President Obama gave a speech on Dec 6th, where he provided, with amazing clarity, his philosophy and aims. If anyone had doubts, they should now be resolved. Let me quote President Obama:
Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ’50s and ’60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.
Really?
If capitalism and freedom were not the engine of our spectacular prosperity from 1900 to today, what was? The rise of the USA was despite a depression, 2 world wars, and numerous other setbacks. Technological advances in everything from farming to construction to computers to communications to fast food were all driven by a single, simple proposition – in the USA, if you have a great idea and are willing to work hard and take some risks, you can do very, very well.
For contrast, we need only examine those places where the policies that Mr Obama favors were tried. The Soviet Union from the 1920s labored mightily to follow the very policy prescriptions advocated by Mr. Obama, and used much of the same rhetoric. Class envy was woven into the social fabric, and enshrined in law. The best of technocrats were in charge. Kruschev famously said “we will bury you”, but it was not to be.
For over 75 years the Russian empire operated on socialist principles. After WWII, Eastern Europe, Cuba, Africa, China, Cambodia and North Vietnam were added to the experiment. These nations had varying degrees of success and failure. Some of the failures resulted in brutality that is hard to imagine, but all of these attempts failed miserably by any reasonable measure. By 1990, the entire world had figured out that socialism, in all its forms, is a brutal destroyer of both incentive and the human spirit. By 1990 it was clear to (almost) all. Socialism could not be salvaged.
By the end of the 20th centory, the formerly socialist nations of Eastern Europe, Soviet Russia, and all their accolytes had fled the failed ideology en masse. Even China adopted a capitalist model because it figured out that it was the only way to provide for its people.
There are a few places in the world that continue the socialist experiment and they continue to suffer. For instance, North Korea remains rigidly socialist. North Korea is also one of the poorest places on earth, and reportedly is severely malnourished.
The contrast between North and South Korea could not be more stark. These are two nations with similar populations, geography, and resources, but one major difference. According to Mr. Obama, South Korea has the ideology that “doesn’t work”.
I’m not certain exactly what Mr. Obama has in mind to “fix” America, but whatever it is, I don’t want it. The United States cannot afford to embark on another 75 year experiment repeating what the world learned so painfully during the 20th century. President Obama’s has had 3 years in power, and we can argue about how successful it has been, but I think we can agree that it is not a roaring success. We cannot afford another 75 year experiment to learn what the world learned in the 20th century.
It is time to restore our nation to its real principles – private property, Rule of Law, personal responsibility and freedom.
Mr Obama is wrong. We need to restore “America’s DNA”, not re-invent it. The socialist experiment is the one that has failed. Somebody please tell our president.
