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Dear Mr. Lamberti:
Unfortunately, socialism did not collapse with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
What has continued to dominate the thinking of too many academics, pundits in the media, and the rhetoric of the politicians on the stump is, implicitly, the socialist critique of capitalism: "Capitalism is based on greed and selfishness; it hurts the 'common man,' it causes depressions and unemployment; and cannot self-correct once a severe downturn sets in, etc., etc. . . "
Now, after layers of government regulatory policies and monetary mismanagement have created the crisis we are in, what is the outcry? "Capitalism has failed, again." "This is the crisis of the free market."
And the call is for paternalistic government to step in -- and "fix" the financial disaster it has produced.
We have a lot of work to do in the vineyard of ideas to help our fellow citizens understand and to accept that limited government, free markets, and individual freedom are the only lasting cures for the economic miss Washington has gotten us into.
Dr Richard Ebeling
Senior Fellow
AIER |
