Our Threatened Freedom

Is Civil Government Costing Us Too Much

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 43-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 043

Dictation Name: Vol. D - Part 04 - Is Civil Government Costing Us Too Much Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Is civil government costing us too much? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

During 1980, the total cost to us for federal, state, and local units of civil government was close to one-trillion dollars. A non-profit tax foundation estimated it to be nine hundred and twenty-six point seven billion. This means, as U.S News and World reports stated it, a cost to each American household of eleven thousand seven hundred and fifteen dollars.

If you have wondered why your income is not going too far these days, these figures give you the reason.

Of course not all of that eleven thousand seven hundred and fifteen dollars came out of your income and direct taxation, but you are paying for it in one way or another. Some of that money was a result of federal, state or local borrowings, which you will pay for eventually.

Moreover, it is a mistake to assume that much of these tax funds came from taxes of corporations and businesses. The people pay all taxes. Any tax on gasoline and automobile, refrigerator or anything else, is simply added to the price of the merchandise. It is passed on to us.

The manufacturer’s total profits are something like three to five percent. They cannot afford to pay the taxes, so they pass it on to us. The result is inflation. Inflation is a made in Washington product. It is popular with politicians to blame inflation on capital and labor, or on the people. But it is a federally created product. In fact, almost the only thing the various national governments of the world do well these days is to create inflation, a highly undesirable product.

Various economists will give us different estimates on the inflation rate in 1980, but from twelve to sixteen percent is often cited. In 1981, one economist believes the rate will be eighteen to twenty-five percent.

Once you have a salary or income increase to match the rate of inflation, you are in trouble. In fact, most of us are in trouble, because of federally created inflation.

Inflation erodes confidence in civil government; it creates social unrest and decay. Inflation increases federal powers and limits our freedom. In virtually every area of life, inflation exercises a very deadly influence. Inflation can almost be compared to a terminal disease. The cure for inflation is a moral, as well as an economic one. Inflation is a form of legalized larceny. When people have larceny in their hearts, they are ready to legalize it. When we as a people begin with a soak the rich demand, we soon want a soak the middle-class politics, and finally, soak the poor and everybody, program. The result is the triumph of the politics of envy, and of inflation.

There is a relationship between sound money and social morality. Today we have neither. We cannot have the one without the other. We cannot have a sound morality which asks others to pay the price for our moral concerns. Morality begins at home, in our own minds, not in demands on others. The greatest price we are paying for inflation is a moral price.

This has been R.J. Rushdoony, with a report on our threatened freedom.