of this Amendment to the federal constitution that would correct much of the current abuse coming from the federal government (remember that this amendment would apply only to the national government, not to states). Also listed is information about the current status of this still-active amendment, which chould be supported by all freedom-loving people. .

Note how simple it is, and compare it to the 25,000 pages (and counting) of the healthcare bill. A declaration comes to mind: "The things of God are always simple." The things of good government always are, as well.

Have a good week!  Pam