"The current crisis has not been caused by capitalism and definitely not by too much capitalism. It was caused by the lack of capitalism, by suppressing its normal functioning, by introduction of policies that are not compatible with capitalism, of policies that undermine it. In a standard economic terminology, we witness a government failure, not a market failure as some politicians and their fellow-travellers in the media and academia keep telling us."
Vaclav Klaus President of Czecheslovakia
It's been a very long time since we have had a truly free market form of capitalism in this country. Even before the great depression certain regulations and controls were already being placed on the free market system.
Then came the great depression and the Roosevelt administration. American capitalism has never been the same. The time period from the election of F.D.R until the the start of our involvement in WWII was marked by the greatest expansion of government power over the entire economic system in American history until the present time.
In essence we began traveling down the road to more and more socialism. At first it was a rather gradual descent but the incline steepened during the great society days of Lyndon Johnson. Under Nixon wage and price controls caused another steepening of this downward trend we were still traveling the socialist road.
Things remained about the same, and lead to an economy that increasingly was being drug down and weakened by excessive regulations and controls.
Then a great change came and Ronald Reagan was elected president. Under the greatest President of modern times some of this over regulation as-well as taxation-of the economy was rolled back and for 20 some years we experienced the greatest period of prosperity in world History.
But alas Mr. Reagan is no longer with us. No now we have a person who the left has tried to characterize as "Their Ronald Reagan". But our current president is definitely no Ronald Reagan. rather one could argue that he is the anti-Reagan.
Since the Socialistic Democratic take over of Congress, and the ascension of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land we have plunged headlong into socialism!
Mr. Klaus tells us the present crisis does not represent a failure of capitalism, but rather, a failure of government and of the doctrine of over regulation, taxation, and control.
In a speech today to the National Press club intitled "The Future of Eastern and Central Europe Mr. Klaus reveals another gem of wisdom"Markets cannot be constructed they must evolve".
I hope some of the Democrats were listening. In a free market system you cannot make a market for anything. Their first has to be a need or desire that is not being met, then someone has to figure a way to fill that niche and fulfill that need or desire.
But what is our government doing today. Trying to regulate, legislate, and create from a whole cloth an entirely new economy. They are not satisfied with trying to correct present problems -which by and large-are a result of too much government.
No,instead they think,we must have government become involved in every nook and cranny of our economy and society and form it into what they view as a more desirable system. Trouble is that system looks alarmingly like communism.
In the speech Mr. Klaus delivered today he said "Communism wasn't defeated...it melted down". In other words it crumbled under the weight of a bloated centralized government that sought to control every aspect of society.
This should serve as a cautionary tale to our leaders in Washington. Government control of society and the markets does not work and is inevitably bound to fail!
Toward the end of President Klaus address to the National press club he was asked if he would do anything to protect Czech society from market capitalism and his answer was an unequivicable NO! In stead he promised to do all he could to promote the growth and spread of free market capitalism in Czech society. This man is a true Democrat in the sense of being a strong defender of liberty and freedom.
Look this guy up and I think you will agree with me we need this freedomlover as our President!
