Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_Aand watch and listen. Listen carefully to Phil’s questions and watch his expression. This is the face of a young person who comes to your front door passing out religious literature. But Phil is not passing out religious literature, he’s passing out socialist literature. The responses to his questions are sound and logical, but Phil is gone. He truly believes America would be a better place if we just embraced socialism.
I traveled to Poland on business about 3 years after the Iron Curtain fell. Too bad Phil, Obama, and a whole host of other socialist zealots didn’t come with me. It was the most depressing place I’ve ever seen. Everything was grey. The sky, the buildings, the people, the entire city of Warsaw. Three generations living in 600 square foot flats, 10 stories high, everywhere. All painted grey. Drunks in every park. Dozens of them. If you put anything of value down, it became common property. After years of having to work around the systems, the Poles developed a moral code that said” if you left it here, it’s mine.” U.S. cars with the original license plate from the state they were stolen from were everywhere.
But, capitalism was kicking in. The new two story McDonald’s downtown was a happening place. Suburbs were springing up with stand alone houses for the three generations to move into. Every cab driver had a college degree of some kind, the Soviets were big on education, but there were no jobs available to match the education.
There was a flea market on the hill that was a city in a city. It was where goods from Russia, legal or stolen. were peddled. Most Poles refused to patronize the Russia market, but they would if a Pole ran the booth. Guess they still had a bad taste for the economy they had lived under all that time.
So, if we continue to buy into galloping socialism, the idea that we shouldn’t use our natural resources for the betterment of Al Gore’s personal wealth, endorse bigger government that does it all for us, more taxes, and less personal initiative, this is what we are buying. Poland 15 years ago. I was there, and I’m not buying.
If you think I’m overstating my case, just think about this. Recent polls say 67% of Americans polled are against the stimulus package in it’s present form. Too bad, the President and congress say it’s good and we need it and need it now. Why do so many Americans dislike the package. It’s not about the economy, it’s about bigger government, more government control. and spending to create more government jobs. Democrat or Republican, most Americans do not like to be treated as stupid. Most of us don’t want our elected officials telling us, “we know you don’t agree, but we know best what’s good for you.” Chu, the new EPA czar has probably never had responsibility for a budget bigger than a few million dollars. He has to spend several billion fast. How will that go? Chu on that.
If we let the government run roughshod over our objections, we will get what Poland got without two invasions. Move your kids and grand kids into a rat infested 800 square foot apartment so we can all live in the same way. Work for the government in some capacity. Save the planet and destroy our country. All for an ignoble noble cause.
Let’s just look at logic. The best model of a good economy has been ours for my whole lifetime. But, throughout that lifetime, there have been people who want to model us after the bad economies and failing political models. It hasn’t been broke, so why try to fix it and break it? This is the first time in my life the people who have the power to make us into losers are in power. Go back and look at the Phil and Milton conversation again. Phil wants you to be like Poland, but he has no intention of making any sacrifice himself. Just like Al Gore and the global warming issue. Just like President Obama and the sacrifices he calls us to make. Like the song says:’ if you want to get to heaven, you have to go to hell. Hell on earth.” Well, we are headed for hell on earth, because we seem to think we want it.
I was in Romania in 1979, and it was probably worse than Poland. The thing that surprised me the most is how much they all wanted to come to the USA. The majority of the television they watched was Amrican shows. Kojak was the big hero to them at that time. We were purcahsing railroad car kits from them and the way they primed the metal was with older women mopping it on with mops. They could not afford a mechanical spray system. They sent some people to America to unpack the kits, and the only reason they returned home is the government was holding their families hostage. Is this what we now want in this country?
You could go down the line of country after country that tried what we are going to evolve into. All failed. As Friedman said in the video, only our model worked. Still, we have all the uber rich who have guilty consciences about their wealth wanting to take us down that failed path. Why doesn’t Phil Donahue just give all his money to the poor? Why does he think we all need to be poor except him? An IQ of 80 helps him get there.
Bill