Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Future of Freedom?

Between 2009 and 2014, an economic patterns emerged in the United States: higher unemployment, lower real and nominal incomes, and a lower net worth for the average family. In addition to these downward trends, there was an increase in the number of people receiving food stamps, the number of people holding alleged jobs with the government, and a relatively large increase in the federal debt.

All of these patterns had an amplified effect in the African-American community: unemployment was greater, incomes and net worth even lower. Black activist Deneen Borelli writes:

Ironically, it is the government that creates the need for government assistance. The Obama administration is responsible for creating a path to greater dependency. The country must reduce the public's need for handouts. We don't want Americans to spend their lives scrounging for basic needs. The government should create a political and economic climate that will ensure people can provide for themselves and stand on their own two feet. This is what Americans want and this is what our president should want.

Borelli represents the pain felt by families faced simultaneously with lower incomes and higher consumer prices. This economic pain will only be extended into the future if the government continues to borrow money, creating a debt which today's young people will be paying in the future. On April 15, 2014, the Investor's Business Daily revealed that

The CBO's new budget projections contain an eerie warning that we are on path from today's already unfathomable $17.7 trillion in gross federal government debt to more than $27 trillion in 2024. This in spite of finger-crossing projections of tax revenue over the next decade exceeding its 40-year average as a share of GDP.

A government which exercises self-restraint, and a constitution which restrains the government, can offer economic freedom as well as the personal liberty which citizens desire. The enemies of freedom are taxation, debt, and government spending. African-American citizens want economic opportunities; those opportunities increase as the government shrinks.