Polarization

There's a world where the light won't find you
Holding hands while
The walls come tumbling down
When they do, I'll be right behind you
--Tears for Fears

Comments are getting louder that things are becoming more 'polarized.' Many such comments are aimed at Washington, where it seems increasingly difficult for politicians from across the aisle to work together, to reach agreement, to compromise.

I'm pretty sure that Mises would say that this is to be expected. He would say that the polarization of society could have been forecast one hundred years ago, when the world seriously began marching down the path to socialism.

Socialism puts control of economic resources in government hands. Governments around the world have been busy redistributing economic resources from present production as well as borrowing resources from future production to deliver even more political favor to special interest groups.

The resulting debt is becoming insurmountable, meaning that it is becoming increasingly difficult to preserve standard of living while paying off lenders of real economic resources. Governments have therefore resorted to printing money and buying their own debt. Like all Ponzi schemes, 'monetizing debt' creates no new economic resources. Instead, it literally papers over the problem, creating temporary illusion that things are better than they are.

The bottom line is that present-day economic resources available for socialistic redistribution are running thin. Standard of living is rolling over.

Unfortunately, billions of people have become dependent on the government handouts that are drying up. These dependents are willing to vote for government officials willing to forcefully take ever more wealth from others in order to deliver resources that the dependents think they are entitled to.

Those still in possession of economic wealth therefore face more frequent shakedowns from strong armed government agents. Consistent with Rand's Atlas Shrugged phrophesy, this is driving many producers to leave the system. Continuation of this phenomenon assures that productivity will decline.

The polarization that we are witnessing reflects an escalating battle over economic resources--resoures that are becoming increasingly scarce. Socialism has been destroying the voluntary cooperation between individuals upon which free societies and productivity depend. That cooperation is being replaced by unproductive opposition that is becoming increasingly forceful.

Polarization of society is wholly consistent with the endpoint of socialism proposed by Mises: chaos.