The U.S. Government refuses to live within its means. Such is the message we hear, again and again, from all sides. But why can't the state lower its spending? Quite simply, because we now believe that government should do everything. In other words, the liberal ideal of limited government has all but disappeared. In fact, liberalism has disappeared; and those who call themselves liberals today are socialists.

William Henry Chamberlin (1897-1969), having lost his faith in socialism, summed up the experience of his generation as follows: "socialism is ... the road not to freedom, but to dictatorship and counter-dictatorships, to civil war of the fiercest kind." In respect of this statement, those with limited historical knowledge or experience probably won't understand Chamberlin's statement. Yet there is nothing to understand except the fact that socialism is incompatible with freedom, incompatible with peace, and incompatible with prosperity.

If you want to understand why the United States government cannot live within its means, consider the fact that socialists have been mass-produced at our universities and schools for many years now. Socialists have taken over education in America. And look what they have wrought in our midst. When the back of the economy is broken by socialism, what will we have? Dictatorship and/or civil war. But who has the wisdom to see this eventuality? "The most important event in the history of the last hundred years is the displacement of liberalism by etatism," wrote Ludwig von Mises several decades ago.

And what is etatism? It takes two forms: socialism and interventionism. Each has the goal of subordinating the individual to the state. As Mises explained, "Etatism assigns to the state the task of guiding the citizens and of holding them in tutelage. It aims at restricting the individual's freedom to act. It seeks to mold his destiny and to vest all initiative in the government alone." In the American context, the socialist impulse in the U.S. Federal Government (and many states) has found ways to dictate to families and individuals. "Socialism aims at a social system based on public ownership of the means of production," noted Mises. "In a socialist community all material resources are owned and operated by the government."

Since it has not been acceptable, in recent years, for the government to own major industries, it has become the fashion for government to "regulate" and exercise control over such industries. This in itself is economically destructive, and there cannot be a lasting recovery on this basis. Consider the recent fate of banking, or the automobile industry; but the ultimate victim of all this is freedom. "The German Marxian socialists called their party the Social Democrats," wrote Mises. "It was believed that socialism was compatible with democratic government - indeed that the program of democracy could be fully realized only within a socialist community." And this belief is ultimately mistaken. The socialist program requires the strengthening of government power. But the government, as George Washington said, is "is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, under a chapter titled "The New Idol," Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "The state is the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies, too; and this lie creeps from its mouth: 'I, the state, am the people.'" It is a lie, and most of our politicians fall back upon this lie. The state, in the hands of socialists, is a dangerous instrument of oppression. In addition, the system as a whole has been under attack from a bloc of socialist countries led by Moscow and Beijing. This is not understood, because of a disinformation strategy which employed the ruse of Communism's collapse.

Readers should heed the warnings of a European business woman I interviewed a few years ago: "I was born behind the iron curtain," she explained. "My family was held in bondage there. I am not stupid when it comes to the workings of the communist mafia. The changes in Czechoslovakia and Russia were managed with an eye to economic opportunities in Western Europe. Having defected to the West years before the 'changes' of 1989-91, having acquired citizenship in Germany and Holland, I returned to the East and found that free enterprise there was a false front for penetrating and subverting the West. I began to warn my colleagues in the business community. And as I started to open some eyes, the East Bloc mafia responded by applying pressure to me - to my family. I received death threats. My dog was killed, my daughter was kidnapped and raped. I dropped out of business. I moved from one country to another. But they eventually located me, and the threats continued. They were furious with my interference. My activism had cost them money and effort. Finally, they evened the score by throwing my daughter from the balcony of an apartment complex in Holland."

The nightmare of Communism is far from over. In the United States today we are electing Communists to political office. As with the false front of Russian and Chinese business, the Communist politician does not have a red star stamped on his forehead. He knows how to lie, and his objective is state power - on any pretext.

"Where a people still exists," wrote Nietzsche, "there the people do not understand the state and despise it as the evil eye and a sin against custom and law." The Constitution of the United States was designed to protect us from government tyranny. The socialists mock the Constitution by calling it a "living document" which may be changed with the times. The words of the Constitution are re-interpreted, so that government may do things today which the Founding Fathers never intended. The state has become a welfare state. It yet allows capitalism to breathe while nurturing an ever-growing Soviet system within the bosom of the free economy. As the community has been weakened by the intervention of courts, by the interference of government in the most personal matters of life, no community in America seems able to stop it. Since there are Communist and socialist activists at all levels of government, we are paralyzed by their presence. And now, after decades of subversion, the state takes the place of every husband, of every parent, of the church and local community. The bureaucratic machine advances like the madness of clockwork, with its many-too-many schools and family courts, employing the many-too-many idiot savants, all of them bureaucratically baked into a politically correct pudding.

   "It will give you everything, if you worship it, this new idol," wrote Nietzsche: "Thus it buys for itself the luster of your virtues and the glance of your proud eyes." It is a cunning device of Hell, says Nietzsche, "a horse of death jingling with the trappings of divine honors!" The state makes everyone drink its Kool-Aid. And this suicide is called "life." Through the state it becomes possible for those who matter least to claim to the most, to be the most. "They call their theft culture," wrote Nietzsche, "and they turn everything to sickness and calamity." There are too many people rushing about, badly educated and filled with envy. "They are always ill," added Nietzsche; "they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another and cannot even digest themselves.... They acquire wealth and make themselves poorer with it."

A 19th century philosopher anticipated the future, and here we are! No longer men and women, but wards of the state. We cannot even spank our children. If we do so, the state will force us into therapy (or take the children from the home). No wonder our currency is losing value. The state is sucking the value out of it, because the state's activities require an ever greater share of our productivity. When does this share ever shrink? It cannot shrink, but grows continuously. If we contain it for a few years, it simply piles up debts that must be repaid - either through taxes or inflation (i.e., the destruction of savings). The U.S. Government owes trillions of dollars to Communist China. One might ask if this is a sick joke. Are Americans such idiots? Of course we are. Look at who educated us!

It is doubtful the country's leaders have a clue regarding the danger they've put the country in. It appears that Fed Chairman Bernanke has decided on monetary inflation. The state will not live within its means. If necessary, it will drag us all into the abyss of national bankruptcy. Earlier this week the chairman of China Everbright Group, Tang Shuangning, suggested that China reduce its foreign exchange reserves from $3.04 trillion to around $1 trillion (give or take a $200-$300 billion). It is gradually becoming clear that China's currency will someday replace the dollar as an international reserve currency. As outlandish as this sounds, the absurdity of the U.S. financial position is becoming apparent to everyone. Instead of serious spending cuts, instead of setting a financially responsible course, the U.S. Federal Government is going to debase its own currency because the politicians in Washington are incapable of abandoning the socialist road. The welfare state was declared the be-all and end-all, and therefore the dollar must be sacrificed.