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The collapse of the nation-state

Gary North wrote a fantastic column explaining why he thinks the central government of the United States will slowly decay until it collapses, and why he expects minarchism to return to this country during the lives of his grandchildren. He starts out with a list of government functions that libertarians should demand the abolition of, unconditionally and outspokenly:

• Wars that have not been declared by Congress
• The maintenance of military bases outside the United States
• Military defense treaties (NATO, CENTO, etc.)
• America’s membership in the United Nations Organization
• Graduated (”progressive”) income taxation
• Tax-funded education at any level
• Government licensing of the right to keep and bear arms
• The Federal Reserve System’s monopoly over money
• The Social Security system
• Medicare and Medicaid
• The Central Intelligence Agency
• NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
• The National Parks system
• The Post Office
• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
• The Food and Drug Administration

He then says, “This list of things to abolish is so far outside of mainstream politics that anyone proposing more than one of them is dismissed as a kook.” How right he is.

Yet he somehow turns this into quite a positive column. He continues about the unfeasibility of a large national government maintaining its policy of tax & spend & inflate & invade & control for very long. He contends that this will necessarily lead to a collapse of the United States federal government. He hopes it will happen gradually rather than suddenly, because the latter would be catastrophic. It’s a very interesting column and he makes a very good case for his predictions.