Posted on 12/23/2008 8:55:27 AM PST by Dick Bachert
This may be the SECOND bit of wisdom to flow from someone from Harvard since Santayana declared that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
As I read it, Jefferson's warning rang again in my ears" "Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it? Or, will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path to destruction."
Mr. Jefferson was cautioning us that the free market/private property system they tried to leave us would produce incredible wealth. He and the Founders knew that that abundance COULD -- if we abandoned our character to greed -- be our undoing. It's happened. The familiar vernacular expression today is "Fat, dumb and happy.")
*************
The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.
The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America . The 'Omnipower' and 'Indispensable Nation' we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.
Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism. This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon Gecko ('Greed Is Good!') capitalism.
What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.
A true conservative (Rep or Dem) cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic.
He believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in living within your means.
Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess -- that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk? 'Government must save us!' cries the left, as ever.
Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government -- the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy?
For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt -- all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.
Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars. We are going to have to learn to live again within our means.
THE PARTY'S OVER!
Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent.
But this generation decided that was yesterday's bromide and we must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all depend on one another.
American companies morphed into 'Global Companies' and moved plants and factories to Mexico , Asia, China , and India , and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.
As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GDP, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad.
At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise. The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar. Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come.
Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.
Who are we kidding?
What we are witnessing today is how empires end. The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars, or balance its budget.
Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars.
What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.
Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it.
Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen.
Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U. S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages.
They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves. Unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation.
We are just spectators.
What the Greatest Generation handed down to us -- the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved -- the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.
Added Comments:
How do WE THE PEOPLE put the villains who are responsible under oath and sit them down at public hearings to determine whose necks should meet the guillotine?
Hypocritically, those who had oversight responsibility such as Senator Chris Dodd [Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee] and Barney Frank [Chairmen, House Financial Services Committee] who helped get us into this mess are on every TV channel voicing their righteous indignation and pompously sitting on their elevated platform glaring down at those they are chastising and grilling, trying to pass the blame to others.
WE THE PEOPLE should be on the elevated platform in judgment and execution of the likes of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the band of thieves and conspirators who are responsible for the financial collapse of the USA .
To name just a few of the culprits:
Henry Paulson Jr, Secretary of the Treasury Alan Greenspan & Ben Bernanke -- Chairman Federal Reserve Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman.
But not to worry -- YOUR PUBLIC SERVANTS who fear being voted out of office will take their self-awarded Golden Parachute Congressional Retirement, give WE THE PEOPLE the finger one last time and head for their safe havens as the World Citizens they are.
However, before they waddle off into the sunset, they will go on record one last time denouncing corporate greed, lavish salaries, and bonuses for their key felons at Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers & AIG
Meanwhile, WE THE PEOPLE fiddle while Rome burns and were too lazy and indifferent to vote them out of office.
No we don’t. We wouldn’t be seeing a lot of this if we had a leader.
There fixed it. This write up is complete drivel. Might I suggest that the period we are entering is the logical result of decades of subversion by self righteous, narcissistic, communist loving children that now run all branches of the government.
Agree that she chose the wrong word. Given your following analysis of the root cause of our current problems, I’m equally certain that she doesn’t understand the difference. She IS from Harvard after all.
But much of what else she had to say is spot on.
If our grandchildren don’t join the mobs hunting old folks with dogs, they will almost certainly dig a bunch of us to spit in our faces for the hollow “legacy” we’ve left them.
Our technology has allowed us to compress into 200+ years what it took the Romans over 2000 to acdomplish: DESTROY THEMSELVES.
Right you are and that we have,my FRiend.
It is all over now but the crying.
“He warned that “Capitalism WITHOUT some underlying God-centered ethical/moral system (in his case and mine, CHRISTIANITY) is nothing more than a hunting license.””
Along the same lines, this lecture by Harvey Mansfield is a cogent summary of what has happened to us and why:
http://www.aei.org/events/filter.all,eventID.1774/event_detail.asp
“American companies morphed into ‘Global Companies’ and moved plants and factories to Mexico , Asia, China , and India , and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.”
We can gear up to manufacture these things and maybe save our economy in the bargain, but we must ditch the anacronistic unions and let the market control. EPA regs holding back manufacturing and energy production must be suspended or seriously cuttailed as well. Sheesh, we’re in a dire emergency situation which calls for bold measures. We will not survive doing business as usual!
--
"Adversity employs great talents; prosperity renders them useless and carries the inept, the corrupted wealthy and the wicked to the top.
May they bear in mind that virtue often contains the seeds of tyranny.
May they bear in mind that it is neither gold nor even a multitude of arms that sustains a state, but its morals.
May each of them keep in his house, in a corner of this field, next to his workbench, next to his plow, his gun, his sword, and his bayonet.
May they all be soldiers.
May they bear in mind that in circumstances where deliberation is possible, the advice of old men is good, but that in moments of crisis youth is generally better informed that its elders."
Denis Diderot
Apostrophe to the Insurgents, 1782
I can remember when we had natural disasters and it wasn't government's responsibility.
True enough, and a majority of boomers deserve it. But the kids are not without blame here. Nor are current anchient geezers (I am moving in that direction by the way :D)). So much misery has been caused chasing the Utopian dream. One other thing, we don't have an empire. We never have. As you say, she is from Harvard after all. I guess we should be thankful she gets some of it.
There
Fixed it for him.
Education (government indoctrination)!!
You nailed it.
The rulers (government) do not want the public aware and the media assists with the destruction of our nation from within. Sad but true.
great quotes....ping to self for future reference.
BTTT
He was right.
How many times have deleterious trade actions been taken against the best interests of the majority of citizen s in the country for any number of stupid excuses, or the benefit of the few, such as import lobbyists, the corruptocrats in Mexico and the Chinese Communist Party? Seemingly endless betrayals by the last two administrations.
And the pretext was always..."this will profit us...oops, we mean the U.S."
This was written by Pat Buchanan not Linda Monk.
http://buchanan.org/blog/2008/09/pjb-the-partys-over/
Thanks
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