Assault on Capitalism

Capitalism is under attack around the globe.  It is being condemned not only by the traditional dictators and autocratic regimes one would expect but also by folks who should know better, from the Pope in Rome to America's communists disguised as Progressives disguised as Democrats.  They argue that capitalism is unfair because it creates inequality among the people in a society.  Yes it  does.  Capitalism is guilty as charged.  The opportunities and incentives capitalism offers do invite the creative and productive among us to gain economic and social advantages.  Is that really a bad thing?

Barack Obama has called income inequality "the defining challenge of our time".  No argument from me.  It is one of the most serious issues that confront Americans today.  But as ever, Obama denounces a situation that his policies make even worse.  Raising the minimum wage is one example, a policy that will cause more of those at the low end to lose their jobs.  Constitutionally questionable mandates routinely generated by Obama's politically correct henchpersons at federal agencies (i.e., Environmental Protection Agency, National Labor Relations Board, etc.) prevent jobs from being created.  So do increasingly costly regulations and paperwork for small business, as does the administration's war on fossil fuels and its campaign against right to work laws.  And of course, ObamaCare and its higher costs of medical insurance hits the middle class the hardest, the very folks he claims to champion.  Obama probably even knows all this, but he also knows the anti-business rhetoric and inequality sound bites appeal to the uneducated, uninformed and unindustrious when it comes time to vote.

It is ironic that income inequality in America has increased at the fastest rate ever and reached its most extreme under a progressive president whose stated goal is to redistribute income from the rich to the poor.  But he and his co-conspirators are not playing Robin Hood by taking from the rich.  They are taking money from the vast middle class and redistributing it to the lower income and unemployed to buy their subservience.  And they are redistributing it to themselves and the super wealthy to increase and lock in their power.  Who benefitted most from the financial sector bailouts, the stimulus programs and the Fed's Quantitative Easing?  We are witnessing the Beltway - Wall Street Complex taking total control at the expense of everyone else.

The income gap has continued to grow ever since liberal policies creating the welfare state and government dependency began to permeate society more than eighty years ago.  The programs continue to expand at the same time the problems they were created to resolve grow ever larger.  Liberals can never point to any success their programs have achieved.  Fifty years ago Ronald Reagan noted that if socialism is supposed to work, shouldn't Democrats be able to point to some successful progress?  Yes they should.  But they don't.  The evidence of the results of the programs always indicate they make the problems worse.

Democrats always blame America's social problems and income inequality on Republicans.  American voters never seem to remember that Democrats have controlled the presidency 56% of the time the last 80 years, the Senate 73% of the time, and the House of Representatives 70%.  Furthermore, Democrats have controlled the presidency, the Senate and the House all at the same time 35 of those years while the Republicans have controlled all only 10 years.  Yet the welfare state grows without producing any victories against the problems.  Which party is bullshitting the American people?

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that redistribution of income destroys economic progress as it kills the work ethic and eliminates the incentive to innovate, compete, boost productivity, and even pursue an education in order to improve standards of living for individuals and their families.  It increases dependency on government, stifles creativity, punishes ambition, and extinguishes hope and opportunity.  Only in feudal societies did the masses of people have nearly equal living standards, and their lives were miserable.  The gap between the serfs and the royalty was infinite because the serfs had nothing.  Modern productive capitalism is essential in creating a vast middle class that can achieve and enjoy prosperity and affluence.  Economic growth is what generates rising living standards, not government handouts.  Government bureaucrats do not produce economic growth.  Private enterprise does.

The biggest change in America in my lifetime is that socialism has become respectable while traditional American values have been rejected.  It has occurred under the radar screen, apparently metastasizing in educational institutions, popular media editorial offices, government dependent community organizations and among public service employees.  It has happened while the economically productive members of society were busy working in the private sector to support their families.  It was suddenly sprung upon the rest of us when an ideologically driven pied piper named Barack Obama arrived on the political scene to direct the change.  Even Karl Marx, the progenitor of socialism, declared that socialism is only a transitional stage between capitalism and communism.  That is where we are heading under Obamaism.  History has shown us that prosperous democracies don't last forever.  We are now experiencing the reasons why.