Putin warns US to eschew socialism

The American Thinker ^ | February 18, 2009 | Clarice Feldman

[Scanian]

What is the world coming to? Pat Dollard reports the Russian leader warned the US against adopting socialism because it doesn't work: Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence”.

“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”[Snip.]

Sounding more like Barry Goldwater than the former head of the KGB, Putin said, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”

Putin also echoed the words of conservative maverick Ron Paul when he said, “we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debts and ‘bad’ assets. True, this will be an extremely painful and unpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearing for their capitalization, bonuses, or reputation. However, we would ‘conserve’ and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balance sheets.”

[DoughtyOne]

Hey, a little less truth around here... ;-)

[gunnyg]

now let me get all this straight....never mind, i’ll just have another beer...

[catbertz]

Armageddon is turning out to be funnier than I expected.

lol. you owe me a new keyboard =)

[Wyatt's Torch]

I read his speech from Davos...it was stunning to me that I would agree with the former head of the KGB far more than i do our own president...the world is indeed completely backwards.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree with your thoughts and appreciate your agreement with mine.

[dfwgator]

Unfortunately it’s leaders still have their heads in a 1970s mode, unable to see current world dynamics for what they are.

Frankly, so do ours.

Kosovo was the dumbest thing we could have done. We could have brought Russia into the fold, but our stupidity there, gave the hardliners in Russia an excuse to say that the West was not their friend.

[Velveeta]

Sigh, it’s hopeless. I can’t discern fact from satire anymore.

[Las Vegas Ron]

The world is backwards.

GMTA...I was going to say up side down

[The_Reader_David]

A small correction: Putin was never the head of the KGB. He rose to the rank of Colonel in the KGB.

Actually, it’s interesting that in the last days of the Soviet Union, within the KGB there was de facto freedom of speech, and a raging debate about whether or not state atheism had been a hideous mistake. Putin, according to a biographer writing in The Atlantic Monthly a few years back, was on the ‘it was a hideous mistake’ side. I wonder whether there was a similar debate about central planning.

Yup, Russia’s got Christian religious education in its government schools, a flat income tax, lower tax rates (both individual and corporate), a media less subservient to the party in power (despite the odd assassination), and no more cronyism betweeen its major corporate shareholders and CEOs and the government than we have.

Whether Obama’s bent on imitating Lenin or Hitler, I just hope Marx was right when he wrote “History repeats itself, the first time is tragedy, the second is farce.” Lots fewer people tend to die in farces than in tragedies.

[A_Former_Democrat]

It hasn’t worked, it’s never worked, it will never work.

This should’ve been McCain’s and the GOP’s rally cry.

[Windflier]

Un-freaking-real....

I hope these statements by Vlad Putin go viral throughout cyberspace and the MSM. Talk radio needs to jump on this, and pound it for the next year, until the Socialist Democrats’ ears bleed.

If they can’t take a hint from the former head of the USSR’s notorious secret police, who else are they going to listen to?

[Scanian]

Shumpeter = Schumpeter

Life under Obama = Schtupped

[chuck_the_tv_out]

“It’s felt like I’ve been on an extended acid trip since last November 4, but this...this is just wild, man”

I can agree with that.

[OB1kNOb]

"You wake up one morning in the once greatest free nation on Earth to find the sun rising from the west, your government spending trillions of dollars to take over major industries, an empty suit with no experience and raised by Marxists voted into the White House, and the leader of the evil empire communist nation of Russia advising your country to turn away from socialism because it doesn't work........You have just entered...into...the Twilight Zone". (Que music: Da de da....da da da da da....)

[FarRightFanatic]

Wow - amazing to see that Putin has more American ideals than our own president. It appears that Putin is more conservative and clearer-thinking.

Strange times we are living in, folks. Strange times.

[SMARTY]

Was it Herbert Marcuse who predicted that Communists would become more like us and Capitalists would become more like Communists?

[donaldo]

Wasn’t it Schumpeter who gave an explanation why those in academia hated their own country? If memory serves he suggested that the professoriat hated the USA on account of hot dog vendors making more money than they. They simply couldn’t abide a country where a laborer could make more money than those in ivory towers. There’s some truth to this; people generally hate what they envy. And these vermin are the most zealous in their support for Obama.

[San Jacinto]

LOL! This is rich!

[Gritty]

It's a bizzaro world indeed when an ex-KGB head like Putin makes more sense on communism than our own rulers, er, representatives!

[DoughtyOne]

I too thought it was a serious mistake. We had no business in the region IMO. Other than the case that the war might spread to Europe, we didn’t have any interest in that region’s problems at all. Having seen the ramifications of a destabilized Europe, I don’t think Europe would have melted down if we hadn’t stepped in.

It was finger in your eye moment for Russia, and it was completely uncalled for.

There was one thing that we could have done to help ease the tension that arose from the Kosovoan intervention. When the Russian school was attacked and hundreds killed, we could have send many of our top leaders to the area, to express sympathy and support. I would have supported sending in a large sum of money to help out.

This would have let the people and leadership of Russia know that we care about the people of Russia, and that we would stand with them against all comers. It would have been an easy way to curry favor, and we basically gave it a great big pass.

I have always thought that displayed a massive ignorance on our part.