We've Learned the Lessons. We Just Choose to Ignore Them.
by John Reit (March 13, 2006)

At a very young age, I learned that if you have two apples and you add two more apples, you end up with four apples. I remember learning it. I know it by heart. And yet, whenever I go to the market, I pick up two apples in one hand, another two in the other; yet expect to be holding five apples when I look down. What's worse, I'm always shocked when I only see four. No matter what my knowledge tells me, I always anticipate the sum of 2 and 2 to be 5.

Though I've never been diagnosed, I theorize that I must have some sort of mental disorder that allows my mind to block logical reason and replace it with irrationality. Worst of all, I believe this condition is contagious. And those running our country are irreversibly infected.

It's the only explanation. The fact is that most of our leaders, whether we agree with their views or not, are people of at least average intelligence. They are well read and keep up with current events. Many of them have had very in-depth educations in history and economics (far more than I).

They know how the protectionist and statist economic policies post October 24, 1929 turned what should have been a temporary depression into the Great Depression. They all understand the reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union and the consequences of its 70-year communist experiment. Even today, they know the starvation and poverty inflicted upon the people of Cuba. They can trace the sharp increase of our federal deficit and national debt back to the implementation of Johnson's Great Society - a program that likewise has robbed the lower middle class of its sense of responsibility and incentive to work. Medicare is on the verge of bankruptcy. Social Security can only be saved by more cuts or more taxes.

The lessons that socialism teaches (countless other lessons exactly like these) can only prove that collectivist economies do not work. Not only do they rob citizens of their opportunities to prosper, they also take away basic human freedoms. It would take a person of severe mental deficiencies to look at this evidence and come to any other conclusion.

Yet these politicians - with all the data available to them - still push for changes in the American social and economic system that would mimic the greatest failures of the 20th century. This can only be caused by the same mysterious illness from which I suffer. Why else would any rational person choose to copy the policies of the most dictatorial and non-prosperous societies in history? Why would we think that we can put two and two together and somehow manage to end up with five?

The most tragic part about our present situation is that it can be avoided. We don't actually have to live through it in order to learn the lessons ourselves. Even those who have gone through such failed social and economic architectures are feeling their effects. Canada is figuring out that private health care is far better than government-run health care. Businesses in the United Kingdom are recognizing that the enormous taxes levied on them are severely damaging their ability to compete in the new global economy. Even in our own country, the new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan is sending pharmacies across America into financial ruin.

While I blame the Communist party and its liberal base for starting America on this path, I must place equal blame on the current so-called "conservative" Republican Party for perpetuating it. Even though they were elected on conservative principles, for some unknown reason, feel the need to pander to those who believe government is the answer to all our problems.

It's all a proverbial "Danger: Thin Ice" sign. Yet, with sharpened blades on our feet, we bafflingly skate toward the center of the lake. Perhaps it's a good thing after all. If a nice ice bath and a bad case of hypothermia is what it will take to wake us up, then I say, "skate on."