Dateline: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Here in Kuala Lumpur, the JW Marriott is quite the place to be.
Nestled directly across from Pavilion, the city’s preeminent shopping mall, it is not only a safe haven of luxury but mere footsteps away from the world’s top luxury brands like Zegna, Fendi, and Ferragamo.
Personally, I prefer the Ritz-Carlton down the street (your AmEx Platinum card will usually get you an excellent suite upgrade).
But the JW Marriott attracts more than just wealthy Chinese shoppers stocking up on high-end purses stacked with Malaysian luxury taxes.
It is the go-to place for foreign diplomats to see and be seen.
It seems every time I pass by the place, some guy with diplomatic plates – the ones with a letter and two numbers, just to signal how important they are – is pulling up in a brand new black Mercedes or Aston Martin.
The amount of money spent flying a bunch of scheming bureaucrats and their handlers to go wine and dine with other scheming bureaucrats and their handlers is mind boggling.
Anyone who wants to raise already high corporate tax rates should ask why these do-nothing welfare queens are being shuttled around in the back of a Maybach at taxpayer expense.
It’s easy to get caught up in calling out small graft like this.
A bit too easy.
As unsavory as I find the world’s diplomatic corps, the reality is the money spent on lavishing these glad handlers and paper pushers is child’s play.
Give me the choice and I’ll gladly live in some tiny country where these guys’ business class airfare tab is actually more than a rounding error.
The fact that trying to take over the world amounted to little more than a rounding error in places like Britain and The Land of the Free is a big part of why those countries are bankrupt.
Endless wars combined with political giveaways called “stimulus” from both parties in the United States helped rack up massive national debts.
For example, Barack Obama’s latest decision to head back into Iraq to fight against Isis forces. Not long ago, Barack Obama was all for packing the nation’s bags and shipping out of Iraq.
Now, he says he’s committed to digging his heels in for a “longer term” military scuffle at a cost of billions and billions of dollars.
You’d think these guys would learn after thirteen years of wars that helped rack up an a $18 trillion deficit and the largest indebtedness in the history of the world.
But no.
These countries haven’t gotten the message that the world is changing. They might as well think they still control colonial outposts in places like British Honduras or French West Africa.
Countries like the United States are the trust fund kid that can’t accept the day that the money runs out.
Perhaps that’s why the United States government sent more than half a billion dollars to militarize local police departments. Last year alone.
Government agencies from sea to shining sea can’t cure themselves of the smack habit that is easy federal money, even as the federal government is broke.
In both Canada and the United States, government agencies run by conservatives are using taxpayer funds to air propaganda television commercials.
In the UK, the picture is largely the same, where the tax-and-spend Labour government is plastering self-congratulatory ads everywhere from billboards to taxi signs, reminding voters of the graft they have handed out to the public in a shameless attempt for votes.
The money being doled out to foreign governments is just as bad. In the United States, some $72 billion was handed out to foreign governments last year.
Some of those governments have been, are, or will be enemies of the United States in the future. The government spends money to create its own enemies.
Meanwhile, the federal government has spent billions building “border security” that a poodle could get past. Basically, the feds threw a bunch of money down a rathole just to get their opponents off their back.
Perhaps the government believes it can afford to do this. In The Land of the Free, total tax revenues for the fiscal year to date hit a record $2.5 trillion.
Of course, record revenues haven’t stopped any government, least of all Uncle Sam, from spending within their means.
Now, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies are warning of increased “anti-government violence”.
Claiming a group of “domestic terrorists” is fomenting over “growing government oppression”, the US federal government is increasingly looking for new ways to spend more money to fight back against the very people they are supposed to be protecting.
However, the new paradigm is clear: not only will your government spend your money like water no matter how much you give them, but they will brand you a domestic terrorist for opposing their plans.
Throughout history, rogue regimes have sought to silence those who shined a light on their dirty deeds through the same tactics governments are using today.
In ancient times, most governments didn’t promise things like “freedom of speech” and “Miranda rights”, which meant people caught on to what was happening a little more easily.
Today, most of the population is all too happy to be lulled to sleep lest they be accused of being some sort of extremist.
The government has already jailed those who have tried to fight back against its reign of terror. Bernard NotHaus, who circulated his own “Liberty Dollar” backed by gold and silver, was convicted of being a domestic terrorist.
All in an effort to keep their grip on power and allow themselves to continue spending your money.
Do you think a group like that is committed to protecting the money in your retirement account or the value of the currency you use? Do you believe they won’t turn to those with more than a few loose nickels in their bank account and demand they turn their money over?
Of course they won’t.
Instead, the large governments of the world are wasting your money on new wars to benefit their campaign contributors.
Foreign aid to their corrupt pals overseas.
And lots of fancy lunches, dinners, and back-patting press galas where they hob knob with each other on your dime.
Being from Liechtenstein is looking pretty good now.
But the bigger lesson here is that your government only cares about itself. Its sole concern is keeping its own party going deeper into the night.
If that takes every penny you have, they will fight to the death. And they’ll happily brand you a “domestic terrorist” if you disagree… until there is no opposition left.
I’ll be catching a flight to Cambodia this Sunday morning. I think the people there know a little bit about the idea of calling your political opponents terrorists and locking them up.
