Less Growth - More Government: Letters to the Editor: What Kind of Growth Is Sought? - WSJ.com

Letters to the Editor: What Kind of Growth Is Sought? - WSJ.com

Sadly, you appear to be right on! It's doubtful Obama's policies will produce real growth.

One might add that the other conundrum of the US, Japan and Europe (but not countries like China) is that they take so much of what the worker could earn to support government that the economy isn't really self-sustaining.

The US obfuscated this with the internet and home price bubbles (as did the UK) with large expansions of debt.

Now that bill is coming due.

People somehow prefer to work and get fairly paid for what they do. But, when government decides the worker is either too stupid, uninformed or greedy to deserve to make income allocation decisions on their own, the slow creep of stagnation creeps in. Japan is seeing deflation now. The US can see what happens to such policies at the state level by looking at Michigan, which saw its strong economy slaughtered by myopic union greed and high taxes.

So, we have the Democrats hoping against hope that history doesn't repeat itself and that misdirection will win the day and they can take even more from workers and yet the economy will revive?

History has shown that the economy often does revive (lower taxes have often helped), but history and recent experience (Michigan, etc., the 30's depression) also show that the economy may continue to stumble. To some it's an open guess each way; to others, it's only a question of time and unforeseen events that could turn things around in a positive direction for growth instead of stagnation/depression/inflation.