Creating poverty - one thing government does successfully

For years now, I've been pointing out that every time government, at any level, takes any of their typical "progressive" actions, they are harming citizens at the bottom of the economic ladder, and driving more people into that bottom category.

Actions that many think of as being for the benefit of all, such as safety regulations, sanitation regulations, food inspections and labeling requirements, building codes, auto emissions standards, auto safety requirments, and several thousand more measures, are all forced upon us by edict, and each of them raises the cost of every product we buy. While many of us may believe that such measures are for our protection, and therefore worth it, they inevitably drive the minimum cost of living beyond the grasp of many people.

Every additonal tax, every small restriction or requirement, may be an acceptable inconvenience to those with more disposable income, but they can be a savage blow for the poorest Americans. While politicians invariably boast about their concern for the poor and unfortunate among us, virtually every action they take pushes more people into the throes of extreme poverty.

Because government actions are forced upon all of us, we are left with no alternative but to suffer the increased cost. In an uncontrolled market... a free market... we would have a wide variety of products at differing prices. We would have, for example, inexpensive automobiles, less expensive food, and truly affordable housing. Versions of all those items would still be available at higher, more expensive, levels for those who could afford them, but we would each have the choice of trading a bit of safety for lower prices.

Such was the America we once had, an America that made it possible for poor immigrants arriving here to not only survive, but, through frugality and hard work, work their up the economic scale. Oh... it wasn't pretty; many of us would be appalled at the living conditions in those times, at the unhealthy foods and unsafe housing, but, for immigrants, those conditions were at least as good as those they left behind in their home nations.

It's important to understand what has changed. There were citizens at all economic levels, from extreme poverty through secure working classes, professionals, and the extremely wealthy. Then, like now, the wealthiest often benefited by the actions of government, but with a significant difference: The poor were less handicapped by government. They weren't "protected from themselves" by excessive and expensive regulations, and they weren't prevented from building their own little enterprises by the myriad of regs, licenses and codes that make starting a small business as expensive and difficult as it has become.

Government has transformed our nation into one in which poor people are trapped in poverty, unable to move up, because every product or service that might assist them drains them of all they can earn.

How bad has the problem become? In an era that has seemed prosperous to most of us, the number of Americans in deep poverty has increased dramatically. An analysis by McClatchy Newspapers of 2005 census figures finds these results:

The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.

Lest you assume that "severe poverty" is an exagerration, read on:

A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year.

If you go on to read the rest of the McClatchy article, you'll find the usual suggestions that our government has fallen down on the "job" of helping the poor. You won't find much conversation about how they got to be poor in the first place... but they did accidentally show us one clue.

First, they point out that Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, has a higher concentration of severely poor people - 10.8 percent in 2005 - than any of the 50 states, topping even hurricane-ravaged Mississippi and Louisiana. Then going on with a description of one Washington resident...

Wearing shoes with holes, a tattered plaid jacket and a battered baseball cap, Treece lives hand-to-mouth in a $450-a-month room in a nondescript boarding house in a high-crime neighborhood.

$450 for a single room in a poor boarding house? Is it any wonder there are so many homeless people? There is probably no area of the nation so controlled by regulation and taxes as the capital, and so filled with wealthy, influential people. That 10.8 percent of the residents are living in severe poverty alongside the pompous and wasteful extravagance of our national politicians should be a disgraceful revelation to anyone who believes that government is our benefactor, or that politicians give a damn about individual citizens.

Government causes poverty by simply increasing the cost of everything we do or buy. Politicians cater to those who can help them win elections, and deliberately ignore the inevitable consequences to others. When, on occasion, they implement some grand program to "help the poor", they're really helping thousands of overpaid government workers who will administer the program, eating up about 2/3 of all the money made available to the program. Worse, that program will increase taxes, driving still more citizens downward economically. It will also make it more difficult for any private charity to actually help those in need.

Our nation has been in this cycle for a long time... ever-growing government and widening economic gaps between the "haves" and the "have-nots". There are many other disastrous results from a bloating, overbearing government, but one of the worst is the destruction of what we were once most proud of... our nation as a land of opportunity. Plenty of us are still doing quite well... fat and cushy, until some unexpected personal disaster drives us into poverty. Right now, the increasing bankruptsy rate of the sub-prime mortgage market is introducing many new citizens to poverty. Any economic downturn will submerge many with excessive credit card debt into that black hole of poverty.

Politicans, in their quest for power at any cost, have created a nation in which being poor can be, despite all efforts, a permanent condition. Each year, they drive more of us into that sinkhole, even while they pretend to be saving us from all manner of problems. They lie... it is that simple... and they don't care enough to do the only thing that can stop it, because the solution is to reduce the size and intrusiveness of government, and reduce taxes dramatically. They won't do that voluntarily because it would mean reducing their own power, and, make no mistake, that is what they're all about.