Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 9, 2011

The ?American Dream,? as envisioned by generations of Americans, is defined by attending a ?good? government school, earning at least a four-year college degree, then buying a home as early as possible.

Until very recently, people were encouraged to borrow on the inflated value of their house in order to spend money on expensive cars and other high-priced amenities. Local governments benefited from this system by inflicting property taxes assessed on the basis of inflated home values.

This permitted government officials and government employee unions to devise extravagant pension and benefit programs for the ?extractor? class ? that is, those who subsist on wealth siphoned away from the private sector.

This economy wasn?t so much a dream as a multi-layered delusion ? an intricate construct based on self-perpetuating debt financed through cheap credit and loose money provided by the Federal Reserve. Every layer of that precarious construct is now in full collapse ? from the housing and mortgage bubble, which burst four years ago, to the federal student loan bubble, which will explode shortly.

As we confront a deepening depression, Americans who long slumbered in government-promoted delusion have awakened to a nightmare.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.