The Cycle of Government

The Cycle of Government

By Matt Schnackenberg

The cycle of government has been studied and philosophized by many ancient philosophers. Also called “Kyklos” in Plato’s Republic, he believes there are four states within the cycle. Starting with Timocracy, ruled by the honorable or honored hierarchy, it evolves into an oligarchy as people push for more freedoms followed by democracy, then it regresses back to Timocracy through the Tyranny stage of the cycle.

Plato’s student Aristotle expanded on this idea and simplified the cycle to a process that is easier to see throughout the world, which states the rise of liberty begins through the evolution from a monarchy to a republic ending in a state of anarchy. Aristotle viewed constitutional republics the most virtuous due to the freedoms individuals enjoy.

As most of you readers know, the United States of America is a constitutional republic. We started as a part of the British monarchy and fought for our freedom and for a form of democracy. Yes, a republic is a form of democracy. The difference being we elect representatives and majority should not have a strong control of the government. There are also rights that should not be infringed by the government protected by the constitution.

“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public
welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.”
Charles de Montesquieu

Lately, it seems the this young country has started its trend towards tyranny, and could very well collapse into anarchy restarted the cycle back to Plato’s Timocracy, a Monarchy, or Totalitarian Dictatorship of some form.

Most of the problem is that the United States has fallen to become just another empire state in history. How can I say that? Simple, here is a short breakdown of what an empire does.
Control various other nations through means of fiscal or political “assistance.”
Gain control of other nations political systems and use those nations as puppets to benefit the mainland in some way. (Note: This has failed with US puppet nations like Japan and South Korea as they have been fiscal strains on our economy.)
War with other nations to protect “our resources.” Or “national security” as pundits and politicians say.

Where did this quest from empire start though? To quote Thomas Jefferson, our founding foreign policy is “Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.” So we have pretty much fallen completely away from our founder’s ideals in terms of no alliances, but that is far from the problem.

“Our 'neoconservatives' are neither new nor conservative,
but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.”
Edward Abbey

Within the last 100 years there has been a driving force within our legislative halls. That force is called Neo-Conservatism. While generally we consider various republicans to be neoconservatives, but frankly, it is obvious we have neoconservatives on “both sides of the aisle.” Bringing together the two parties into an oligarchy.

Neo-conservatism’s roots comes from a man named Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli was a very interesting man for the 15th century. He specialized in military theory and politics. His overall belief was that government should is morally responsible to inspire people. The way to inspire was of course through military force for “the benefit” of the country attacked. In order to move public support all efforts are taken under the guise of religious, humanitarian intent, false flag attacks, or using events such as 9/11.

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
James Madison

Fast forward to the 20th century, author Michael Ledeen who can be considered one of the strongest supporters of the neoconservative movement. Ledeen worked as a consultant for the State Department, Dept of Defense, and National Security Council. During which he has personally handed out his book, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, to members of both legislative houses.

In 2002, He has also spoke out staunchly in support for a massive war in the middle east and criticized National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft stating:

“He fears that if we attack Iraq "I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a cauldron and destroy the War on Terror." One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly line to indoctrinate young terrorists. That's our mission in the war against terror.”

Ledeen during his political career he successfully assisted in spreading and defining the modernized variation on of his hero Niccolò Machiavelli’s beliefs.

“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security”
Benjamin Franklin

Of course, throughout USA history there were those of similar logic and understanding as neocons today. Those individuals include Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. These national leaders believed in centralized government power, weak state power, and most importantly increased power of the executive branch. They attempted, and some succeeded, in removing checks and balances that stood in their way.

Outside influences do have interesting effects on government cycles as well. Outside influences like foreign aid can slow down the collapse of a tyrannical regime.

One thing that shocks people is that fact that foreign aid is a form of economic warfare. Reason being, the country that starts receiving out funds start making them dependent on our aid money, and less on their own currency or financial system, to finance large projects or their military. The reason most tyrannical regimes that receive our money stay in post longer than they should is because they use the funds received to buy more arms and finance employment more soldiers.

The tyranny in this country has been slow growing, but starting to show its ugly head. Insane debt, tax-based slavery through the 17th amendment, imperialism abroad, and rights encroaching executives orders and legislation at home is there any surprised?

“He who controls the present, controls the past.”
George Orwell

Is it really that shocking? Back in 1980, CIA Director nominee John Brennan stated with his graduate thesis from UT Austin that “Since the press can play such an influential role in determining the perceptions of the masses, I am in favor of some degree of government censorship.” Meaning that the government has full knowledge that control of the media is key to control the populace that things are going smoothly. That government is good, and will not censor or remove fundamental rights. Just like in Roman, it will also use sports to pull the attention away from what is really happening in the world, dumbing down the masses through useless government education systems, and in some cases use drugs to reduce overall IQ.

"... we are frequently criticized both on economic policy and
foreign policy and we're going back to the old days of isolationism
and the old days of the gold standard. But let me tell you,
big government is very very old, and big government and inflation
and destruction of currency - that is ancient
and based on ideas that are wrong. Those who criticize us
who want a lot less government - they are the past, and
we are the future!"
Ron Paul

History repeats itself because human nature allows it. This is why the cycle has been allowed to continue unimpeded since humanity was first able to collectively think as a community and an individual. It should absolutely be possible to change the course of human events, reverse the cycle to liberty, and freeze the motor of the world at that point. Return this country to a Jeffersonian, now Libertarian, philosophy of limited government and leave it there. We would benefit from it economically and internationally.


Sources:
Cornford, Francis Macdonald. The Republic of Plato. London: Oxford University Press, 1945. Print.

DiLorenzo, Thomas J.. The real Lincoln: a new look at Abraham Lincoln, his agenda, and an unnecessary war. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003. Print.

Ledeen, Michael Arthur. Machiavelli on modern leadership: why Machiavelli's iron rules are as timely and important today as five centuries ago. New York: Truman Talley Books, 1999. Print.

Machiavelli, Niccolò, W. K. Marriott, Nelle Fuller, and Thomas Hobbes. The prince,. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 19551952. Print.

Napolitano, Andrew P.. Theodore and Woodrow: how two American presidents destroyed constitutional freedom. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 2012. Print.

Paul, Ron. A foreign policy of freedom: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship". Lake Jackson, TX: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, 2007. Print.

Fed will do whatever it takes to get hiring going

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Fed up with the anemic pace of hiring, the Federal Reserve promised Thursday that it would do whatever it takes to reduce unemployment. 

The Fed stepped up its efforts to boost economic growth, opting for a round of quantitative easing, in a meaningful change in its tactics. 

The Federal Open Market Committee said it would buy an additional $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed bonds, above and beyond the bonds it is now buying as a part of Operation Twist. 

This is the QE3 that’s been talked about so much. 

 

Significantly, the new bond-buying plan is open-ended, meaning that the Fed will keep buying long-term bonds until it sees a substantial improvement in the job market. If hiring doesn’t pick up, the Fed could step up the pace of bond-buying until it does. 

The key phrase in the Fed’s statement was this: “If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability.”

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The Federal Reserve has basically declared that QE3 will happen. While Bernanke stated he will only do it if the labor market doesn't improve, there is no way it can while interest rates are artificially low. The economy is in shambled because of his/their actions and therefore needs to be ended, not encouraged. Sadly, there is no way to stop this from happening at this current moment. Expect another depression much deeper than the one the Fed originally created in the 30s.

Some Of The Really Bad Things That Could Happen If You Do Not Prepare For The Coming Economic Collapse

Most people just assume that since things have always been a certain way that they will always be that way in the future.  Most people just have blind faith that the people running our government and our financial system know exactly what they are doing and that they are doing their best to take care of us.  In fact, once upon a time I was fully convinced of that.  When I was a kid I quickly realized that my elementary school teachers really didn't have the answers, but I had total faith that those running society at the highest levels were "experts" that were looking out for our best interests.  As time went on I kept progressing in my education, and by the time I was finished with law school I came to understand that none of our "experts" really know what they are doing, and they are definitely not looking out for our best interests.  The blind are leading the blind and we all need to finally admit that the emperor is not wearing any clothes.  Unfortunately, most Americans will repeat the mantra of "if that was true I would have heard about it on the news" until it is way too late.  Most people are waiting for the "authorities" to tell them what to do instead of thinking for themselves.  Sadly, time is rapidly running out and a lot of people are going to end up getting totally blindsided by what is coming.

The man in charge of our financial system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, is not going to save our economy.  He didn't see the last financial crisis coming, and even after things started falling apart he continued to insist that housing prices would not go down and that we would not have a recession.

Well, it turned out that we had the worst housing crash and the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

But still millions of Americans are trusting him to save us this time around.
It isn't going to happen.

The truth is that the design of the Federal Reserve system itself is fundamentally flawed.
The biggest reason why the U.S. government is 16 trillion dollars in debt is because the system is designed to create gigantic amounts of government debt.

Yes, without a doubt the vast majority of our politicians are corrupt and/or incompetent, but even if we replaced every single one of them our economic problems would still persist until the underlying structural problems were addressed.

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All I have to say to this is that I agree completely. Those who are unprepared for the crash that will happen needs to get moving and set themselves up for the hard times ahead.

Feds Are Cutting Social Security Benefits From Retirees Who Can't Pay Back Student Loans

While most attention in the ongoing student debt crisis narrative has focused on new graduates, it turns out the federal government has been quietly targeting a different group of debtors: retirees.

The Treasury Department has been withholding as much as 15 percent of Social Security benefits from "a rapidly growing number of Social Security recipients who have fallen behind on federal student loans," Smart Money's Annamaria Andriotis reports:

"From January through August 6, the government reduced the size of roughly 115,000 retirees' Social Security checks on those grounds. That's nearly double the pace of the department's enforcement in 2011; it's up from around 60,000 cases in all of 2007 and just 6 cases in 2000...

The amount that the government withholds varies widely, though it runs up to 15%. Assuming the average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker of $1,234, that could mean a monthly haircut of almost $190."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-feds-are-garnishing-social-security-benefits-from-retirees-who-cant-pay-back-student-loans-2012-8#ixzz2494XYFaB

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This is far from unexpected, many financial experts have warned of government roll backs of pensions, social security, etc to pay back debts. Gerald Celente especially warned of this. This is how government enslaves its people, making them more needy to government financial assistance. Eventually they will start cutting off aid to the older "useless" tax slaves when they people get accustom to government ending people's support after a certain age due to debt accumulation, so they'll say.

Human tax farming at its best.

$200 million in upgrades planned at idle Crystal River nuclear power plant

In a move that flabbergasts its critics, Progress Energy Florida plans to spend more than $200 million of its customers' money to upgrade the Crystal River nuclear power plant.

This is the same plant that:
 • Broke three years ago during another upgrade project.
 • Has not produced a kilowatt of power since.
 • Would cost at least $3 billion to repair including related power expenses.
• May never be restarted.

Nevertheless, Progress has budgeted millions to increase the plant's potential power output. To pay for it, customers' power bills will increase an estimated $51.5 million this year, $110.2 million next year and $64.5 million in 2014.

And that's not all.

Progress plans to spend hundreds of millions more on the plant for equipment and safety upgrades through 2014. The utility won't be able to charge customers for those expenditures at least until after 2017 because of an agreement with state regulators.

Critics equate it to replacing the drive-train on an aging, broken-down car that is more likely headed to the junkyard than back onto the street.

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This is a pointless amount of money for a dormant powerplant that frankly should be torn down and replaced with a thorium based generation 5 nuclear plant.

The argument from the clean energy person is a bit questionable, while its great that she is questioning the point, she misses the boat arguing against a nuclear plant that is still cleaner than coal plants. She should support a tear-down and massive upgrade to new technology considering the price tag is so far has been over $2 billion dollars; not just giving up.

Also, the costs should not be put on the taxpayers, especially since no one asked for the constant failures revolving around the upgrades.

Tax Incentives and Energy by Matthew Schnackenberg

                Here in Florida a bill numbered HR 7117 is currently sitting on Gov. Rick Scott's desk. The bill is to provide tax incentives for companies and farmers in Florida to build renewable energy plants.  As a libertarian I do take issue to the idea of handing out money to any company as a subsidy or tax break. You want to do business within our state; you pay taxes like the rest of the companies in the state.

                Tax incentives for energy of any kind are not new. According to the firm Earth Track, the US federal government gives incentives to oil, coal, and nuclear companies ranging for an absurd $41 billion to much lower yet still unnecessary $6 billion. Compare this to the incentives of all renewable sources - which include wind, solar, hydro, and other sources - receive a modest $6 billion combined.  These numbers also do not include state and local subsidies.

                Now, I believe all incentives need to end completely, but unlike the wishes of those following the libertarian philosophy of limited government and free-market economies, there is no way this will happen anytime soon. As many people know, many Democrats will never back off their pushes for green energy subsidies as long as there are fossil fuel subsidies, and many Republicans tend to be knee deep in oil lobbyists' pockets so we will never see a push from their side to end oil subsidies.

                As a libertarian myself, I will be overjoyed if HR 7117 is vetoed as it will save taxpayers more of their hard-earned money. Of course, I never like to simply view situations like this from one prospective. A person can never truly be able to judge how things might play out if you hide yourself inside your philosophy and never look from the prospective of those affected by this bill.

                With the massive incentives stated above for oil and nuclear resources, there is an obvious display of favoritism when it comes to which resource our elected officials have chosen for us to use. This creates unbalance within the energy market and tilts it unfairly towards a select few energy sources artificially priced lower. This reduced competition and removed the consumer from the marketplace. 

                The most logical solution is of course the one that cannot currently happen; which is ending all subsidies so that the free-market decides which energy sources become the more prominent in society. This would allow for the most unsafe and costly sources of energy to either be revised to become more efficient or disappear from the market completely.

                Ultimately, the only solutions left is either allow the continued disparity in the energy market continued by favoritism caused by both the state and federal government or allow the state to at least allow a bit more balance to the energy market within the state of Florida. This is a very tough call to make as the taxpayers have already lost no matter which way Gov. Rick Scott goes. 

                While I personally dislike Rick Scott for his shady operation as governor of this state, I think I am willing to support his decision no matter which way he goes with this bill. Vetoing the bill eliminates additional taxpayer burdens, but does not allow for a fairer marketplace within our state that could easily create some much-needed jobs. Signing the bill into law will create more opportunities for job creation with new businesses opening, current businesses expanding operations, and more consumer choice, but at the cost of increased tax-burdens on the people. Both are fairly equal when weighing the positives and negatives revolving around this bill.

                From a libertarian's prospective, increased taxation is increased theft, but I have also seen how the government is already creating a huge disproportioned mess that disallows fair competition. Taxpayers are already burdened by the debt created by pre-existing subsidies that are bound to rise as oil prices raise due the dying Federal Reserve note aka the dollar. We should support a fairer market until we can eliminate all subsidies whether it is by slowly removing them one by one starting with the most burdensome or removing all federal subsidies at once by the elimination of the DOE. We should never support the government giving a wad of money to one market of companies and ignoring their competition. 

                History dictates that any internal improvement project and tax incentives at any level of government tend to end in dismal failure leading to massive debt. Sadly, we are at the age were internal improvements and tax incentives are everywhere. As libertarians and like-minded constitutionalists, we have a duty to be shepherds to lead this nation back to its roots. Along the way, we will have hard decisions to make, like supporting or disapproving bills like HR 7117. Our overall goal is a society and market free from government influence. As we battle towards our goal, we should consider ways to temporarily balance areas of the market until we can remove government completely. For Florida's energy market, HR 7117 could be that temporary answer until we can eliminate federal overreach.