“The bottom line is that people who receive comfortable government benefits don’t have as much skin in the game when it comes to the end-result of the newly proposed healthcare bill.”
“The Treasury Inspector General released a report this month that reveals that the IRS deliberately targeted people they knew were not engaged in structuring for millions of dollars’ worth of seizures, such that 91% of seizures were made in error, taking money away from people engaged in lawful activity. These seizures were ‘quick hits’ that allowed IRS enforcers the rack up impressive resolution stats because the victims were happy to negotiate a settlement, as opposed to actual criminal acts. The result: for the IRS, depositing $10,000 or more was an inherently suspicious act; but so was depositing $10,000 or less.”
Read more: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/14/innocents-make-easy-marks.html
“A newly released Cato Institute/YouGov survey of 2,000 Americans finds that when people are asked to select their top three priorities for the police they choose the following: Investigating violent crime like murder, assaults, and domestic violence (78%); Protecting individuals from violent crime (64%); Investigating property crime and robbery (58%). Notably, only 30% think police should make enforcing drug laws a top three priority. Some may find these results surprising, given that police made more arrests for drug abuse violations (1.6 million) than they did for violent crimes (498,666) in 2014.”
https://fee.org/articles/americans-agree-violent-crime-should-be-police-priority-not-drugs/
“These forfeitures and the partnerships between municipal police and federal agencies rose as the economy of California slid into a slump. Forfeitures through the federal Equitable Sharing Program have tripled while forfeitures using the state’s process have remained flat (and much lower). The reason is pretty simple: California’s asset forfeiture law allows law enforcement agencies to keep only a maximum of 65 percent of the money they seize. The federal program allows law enforcement agencies to keep 80 percent. Some cities appear to be anticipating forfeiture revenue in advance and using forfeited funds to supplant budgeted spending for law enforcement agencies.”
http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/21/tiny-california-towns-have-big-asset-for
“Surveillance of health made the eugenics movement possible in 30 states. In North Carolina alone, 7,600 individuals were sterilized from 1929-74. Government ID papers have made checkpoints more productive and less costly. Saying that some government activities have to be more costly is the same as saying they should be constrained. There is a second reason why private information must stay private. It is simply that you may well be breaking criminal laws without knowing it. Many people are not convicted felons only because the government does not know which paper crimes they have committed.”
http://lfb.org/today/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide-be-very-worried
“At the root of the problem is the incentive system that elected officials used to face. For decades, across the US, local leaders ran up tabs for future taxpayers; they promised pensions and other benefits for public employees that have strong legal protection. That has been a great source of patronage for elected officials: they can promise all sorts of future perks to loyal supporters with very little accountability on the delivery of those promises.[…] Leaders across the country cannot continue as they have. They must choose sides because there is simply not enough money to go around. Will they side with taxpayers, unions or the municipal bondholders?”
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/07/meredith-whitney-detroit-will-start.html
“A system that suppresses dissent is fault-intolerant, ignorant and fragile. Any event that does not respond to centralized, rationalized policy creates unintended consequences that throws the centralized mechanism into disarray. Lacking dissent and redundancy, the system piles on one haphazard, politically expedient ‘fix’ after another, further destabilizing the system. The event that triggers crisis and collapse isn’t important; the system, rendered unstable and fragile by centralization, is primed for crisis and collapse. The dry underbrush is piled high, and if the first lightning strike doesn’t start the fire, the second one will.”
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-centralization-leads-to-collapse.html
“As gold & silver prices tumble to 2.5-year lows in a wake of panic selling following a disappointing Fed Outlook & statement by Bernanke, as well as less-than-ideal Chinese economic data, Kitco News speaks with James Grant, editor of “Grant’s Interest Rate Observer” about the carnage in gold & silver markets. In a previous interview, (then U.S. Congressman) Dr. Ron Paul told Kitco News that he would appoint Grant as Fed chairman; hear what Grant would do differently than Bernanke to help the US economy. Kitco News, June 20, 2013.”
“The only metrics that count are debt and the ability to service that debt. Households have this tiny little problem known as declining income that makes it impossible to service more debt unless interest rates fall to near-zero. Presto-magico, real interest rates (adjusted for inflation) are near-zero, and can’t fall any lower. That means the Fed has run out of room to lower rates. From here on, households will only be able to service more debt if their income rises. Alas, with full-time employment back to 1980 levels, that is not even a remote possibility.”
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-global-status-quo-strategy-do-more.html
“It’s a simple but disturbing truth: A late-stage state’s modus operandi must always be ‘government against the people’ – one that is inherently predatory. And it’s not because the participants are all sociopaths (though many are). At most times, governments try very hard to skim quietly, as with payroll taxes, where the producer’s money is taken away before he or she ever holds it in their hands. That’s also why tariffs were a traditional tax – the average person never saw it, and didn’t feel violated. But when governments are massively over-extended, they lose the luxury of the quiet skim and become more aggressive.”
http://www.nestmann.com/government-against-the-people-it-gets-worse-in-the-late-stages/