Here in Asheville, it seems every day one acquaintance or another is losing their apartment, their phone service, work hours, their ability to buy their own groceries, etc. The media tells us we’ve been in a recovery for four years, the housing market is improving, and our heroes in Washington saved us from going over an awful thing called the Fiscal Cliff. They also tell us of more demand for free housing and food, and not enough free food to go around. What’s more, we hear the economy, which by some standards is five times worse than Greece’s when it collapsed, will go gangbusters if platinum coins are minted, and if the Fed buys enough treasury bonds, there will be no inflation.
Now that we’ve convinced ourselves we’re all filthy rich, surely we won’t mind paying higher taxes to feed the beasts in the headlines today:
- Buncombe County is about to give $335,000 over two or three years to Reich to create jobs, and you know the rest of the drill.
- Cashiers cut the ribbon for a classy, new recreation center, which incidentally came in $1.2 million under budget.
- The Tuckaseigee River Greenway plan is complete. It calls for a $500,000 bridge, but 80% of the costs will likely be covered with free money from the state.
- Polk County sold its former DSS building for a whopping $50,000.
- Swain County accepted $150,000 in free money from the state so they can match it and build a riverside park.
We are not to complain. Like the pyramids of Egypt, these government monuments create jobs.
Another huge, recurring headline these days is drug busts. Forfeitures and seizures also redistribute property from the private have-nots to the public haves.
