SOCIALISM BY STAGES

Is America giving itself over to Socialism in stages? I think so, because the voters long ago discovered that they could have access to money from the public treasury by getting the right politician in office. Voters responded by organizing into powerful groups, business groups, labor groups, etc., and pooled their resources to lobby politicians to send money their way, oftentimes via proposals and programs that sounded sweet and innocent, but in the end simply transferred money their way. The government, of course, grows in size and power with each new program, and runs an ever larger sector of the economy as a result. An economy so ordered will, eventually, collapse. But, you say, that hasn't happened in Europe, where they are still quite a bit farther along in the process. Yes, I say, they have not collapsed yet, but I am old enough to remember when many smart people thought the Soviet Union would be with us forever. Once, back when I was in college, I predicted to a classmate in one of my foreign policy classes that the Soviet Union would eventually collapse (this was in 1982 or 1983). My friend scoffed. I hardly believed it myself, of course, but it felt good to say it. It seemed impossible, and continued to seem impossible right up until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and Boris Yeltsin stood on a tank in 1990.

Do you recall what the experts always say about the "Big One", meaning the expected big earthquake for Southern California? They always say, "it could happen tomorrow, or thirty years from tomorrow", or some variation. I believe Europe will collapse into economic and political chaos sometime this century. It could be next year, or in 2014, or 2040. But it will happen. If we allow ourselves to continue to give over more and more of our economy to government planners, we will follow their lead.