A Bit More Today About Chaos At The Gates

We were talking about chaos at the gates last time. Our focus was government's role in this. But this past week reminded us that chaos comes in many forms, in this case a shooting in Manhattan this past Monday.

Perhaps this was covered nationwide. Here, of course, it was THE news as among those killed was an NYPD police officer, Having a son in NYPD, this hit home particularly hard. 

As of this writing, we don't really know the killer's  motives. But known or not, the reality that chaos may be - indeed is - right around the corner was drilled home.

But back to our discussion. 

Last time, our focus was on the present Administration's policies and actions. But we noted that a lot was bubbling up before this current gang. Indeed, there are those who see government's actions as mostly harmful. Ronald Reagan, for example, ran his 1980 Presidential campaign on the notion that government was a problem.

Of course, there is a role for limited government in our lives, the key word being limited. But ever since our government was first formed at the end of the 18th century, you can see green shoots of government growth springing up her and there. It wasn't until the 20th century that those green shoots turned into, well, take your pick: great redwood trees, jungles, both?

We'll forego historical details of that growth, but it's important to note this: Until 1913, our country did not have a permanent personal income tax. The government's revenues came from tariffs and other specific taxes. But once the Great Purse of a percentage of our personal earned income was unlocked, the money began to flow in a steady and increasing stream. And, no surprise, once it did it was spent. And while some of that flow was directed to various programs and benefits for businesses and individuals, a big part of that spending included increasing the size of government itself.

Government, as it grew, now controlled more and more of our lives. And control brings with it a certain degree of oppression. Admittedly, that oppression has not been of the degree of some other countries - for the most part. But oppression doesn't necessarily foster chaos. So, whence the chaos?

The chaos comes with shifting government policies. And that shifting has greatly increased in recent years. 

A good example is changes in tax law. When Reagan was President, a big and significant "reform" of the tax law was passed. It became permanent and was in effect for decades. Not that there were no other changes in subsequent years, but the basics were there and you could plan around them. Now, though, there's nothing permanent. The recent "big" change during the first Trump term was the 2017 tax bill. It was passed, but was specifically to last only 10 years. And the recent "Big Beautiful" bill just passed similarly has an expiration date attached for many of its provisions.

Without getting bogged down in the details, the impact of such policy shifts is to make personal and business financial planning, to put it mildly, a necessarily fluid endeavor. We're not longer walking on concrete, but rather on shifting sands.

And aside from the shifting sands, the sheer bulk of laws on the books causes all of us (all of us) to break laws every day. You can look it up. And upon doing so, you may naturally sigh, well, nothing I can to about it, and just go about breaking the laws over and over again. But doing so means that the concept of "rule of law" becomes flabby over time, eventually losing all its punch. And rule of law is one of the bedrocks of a society that keeps it from devolving into chaos.

Yes, I know it's been a rather high-level view here. But it's not theoretical. It's real. And one more thing: The really strange reality is that as government grows, control of our lives grows, and...chaos grows.

Control and chaos in the same basket? If not sure about this, just recall the recent Covid Mess. Could control have been more draconian. And yet, for those who were not completely subsumed in the propaganda, didn't it seems that under the patina of control chaos was bubbling, even boiling? 

Seems strange to combine control and chaos. But there it is. 

Yet, with it all, some of us managed to attend to our daily work diligently. It wasn't easy. But what's the alternative?

In the end, the gates where chaos looms is us. Each of us needs to be a gate, first for ourselves, then for our loved ones, our neighbors. It's that or we descend into chaos.