Unleash the Soldier of Fortune and Slash the Deficit

Solve the Deficit Crisis and the Male Loneliness Epidemic with this One Weird Trick

This article is part of The Boyd Institute’s quarterly policy sprint on the debt and deficit. To learn more about them and the work they do you or submit your own article, click here.

The United States’ Federal Deficit is ballooning with no signs of stopping. The last surpluses were during a few years during the Clinton presidency, otherwise the government has acted like embarrassing spendthrifts for generations. We now operate on a two trillion yearly debt, with total debt-to-GDP a whopping 124%. This is not a party issue, as it hasn’t mattered what party is in the White House. Outside of some impotent complaining in Congress, the entire Washington D.C. machine is committed to ignoring the problem, and you don’t need a PhD in political science to understand why. When you have to worry about elections every couple years, kicking painful reforms down the road is what any rational actor will do.

Expanding entitlements is good for acquiring dependent loyalty in urban vote banks, and lowering taxes is catnip for the average worker. There’s a reason government has only grown for decades, and now over thirty percent of citizens pay no taxes at all. Yet even in this era of irresponsibility, some congressmen have the gall to demand seniors don’t pay property taxes, that childcare should be free for all, and rent controls should be set indefinitely. No one is interested in diffusing the fiscal cliff approaching.

We could make long-winded policy papers how this little change to the tax code will solve the problem, or maybe a different monetary policy and benefits reform. We could, for instance:

• Tighten up the welfare state that takes up around 15% percent of government spending.

• Reform our bloated health care system to lower health care expenses that cost 25% of the federal budget.

• Restructure our deficit to help alleviate the 13% of the budget we pay to interest like a credit card junkie.

• Close bases, lower mission creep, and streamline processes to ramp down the 15% of federal income we spend on defense programs.

Of course congressmen don’t even do this, choosing to grandstand on discretionary spending that does basically nothing in reducing the debt, arguing they are fiscally responsible by refusing that 100 million in pork expenditure as we are increasing our national deficit by orders of magnitude more. It’s like the world’s fattest man congratulating himself after refusing the after-dinner mint.

The US Government ate the mint.

To solve the crisis, there are three basic paths to solvency:

• Inflate the deficit into oblivion

• Lower expenditures

• Raise revenue

At the current trajectory, the first option is the most likely choice if nothing drastically changes, and will lead to the worst outcome. The second option is impossible, as any lowering of entitlements will lead to accusations of killing babies, single mothers, grandmas, or all three simultaneously. The only other option is raising revenue.

Maybe a miracle will happen and the AI revolution increases productivity so much that GPD rises 10+% every year for the next decade, creating a new golden age of abundance as everyone has a self-driving electric car to drive to work, only needing to push a button daily like The Jetsons and thereby entering a post-scarcity world. If this doesn’t pan out, we will have to get more creative. Given the catastrophic financial hole we are in, the type Dave Ramsey would make his especially angry face over, dramatic actions will have to be taken to avert crisis. Methods way off the beaten path will have to be taken seriously.

There are a few ways to spur federal revenue growth:

• Higher Taxes

• Capital infusion into the economy, i.e. a stimulus package

• Raising education levels to create a more productive workforce

• Removing regulatory bottlenecks, i.e. deregulation

Higher taxes is political suicide, so that’s off the table. Government stimulus does not gain back in revenue what it put in, as can be seen from the stimulus packages put in during the 2008 financial crisis as well as Covid, both of which caused massive inflation and immiserated the growing underclass of America. Education reached its peak decades ago and college grads now find themselves with massive amounts of debt and a useless credential, We are left with the most feasible option, deregulation, and we’re going to have to put that bad boy on steroids.

One trade-off of modernity is sacrificing efficiency for safety. To a certain extent, this was not a bad thing. Deaths have plummeted and we have a reasonable expectation of quality control in our food, water, shelter, and health care. This helps decrease friction in commerce and increases social trust, allowing scaling to happen through standardization. There comes a point of diminishing returns, a point where the innovative are suffocated by onerous protocols that help no one but only increases cost and removes innovation. An incredible amount of invisible costs in our economy is in avoiding litigation, and the can-do American spirit of risk-taking has been sidelined.

The usual progenitors of innovation and risk, young men, are increasingly constricted, unwanted, and hapless to improve their plight. They are stuck between a stifling corporate job or low-paying trades, both of which subject him to humiliating social games. Their pay is poor, so mating options are off the table. There’s no adventure in the sanitized, risk-averse society. Many ventures that could improve their plight is off the table, illegal, even if they decide the risks worth it. If you want to really boost the economy, not by 3% a year, but 10% or more, we’re going to have to take the safety rails off and let them cook.

Renewing the National Economy Through Innovation Exceptions

It’s well known the cost of compliance across labor laws, worker safety, and countless specific industry practices is onerous, often so intensive only massive corporations can swallow the loss, leaving more nimble entrepreneurs dead in the water before they even start. It’s also well-known a large portion of regulations are kayfabe, designed to give the illusion of safety while actually doing nothing but enriching a corporate lawyer and keeping a useless regulator off your back.

Congress has abdicated responsibility to write regulations, giving them to a body of un-elected bureaucrats with a wide mandate to justify their jobs. The effects aren’t just in the most visible parts, like OSHA requirements or bank and food regulations, but all the rules that exist in a fuzzy territory, especially with regard to civil rights law. Real Estate agents have to talk in code about good school districts, HR departments wield enormous power due to the looming specter of federal regulators and racial hucksters. Food regulators have created oligopolies due to overhead that doesn’t make food any safer. Full deregulation is not on the table, but that doesn’t mean enforcement has to be universal.

We’re not saying anyone can pay the government break the law¹ but to modify legislation to allow a little more wiggle room for those who either want to take more personal risk or bypass certain rules contrary to their desired way of life. For a monetary bribe fee, of course. Maybe for a little higher taxation, you could participate in what we will call black markets Innovation Exceptions. Maybe you want to live in a neighborhood of only a single religious group. Say you’re a farmer who wants to process cattle on the premises, or a nurse who wants to make nighttime house calls. Say you have a new invention but can’t afford to follow the federal government’s safety regulations or your bros want to make a software company employing a specific type of gamer exclusively. All of these can get the “Innovation Exception” treatment.

It goes without saying it can’t be the Wild West. The commons still exist and need a modicum of predictability. You can’t build a nuclear power plant in your back yard. You can’t drive a vehicle that’s unsafe for other drivers. You can’t allow vigilante behaviors with a financial get-out-of-jail card. Given how much doesn’t fit into these categories, and how many laws are only in place to ensure certain fashionable social ideals as opposed to general flourishing, there is near limitless potential. The ability to employ or be employed in a field with far less stringent compliance metrics is largely a victimless crime exception. Laws designed for personal safety can be removed for those willing to accept the increased risk.

Of course, customers will also have to get buy-in. All such Innovation Zones and their products will be explicitly stated, and those who want to opt out of these innovation zones can live life as normal. The question becomes “Are you willing to get 20% more pay for a more dangerous job?”, “Are you willing to go to an unlicensed therapist for half the cost?”, “Are you willing be pay 10% more in taxes to live in a neighborhood that explicitly keeps unwanted people out?”. It might be as simple as “Will you pay twenty dollars to avoid the ridiculous child car seat requirement?”

This isn’t new or as anarchic as it seems, but is simply an extension of similar ideas. Charter schools are designed to create innovation in teaching outside of the educational bureaucracy. Innovation zones in large cities give generous subsidies to areas the foster growth in the wider community while looking the other way regarding zoning laws and cumbersome processes. This is just universalizing the general concept so everyone can take part instead of a select few.

Such an initiative will not only require loosening regulations, but also updating banking policy. Currently, banks prefer standardized, easily consolidated packages like mortgages, and this becomes the standard approach. As Emir Phillips in American Affairs wrote:

Three channels matter. First, prudential rules and examiner culture: Capital and liquidity frameworks often treat well-underwritten mort­gages as low-risk and highly “eligible.” That can be defensible at the micro level. But it becomes macro-distorting if the system collectively treats housing leverage as safer than financing productive cash flow. Examiner culture matters too: a bank officer can justify a mortgage with standardized documentation and a familiar collateral story; a loan officer underwriting a new production line has to defend judgment, and judgment is penalized when cycles turn.

In short, loans will have to prioritize productive uses over asset inflation. The banks will serve as fuel for the new economic machine being forged.

The brilliance of this scheme is it serves as a catalyst for market growth while directly increasing tax revenues to the federal government. Even better, it gives incentive to take regulations off the books once the innovation exceptions show how unnecessary they really are. It shifts economic focus to actual production and new technologies at a smaller scale, thereby removing bottlenecks that removes small players from the field. It also shrinks occupations that are antithetical to growth and serve largely as credentialed gatekeepers, forcing them into more productive lines of work.

Renewing the World Economy, or The Soldier of Fortune Model

Unfortunately, massive economic growth likely won’t be enough without a robust world economy. We truly are a global marketplace now, and a high tide lifts all boats. The world economy stands at around 123 trillion. In other words, the US deficit is a quarter of the annual world GDP. In order to save the US economy, we gotta pump those numbers up.

As corrupt as the United States seems, we’re still the most stable nation on the planet. No one is starving, no one is expected to give bribes to officials, no one is going to jail on trumped up charges.

Well…..

Where the corruption exists, it’s streamlined and manageable. The world is full of resource rich countries stymied by rampant corruption and poor infrastructure. The worst of these countries all exist on one continent: Africa.

As the World Bank says:

With about 30% of the world’s mineral reserves, Africa is poised to meet the growing demand for critical minerals, as the global shift to clean energy could require an additional 3 billion tons of minerals and metals by 2050. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) already produces roughly two-thirds of the world’s mined cobalt; South Africa holds the world’s largest reserves of platinum and manganese; Zambia and the DRC are major copper producers—each central to electrification and renewables.

Increasing fiscal revenues from natural resource extraction is an important step to ensure countries get their fair share and to boost much-needed public investment in their economies. However, as we saw during the previous commodity price boom from 2004 to 2014, over-dependence on natural resources can also pose dangers. Africa has experienced an increase in the number of resource-rich countries following that boom, with recent discoveries converting more countries into major resource exporters (see Figure 1). Currently, a majority of the region—26 out of 48 countries—demonstrates substantial dependence on resource-derived income, subjecting them to both the advantages of increased fiscal inflows and to the risks associated with price fluctuations, governance challenges, and economic mismanagement.

Governance challenges and economic mismanagement is putting it lightly. The post-WWII governance model treats individual states as a sort of platonic form that can’t be altered. It also played a role in dismantling the old colonial powers. While this seems like an effective way to keep peace, stability, and equality, it has in reality kept kleptocrats in power artificially through American influence, allowing exploitation and deterioration of their nation’s breadbasket. How bad is Africa’s corruption? Some estimates put the costs it as high as 580 billion. This is just with their current level of development and doesn’t even scratch how such mass corruption has stymied development. The continent of Africa is begging for good governance, patiently waiting for a hero to answer the call.

The old post World War II model is breaking down, and new ideas need to make their way in. We could initiate colonialism economic sustainability initiatives where a brave band of mercenaries explorers arrive to secure underutilized or exploited resources and form their own governance model. It might just be staking a claim to countless unused resources. It might be forming a small country within a country and bringing in industry. It might go as far as overthrowing the tin-pot dictator and becoming the new benevolent ruler. As important as stability is, many of these countries have no clear governance, the law being there solely to extract and graft from the general population. In this new age, it’s best to wipe away any pretenses of international order and find out what works.

Since antiquity, there has been a surefire way of dealing with an excess population of ambitious males who want to make something of themselves, war exploring the world. Luckily for America, there is an entire underclass of young men with no prospects along with counter-elites with no access to the levers of power. There are countless angry Global War on Terror veterans itching for an adventure they can actually profit from instead of dealing with IEDs in Fallujah. There are young, ambitious men who want danger and a chance at spoils who never enlisted because they no longer trust Uncle Sam. Give them the prospect of wealth and power a great humanitarian effort and watch their tune change. We already have private armies consultants who know how to bring such ambitions to reality.

He’d be running Sudan by dinnertime

While some might counter such initiatives will only create another nation of kleptocrats, we already have evidence to the contrary.

We even have a documentary of what happens when responsible governance decides to leave.

Just like failed companies deserve to fail, failing countries should be put under new management. Of course the United States, as the current world hegemon, could let the regime change happen and maybe even invest in extracting the countless resources to enrich both the conquerors entrepreneurs and the general population. As the borders stabilize again, a diaspora of Americans itching for a new life could be imported in to build the new civilization. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. Through it all, Uncle Sam would get his cut, and the new warlords leaders will be happy to pay the tribute.

Reinvigorating the Cosmic Economy

So far we have a good deal for the risk-taking businessmen and military folk, but what about the nerds? For that we will have to go to the final frontier. While there are vast untapped resources on planet Earth, there are even more in outer space, and the cost to extract them isn’t as bad as one might think. There are several asteroids close to earth that contain precious materials, especially platinum-type minerals. Companies are popping up that hope to use current breakthroughs in technology to begin missions to create a sustainable space ecosystem.

Founded by entrepreneur Teun van den Dries (CEO) and space strategist Daynan Crull (Mission Architect), Karman+ aims to make asteroid mining more accessible and cost-effective. As the space industry expands, it requires a reliable supply of materials and fuel to sustain satellites, research, and manufacturing. Instead of launching these resources from Earth at great expense, Karman+ seeks to harvest them from asteroids.

Karman+ was established in 2022 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The company’s goal is to realise viable asteroid mining by developing autonomous spacecraft and using off-the-shelf technology to reduce mission costs from $1 billion to under $10 million. The company plans to launch its first test mission and customer missions in 2027.

The Trump administrations is well aware of the economic potential of space, and has aggressively asserted its right to mine such resources for its own benefit, and protect its gains if need be.

“Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law. Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons,” the order, signed by President Donald Trump, states. “Accordingly, it shall be the policy of the United States to encourage international support for the public and private recovery and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law.”

It’s honestly shocking how relatively inexpensive some revolutionary technologies are. A technology just begging to be green-lighted, the space elevator, comes in with a price tag of a measly 100 billion, only about a tenth of our military budget, creating the possibility of bringing people or materials to space with ease. The elevator would lower costs of entering orbit by an order of magnitude, and those cost savings will create secondary ripple effects that will transform space exploration. Even amateurs could get their equipment up in space, and what was once an impenetrable expense now becomes a race of which enterprising individual will become the next Elon Musk. As costs to enter and leave space plummet, we will move past space tourism for billionaires and build real things in zero gravity. Maybe it will be space based solar panels. Maybe they’ll need men manned for those asteroid trips. A new frontier of adventure awaits a century after all of them being closed off on Earth.

Sure, this will create up-front costs. But unlike previous stimulus packages that were used to bail out local governments or create make-work programs, there is a real return on investment, a symbolic return to national greatness, a grand effort to conquer explore the stars.

The Return of American Grit

The deficit is a symptom of America losing its sense of identity. As the West receded and the public commons became overrun with moral hectoring and fear, we lost the core tenets of what made us great. Today we don’t see the same wild-eyed optimism, the toughness, nor the supreme self-confidence that tamed the countryside. We thought money could alleviate our sense of guilt for our past successes. Too long we have listened to the browbeating of the unproductive busybodies who live in fear of their own shadows. It’s time to reacquire our moral courage.

It’s time to be more aggressive and live out our national ethos. Let’s re-engage with high-risk high-reward businesses. Let’s remove our aversion to instability and guilt over colonialism to embrace excellence abroad. Let’s put people in space just for the hell of it. The national deficit crisis will not be solved by clever policy papers, but a spiritual transformation, a return to the frontier grit that made us a superpower to begin with. Our manifest destiny never stopped, it just needs to be reawakened.

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