"Government Does Not Create Wealth"

"Government does not create wealth, it merely redistributes it" goes the saying, "The redistributionists - socialists, if you will, are out to destroy this country".

This has become something of a mantra among the so-called conservatives, anarcho-libertarians, and anti-government free-market enthusiasts for some time. Not much logic in this simple-minded platitude. And I mean "platitude" in its most insulting form, since those who go by these stupidly thoughtless pigheaded mantras insist upon saying idiotic things in a jackass kind of way.

I would argue that these people don't remember their elementary school lessons, or have chosen to be ignorant of them. But, okay, let's say that they are right. Let's do this scientific-like, and go with that hypothesis, and see if we can find any empirical evidence that contradicts this.

(I'm pretty sure I could write a book-length treatment to drive the point solidly into their little pinheads, but who would want to read it?)

So, Resolved: Government does not create wealth. Contradictory evidence? Anyone?

Land Purchases

The Louisiana Purchase. Remember that? President Jefferson authorizes the purchase from Napoleon. Napoleon snookers Spain (since France didn't actually own the land) into trading land west of the Mississippi in exchange for an Italian Kingship for one of the idiot inbred Hapsburg princes, then reneges on the deal, and pockets the$15,000,000 from Uncle Sam. Fifteen million in 1803 dollars is about two hundred fifteen million in 2010 dollars. With the acquisition of 828,800 square miles, that works out to $259 a square mile, or 40 cents an acre. What's the average land value west of the Mississippi now? A thousand bucks? On average? More? A lot more? And that's just land. Let's not forget to mention minerals (gold, silver, lead, iron, platinum, copper, uranium, oil, natural gas, you name it), forests, plants and animals harvested (those buffalo hides made a lot of leather belts to run factory overheads back East), just for starters. To I need to continue? How much did we get out of that deal, so far. A couple dozen trillion dollars? More? What was the return on investment on that deal? Anyone?

Seward's Folly. The purchase of Alaska. We got an even better deal on that. Five cents an acre!

Wars of Expansion

The Mexican War was not exactly our country's finest hour, but we got a lot more land out of it. Texas. California. The Southwest. You don't suppose any money was made on that, right? How about killing off and corralling all those Injuns? Got 'em out of the way for the settlers. The Spanish-American War. Okay, that didn't work out so well, but we did make a buck off our territories for a short while.

Socialist Legislative Acts

If providing for the betterment of the community through federal agency is socialism, then maybe you should call all of these projects communist as hell.

You know, if you look closely at Abe Lincoln's record, the fucker was a Major Commie. He makes Obama look like a robber baron laissez faire capitalist. The Railroad Act. The Homestead Act. Giving shit away FOR FREE. COMMIE!!!!

Teddy Roosevelt. The National Parks. The Panama Canal. How much shipping time and lives have been saved by avoiding passage around the tip of South America - through some of the worst seas on Earth?

That commie pinko, Herbert Hoover. You know, Hoover Dam? The Bureau of Water Reclamation, so that all those fascist cocksuckers living in Arizona could survive in the desert? Uh, would Las Vegas be there? Phoenix? Would our industries have even stood a chance of producing even a fraction of what they did in WWII without the power provided by all those dams?

The other Roosevelt. Subsidized water for Western farmers and big cities. Subsidized electricity for rural folks. Tennessee Valley Authority.

And there's that other Commie, Eisenhower. The Interstate. DARPA. NASA. DARPA created the Internet, provided funding for hundreds of other high technology innovations. ALL given away for free. Nobody made any money off that. NASA only jump-started a thousand companies with government subsidies.

Congress subsidized the telegraph. In 1842, Samuel Morse received a gran of $30,000 to build an experimental line between Baltimore and Washington DC. The entire communications backbone of the Uinted States of America is built upon that. Government funded research and development. Money to keep the lights running, while companies let their employees dick around in the basic sciences. Yeah. Nothing came out of that. Only radio, television, the transistor, computers, radar, lasers, CDs, DVDs, flat screen TVs, atomic energy, atomic bombs, jet planes...

While we are at, let's throw in all the "welfare queen" legislation, things like educational grants, community health, cleanliness of our food, air , and water. You know, all the things the "parasites" soak up from decent tax-paying lunkheads.

See? Money forcefully taken from the "productive class", and wasted on nothing, blew it all on nothing. No wealth created at all. You are proven dead wrong, again and again and again, you greedy, shortsighted, infantile, stupid fuckheads.