Why Our Economy Stinks

Our economy is a mess.  Our economy is in as bad of a shape as it has ever been since the founding of this country.

Read (or re-read): Dumb Ways (for an economy) to Die

Our economy is capable of improving, most of us want to work, businesses want to grow, we all want to buy more iPads, etc.  But we are being held back by our government.

...there are many dumb ways to kill an economy. Over the last five years, the federal government seems to have set the record for attempting as many as possible in record time. Then we look at growth rates and wonder why they are so anemic, why our kids can’t get jobs, why sector after sector seems to be crumbling, and why so many people are looking abroad for opportunity.

We all want to be safe, to have minimal accidents, to lose minimal property, etc. and because of that the government has created countless laws to keep us safe.  The problem is that we do not life in a perfectly safe world, and accidents happen.  We take risks in life everyday.  If we were really all about safety, then the speed limits would be 5 mph, we'd never use pointy knives, and we wouldn't need to lock our doors.

Because our government wants to be responsible for keeping us safe it has passed countless laws.  And while we may want to be safe, we need to take some risks, and some of us are willing to take greater chances than others.

Let's look at it with an analogy.  Assume that our economy is a runner trying to go as fast and as far as possible.  And then our government decides that that is good, but this runner needs to be safe too.  So this runner is required to wear a helmet, glasses, shoulder pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, a flak jacket, a raincoat, knee pads, thigh pads...

A runner would indeed be safer, from most things, by wearing all of this safety gear, but the runner will be much slower than it would be were it not so encumbered. 

Many of us may like the idea of being safe, even at the cost of some progress.  But the greatest progress comes from those who take risks and chances.  And forcing all of this safety upon us slows us all down.

Safety laws are just several of many things that our government has done in order to (allegedly) improve our lives.  You make like the safety, but you cannot argue that it has not slowed us down and will continue to retard growth, and will continue to slow any recovery that we may experience.

Let us throw off the yoke of government laws, rules, and regulations.  Let us run free, so that we may experience the greatest accomplishments that we are able.

Or we can continue to do what we are doing: spend, spend, spend, regulate, regulate, regulate...  After all, what's 8% unemployment among friends?