Ron Paul presented an interesting scenario on pages 270-271 of Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom.
He says that there will come a time when the states will ignore the
mandates of the federal government, which will no longer have the money
to "bribe and coerce" them into submission. Secessions will occur. And
the American empire will collapse. According to Paul, the government
will struggle to hold it together, even sacrificing welfare programs to
preserve "the domestic military presence used to 'keep the people safe'
from the dangers of anarchy" (page 271).
Ron Paul says that "It's a
shame that it could come to this". Perhaps he hopes that there will be
a softer and easier path towards less government. But I find it
interesting that, although he expresses skepticism a few times in this
book that liberty as he understands it will soon become a reality in the
United States, he does appear to believe that less government will one
day happen----apparently after the government collapses under the weight
of its debts and spending obligations.
Paul's scenario reminds me
somewhat of how prognosticators envision the U.S. eventually having a
national single-payer health care system. This looks radical and
unlikely, at first sight, for how could the government possibly buck the
pharmaceutical and the health insurance companies? Well, according to
some prognosticators, the expansion of Medicaid will move more people
into a government system of health insurance, and even some businesses
will dump their workers into the Medicaid system so they (the
businesses) won't have to pay for their workers' health coverage. I've
read liberals who hope that this will happen, and conservatives who fear
and warn about this happening. In any case, what appears to be radical
and unlikely can very well happen. And the same goes for Ron Paul's
conception of liberty becoming a reality. Under certain conditions,
perhaps that could happen.