Nanny villages go kaput

When you’re under stress, go back to basics. And a basic way to consider public policy is to think of our country as a village.
Say that you’re the leader of a village of 100 people. The villagers hunt, farm, care for their families, build huts and trade goods. Everyone agrees to chip in and hire a few peace officers and teachers, plus they gladly give to the church to help take care of the less fortunate. The village prospers.
If the US were a village of 100, we’d have 5 teachers, 5 police officers, 10 attorneys, 5 social workers doing the work the church once did, 5 assistants to the leader, 5 vagrants, 5 guys scamming the system and 10 bureaucrats keeping tabs on the other public workers. We’d be in big time debt to the village next door, the one with the wisdom and discipline to maintain about a seven to one private-to-public ratio.
Soon, the 50 villagers who carry the load will slow down; some will move to a better village. The once prosperous village soon collapses.
The private economy in the US has done so well that it could sustain most of the increase we’ve seen in public works over the past 80 years. But Obama and his statist friends have stomped on the accelerator so hard that the engine can’t take any more.
Don’t like the village analogy? Just look at history. Countries with big central governments always fail. Low-tax, low-regulation countries thrive. But even successful nations run the risk of thinking that money grows on trees, get apathetic and slowly fade.