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JULY 2008 (Vol. 35 no. 12) Box 1250, Cave Junction, Oregon 97523 Copyright 2008 by Access to Energy
A Wrinkling Balloon
A half century ago, the United States was an industrial colossus - low us to buy from other countries the things we no longer
a great monument to the productive potential of a free people. More- produced. They printed new money and erected upon that money
over, with the advent of safe, abundant, and astonishingly inexpen- an enormous pyramid of debt and other leveraged derivatives. In-
sive nuclear energy coupled with initial rapid advances in micro creasingly, Americans could no longer own their homes, but they
science and engineering, America was poised for another, even could lease them from the government through property taxes and
more spectacular era of advance. If this advancc had been allowed to from the banks through loans. Loans - debt - money - money to
take place, Americans could have led all of the world's people into a buy perceived wealth. Money to bid up the price of stocks, com-
wonderful period of progress and prosperity, orders of magnitude modities, homes, and all the other things Americans wanted but
beyond anything the world has ever known - and, as things stand could no longer afford.:.... since their real wages were not also rising.
now, may ever know. So, a nation of fundamentally impoverished "investors" - actu-
While we see around us bits and pieces of the possible techno- ally "speculators" - really "gamblers" - grew up to replace a nation
• logical advance thal survived, most of the new worid beyond the of producers. They were told that their economy was 70% "con- •
door that opened to mankind during that period is now hidden from sumer" driven. Only 30% need still be producers - producers who
us beyond that door, which closed before we could pass through it. are very carefully controlled by government.
We walkcd on the moon, but could travel no further. We began With real wages not rising, there was a limit to the debt Ameri-
the transition to nuclear energy, but then abruptly stopped. We de- cans could support - a limit that was reached in 2007. At that point,
vised technology that could have revolutionized human medicine, the great government-created imaginary balloon of perceived wealth
but then did not apply that technology. America is littered from one in the form of printed money, inflated debt, inflated stock prices, in-
end to the other with the dreams of free productive people - dreams flated commodity prices, and inflated home prices began to deflate.
that those people were prevented form bringing to reality. The majority of Americans, however, are addicted to inflated
Not only did we fail to advance, but we slid backwards. Our prices and/or to the river of welfare payments being given to them
astronauts retreated from the moon to hover in near-earth orbit. Our by government - paid for with capital that the government has taxed
industries shrank. Our energy system decayed until we could not away from the still productive Americans. So, in 2008 they elected
even produce sufficient energy for our reduced industry. Our medi- politicians who are committed to even higher taxation, regulation,
cine stagnated and yet required more and more of our resources to and litigation, and who promise to print enough money to replace
maintain in even its primitive condition. the perceived imaginary purchasing power within the balloon.
Why did we cease to advance and, instead, slide backward? The If they print so much money, however, inflation will destroy the
reason is absolutely clear - we allowed our individual human free- currency. Instead, they hope that the printing of part of that money
dom to be reduced. The progress of past generations of Americans- and the promise to print unlimited amounts more will "restore confi-
whose accomplishments still sustain our now diminished lives - was dence" and lead the people to borrow the rest. In other words, the
not made possible because those people were superior. It was made balloon of imaginary wealth has started to deflate. It is wrinkling.
possible because they were free. As Julian Simon showed, free peo- Government proposes to re-inflate the wrinkles with printing press
ple always produce more than they consume - but only if they are money and to thereby convince Americans that all is well- inducing
free to do so. them to resume puffing up the balloon. As 2007 showed, however,
We were not oppressed from without. We were oppressed from Americans - enslaved by government - are out of breath.
within. We allowed our government - a government largely com- This cannot succeed. The only solution to American economic
rosen of people of little 01' no ability nr real aecomplif'hments - problems is to remove the governmental taxation, re~.l1lation and.
gradually to build a system of taxation, regulation and control, and . control, and litigation that has reduced the freedom of individual
government-sponsored litigation that has destroyed our freedom. Americans so far that they no longer have the ability or will to pro-
Nor is this tyranny based only in Washington. Throughout America, duce the things they need.
state and local governments and the monopolistic arrangements that Yet, those who were elected in 2008 and the millions of bureau-
they have forged with now pseudo-public industries interfere with cratic retainers who work for them have no intention whatever of in-
productive human activities at every twn. creasing the freedom of productive people. They fear the productive
Americans today cannot even modify their homes, make and sell people whom they have enslaved and fully intend to bind them with
electricity, or drive their cars without - "permission." And - those even heavier chains.
who give "permission" can withhold "permission." Inspiring specches and "leadership" from those who love tyranny
As American productivity faltered and then slid backwards under will not work - no matter how stridently media, academia, and other
their yokes, our masters feared that we would turn surly if our pros- leftist institutions applaud. Only freedom will work. Until American
perity diminished. So, our financial system was manipulated to al- freedom is restored, the balloon will continue to deflate.