In the 1950s, Anthony Crosland argued that we could take capitalism’s strength for granted. A future Labour government would be able to heap up the tax burden as well as the regulatory one – and the capitalist milch cow would continue to pour out the milk. Through experience, we in the UK have learnt that Croslandism is as flawed as any other form of socialism, but Europe, albeit unwittingly, is still in his thrall.
The easiest way to steal from prudent (but nice) people is to persuade them that they are donating to charity.
Best regards
Nigel,
Your observation deserves to be a Quote of the Day in its own right.
Lang Spoon.
In the Constitution of Liberty (1960) F.A. Hayek took issue with the case that the (ever expanding) Welfare (and regulation) State could be funded for ever (as Ludwig Von Mises had in “Destructionism” the last part of his work “Socialism”).
Hayek held that it could not – and even guessed when it (the Welfare State and the regulation state) would collapse.
The early 21st century.
I believe that Hayek was correct – on both counts.
However, we are not able to be more specific.
The Welfare State – regulation state (and the credit bubble financial system on which it depends) will start to go into its death agony in 2013.