New Poll Finds Record Number Of Americans Want More Government In Their Lives

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

In a poll conducted a few days ago by NBC News / Wall Street Journal, a record 57% of Americans responded that they want MORE government in their lives, and that the government should be doing more to solve people’s problems.

That’s the highest percentage since they started asking this question in 1995.

In fact, 57% is nearly double what people responded in the mid-90s.

Furthermore, the number of Americans who feel the opposite, i.e. responded that the government is doing too many things that should be left to private businesses and individuals, fell to a near record-low 39%.

Bottom line: people want more government.

It’s hard to even know where to begin with this.

 

First- more government is nearly an impossibility.

As I’ve written several times in the past, the US federal government already spends almost all of its tax revenue on mandatory entitlements like Social Security, and interest on the debt.

They could literally cut nearly everything we think of as government– national parks, Homeland Security, even the IRS– and still not make a dent in paying down the national debt.

According to the US government’s own financial statements, their net operating loss in 2016 was an unbelievable $1.05 TRILLION.

Think about that– they lost more than a trillion dollars in a completely unremarkable year.

They weren’t waging world war, funding a major infrastructure project, or dealing with an economic crisis.

It was just business as usual. And they STILL lost over a trillion dollars.

More government is going to cost even more money that they don’t have… which means even more debt and even more pain in the future.

The usual refrain is to pay for more government programs by raising taxes on the rich, or big corporations, or whoever the evil villain du jour is.

Anyone who thinks this actually works needs to study history.

Simply put, RAISING TAXES DOES NOT RAISE TAX REVENUE.

I wish every Bernie Sanders voter could understand this very simple fact:

Since the end of World War II, US federal government tax revenue as a percentage of GDP has been nearly constant at 17%.

In other words, while the actual dollar amount of tax revenue goes up every year due to inflation and economic expansion, the government’s slice of the total economic pie is 17%.

Yet during the previous eight decades, actual -tax rates- have been all over the board– sometimes rates were higher, sometimes rates were lower.

Back in 1963, for example, the highest marginal tax rate on individuals exceeded an unbelievable 90%.

I’m sure there are plenty of Americans who would love to see the wealthiest citizens paying 90% again.

Yet in 1963, even with rates that high, the total amount of tax revenue that the US government collected was 16.7% of GDP.

In 1988 when the highest tax rate was slashed to just 28% under Ronald Reagan, total tax revenue 17.3% of GDP.

It doesn’t matter if tax rates were high or low– the actual tax revenue that the government collects stays constant at around 17% of GDP.

This raises a point that these socialists never seem to understand:

If the government’s slice of the pie never seems to change no matter how high or how low tax rates are, shouldn’t they focus on making the pie bigger?

Duh.

And it seems intuitive that higher taxes obstruct economic growth (i.e. make the pie smaller) because there’s less money in people’s pockets to spend and invest.

Then, of course, we have to touch on the issue of competence.

It’s absurd to want a government that has a nearly interminable track record of overreach, waste, and failure, to be even MORE involved in people’s lives.

We’re talking about the same institution that wastes taxpayer money to study monkeys on treadmills…

… or spent $1 billion to destroy $16 billion worth of perfectly good ammunition…

… or $2 billion to build a website.

It’s extraordinary that these people are already in charge of educating our children, regulating our savings, and now our medical care.

It’s even more appalling that given such dismal performance people want more.

As the old saying goes, the classic definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

A final point I’ll mention is that it’s concerning to see people in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave expect the government to solve their problems.

What ever happened to self-reliance? The pioneering spirit? Good ole’ American can-do ingenuity?

In truth there are countless ways for a motivated person to solve problems. Or at least to make forward progress.

For example, to all these kids that have their hands out demanding free university education, I always ask the same questions:

How many books did you read in the last twelve months?

How many FREE online courses from Harvard and MIT did you take?

Are you actually doing anything to help yourself? Or are you just whining on social media about how no one is giving you anything for free?

America was founded as a place where people take responsibility for themselves.

But this now seems to be an outdated, minority view.

The Land of the Free is truly becoming the Land of Getting Free Stuff.

Do you have a Plan B?

 

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Mike Murray
Mike Murray

One more confirmation that more than 57% of the public are ignorant, stupid, and lazy. It just too bad they can vote.

Ed
Ed

“Bottom line: people want more government.”

Nah, it’s just that more people gave the answer that the pollsters wanted in order to prove what they set out to prove with their poll. Most people I talk to complain that government fucks with us entirely too often in too many ways.

Maybe I’m in some minority of people who would love to see every politician, every lobbyist, and every government employee turned out to struggle like the rest of us do.

Westcoaster
Westcoaster

I can get whatever the result you desire from a survey; it’s all in how the question is posed.
If you coupled the question with something to balance, such as “Would you like more gov intervention in your life-EVEN IF it meant you had to pay higher taxes” you would see an entirely different result. Adding unaided recall makes a big difference, since Americans are stupid enough to not realize all that free money comes from our taxes, rather than it being “free”.

Rdawg
Rdawg

It’s truly tough to believe you were a die-hard Bernie guy…

TampaRed
TampaRed

not really ,coaster–too few people pay direct taxes and they don’t realize that they are indirectly paying for it in the form of higher prices or reduced wages–

SteveW
SteveW

Whenever you have more Takers than Makers it ultimately devolves into running out of other people’s money to spend. We are well on the way, swirling down the toilet, to end up in the shit pile.

kokoda - the most deplorable
kokoda - the most deplorable

You shouldn’t be allowed to vote unless you pay Federal taxes.

rhs jr
rhs jr

And add property taxes, can score at least 100 on an IQ test and are really a citizen.

Ed
Ed

Agreed, ko. Still, I pay income and property taxes and you’d have to pay me to get me to vote. I agree with what Clyde Wilson once wrote, that voting, while not actually an evil act, is an act of cluelessness, like chewing gum.

Rdawg
Rdawg

+1000000 Kokoda. This last election has nudged me a bit closer to the “never vote” crowd, but I have said for years that if you don’t have skin in the game, you shouldn’t be able to vote.

lpc123
lpc123

Typical straw man poll. They don’t ask if there is too much FEDERAL Government, just whether there is too much Government.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

What this country needs is free boob jobs.

TampaRed
TampaRed

but only for men Iska–

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

boob reductions.

Suzanna
Suzanna

and free dental…
then the fluoride can be removed from the lead filled water.

General
General

We need to get rid of the odious, aka fraudulent, debt. Then no more interest payments or debt.

TampaRed
TampaRed

How would you realistically do this General?
Repudiate it?
Pay it?
Inflate it?
Any other way?

MrLiberty
MrLiberty

12 years of government monopoly schooling/brainwashing, 24/7 mainstream media propaganda, endless “boogeyman” fear tactics by both government at the media, crony capitalist failures being blamed on the “free market,” claims of support for free market “solutions” by crony capitalist republicans, economics departments of nearly every college and university being controlled by Federal Reserve puppets and Keynesians, the entire mainstream media controlled by the globalists, and a massive parasitic class all deriving their income from the THEFT and TAKING of the federal, state, and local governments, and what do you expect?

From the great observer of American “democracy,” Alexis de Tocqueville:
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

“In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.”

“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”

“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.”

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”

“It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants.”

“We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.”

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia

I would like to believe the survey was bullshit and slanted to give the preferred answer, i.e., more government. But then I remember not to underestimate the stupidity of most Americans.

Norman Franklin

I can’t remember all the times in my life I lied on a telephone survey. The last time around I liked to tell them I was voting for hillary three times as I was registered to vote in Az, Ca, and Nev.

I think the findings of this poll are flawed as all the good comments above have pointed out. Just look how convinced all the pollsters were on election night of the impending triumph of the feminist lgbt agenda.

BrutusMax
BrutusMax

For one, I don’t trust any poll, or believe any poll for that matter, that comes from NBC/WSJ. What did they do ask a certain part of the country? In my state the people who want more government is definitely in the minority, more than likely with the “minorities.”
When we start believing in propaganda polls, or statistics then we are part of their evil games. Don’t believe a damn thing that comes from them.

Card802
Card802

This is no real surprise. This generation of millennials were raised to get what they want and when they want it.
Perfect compliant little drones that will embrace communism, socialism, fascism, any ism you throw at them, if they get what they want for free, they’re good.

The sad part is, they will get it, until we are all Venezuelans.

overthecliff
overthecliff

The tipping point to destruction has been reached.

David
David

The sell by date for democracy approaches, hurried by the causes enumerated by mrliberty above. The majority of Mankind is not evolved enough to withstand the constant assault from the statists. And the desire for free stuff coupled with the desire to bring down those with moreare strong within us.

BL
BL

Headline Today…………………………

Washington DC To Hold Massive ” Coordinated Terror Attack” Drill This Wednesday.

Note: 04/24/2017 was the drill in Manhattan- Operation Gotham Shield, two days later a drill in DC…..better get some extra popcorn supply.

Hagar
Hagar

In 1995 over 60% favored less government, by 2001 45%. Were the questions modified to elicit a desired response? Did 9/11 and the Patriot Act change attitudes? Were the questions asked of cherry picked age groups? Most likely all of the above. Can’t rely on today’s polling.

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