The free markets are a jungle. Much like the American frontier, there is violence in the free markets. Opportunity is accompanied by risk. There are great successes and great failures. There is little peace, and even less to be taken for granted. Once, all Americans lived on the free-market frontier.
Seventy five years ago, many Americans sought safety by joining unions. For a half-century, their unions kept workers safe, but have destroyed all but a handful of the companies that once employed many, many millions more than they do today. Now, there are few union members in the private sector. Those who seek safety have moved to other areas of employment.
Safety-seekers now want, and demand, state jobs. They provide job security, health insurance that pays for everything, automatic raises, huge pensions, and union advocates who keep most of them free from harassment, criticism, punishment, or discharge. So, lots of people want to work for the government.
That desire seems profitable in the short term of a lifespan.
There is a downside. Those who spend their lives in comparative safety become increasingly unwilling, and unable, to accept risk. In democracies, they have the opportunity to vote. They vote for whomever will do the best job of keeping them safe and prosperous, no matter how many of their neighbors may be ruined by paying for that safety. As the process of electing people who are ever more protective of those with public sector jobs continues, the rest of the society suffers.
Their salaries, benefits, and pensions can only be taken from taxpayers. When elected officials fear retaliation at the ballot box, they will not raise taxes, but will increase the amount of money in circulation. That, of course, takes away from the value of money that people already have, so taxpayers pay, again.
Those who gain safety at the expense of their neighbor soon incur the dislike of those neighbors. To maintain the safety-seekers, neighbors must become impoverished. As the process continues, the brighter ones realize what is happening and become angry.
Then, more policemen and more jails become necessary. Taxes go up, more power must be utilized to collect those taxes, and the society begins to accelerate its downward spiral.
