The failure of the United States

Oh no another doom post on the United States. Everything there looked right. My fave was #13.

If the US eventually fails then my belief is the failure can be traced to two events around a century ago.

• the elected Senate
• introduction of the income tax

with the elected Senate then the house and the Senate are now aligned in their agenda. with the appointed Senate there was proper balance between the common sense of the common people, and the wisdom of the elites. when Senators were appointed by and answered to the governor then states rights were respected and there was a natural check on the spendthrift and expansionist house. with the elected Senate there becomes a natural alliance between the house and the senate with no counterbalance as they answer to the same constituents and pursue the same agenda which can be reckless and irresponsible


the income tax is the other key and related part of it. before federal income tax there was a natural financial boundary on what the federal government could do so it was limited to responsibilities enumerated in the constitution such as the common defence, and foreign embassies. the constitution was designed this way for a reason with prohibition on the taxation of individuals as a natural check and limit on the growth and expansionist tendencies of the federal government. alas after the income tax there was now vast revenue, and combined with an elected senate, the 10th amendment effectively went out the window decades ago. today the vast majority of the federal budget is spent on programs that have no constitutional basis to exist.

despite the enormous revenue generated by the income tax spendthrift congressmen and senators have of course grown spending and promises of spending even faster and now the result is catastrophic debt and unfunded liabilities