Sunday 13 December 2009

Rewarding failure

The problem we face is our short memory. The economy grows for a reason, because free enterprise have enough space to develop and success is rewarded with better jobs and lives for our families. Once we remove the conditions for economic growth, surprise, the economy stops growing and will not start growing again until we resume those conditions.

Too many people believe money can be created out of thin air (or out of credit cards) and work is only an optional nuisance. We assume that the economy will continue growing forever, no matter how big government becomes and how much we tax honest citizens to subsidize those who are lazy and selfish.

We pay so much money to "help the poor" that we have locked millions of people in the cold, soulless machinery of the state and rewarded failure to such extend that it is no longer worth working or studying hard. Why work when "the poor" get a salary and a house for life and the hard-working taxpayers who create wealth and jobs are taxed to death? Is it not just better to aspire to be poor?

Once we have taxed to exhaustion all the bankers, entrepreneurs, businessmen and anybody earning an honest living, there will be nobody left to create jobs and prosperity. That moment is approaching worryingly fast.

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