Crush Liberalism

Results of Obama’s “spread the wealth” socialist approach

The Raleigh fishwrap tells the story of some of the victims of Obama’s Marxist approach to the economy:

By 1997, Mugabe announced his plan to seize white farms and redistribute the land. Five years later, Helen was home eating lunch when an employee rushed to tell her that police were parked at the gate and wanted to speak with her.

Sitting at the kitchen table in the couple’s apartment in Ayden, Helen remembers vividly what happened next. Two Mazda pickups, bristling with armed police, were waiting for her. Their leader snatched the gate’s keys from the employee and turned to Helen.

“This is no longer your property. You have 24 hours to get out,” he told her. If you don’t, “we’ll kill you or put you in jail, whichever you prefer.”

It was not an idle threat. In 2000, war veterans killed a neighbor after he refused to leave his farm.

The Herbsts prided themselves on the relationships they formed with their black employees, many of whom worked with the family for years. The couple had provided a pre-school on the property for workers’ children, and a free health clinic where mothers could take their babies. Wally had hoped that his family’s longstanding ties to the area would spare his farm from seizure.

In the end, it did not matter. With the help of neighbors and friends and their vehicles, the Herbsts were forced to pack up as much as they could. Police pilfered from the trucks as the woman who would be moving into their home gave demands. …

Where have we seen this before?  Hmmm:

This produced depressingly predictable results.  The Soviet Union and communist China had conducted similar land purges earlier in the century, and they had resulted in massive famines, economic collapse, and even greater oppression to stop the people from revolting against the government.  In Zimbabwe, the scenario has unfolded in the same manner.  Instead of being a major agricultural exporter, Zimbabwe now relies on food aid to keep its people from starving while its land lies fallow.  Their economy now experience nine-figure inflation rates, making its currency suitable only for wallpaper.

And what was the reaction to the plunderers of private property?  Predictable:

And what has been Mugabe’s response?  Even tighter government control of capital, making the situation even worse.

Ed sums up the failure of redistributionism:

Redistributionism through capital seizure has always failed to produce a livable economy.  Where capital can flee, it does.  Where it cannot, it disappears into massive government bureaucracies and into the pockets of cronies and political allies.  Zimbabwe is a more extreme example, but still instructive, especially for the reaction of redistributionists when they face failure.  They never revert back to the principle of private property, but instead accelerate their confiscatory practices, until no capital remains to rebuild their economy.

It’s a failed principle, with numerous examples of catastrophic impact on nations, and uncountable personal examples like the Herbsts.  After a hundred and more years of redistributionist disasters, we should be smart enough to reject the entire notion by now.

We should be smart enough…but we’re not.  A couple of generations of government school and MSM indoctrination that lauds mediocrity and discourages/punishes success has brought this country to the precipice overlooking the abyss of socialism.  The One is beginning to embrace his inner Marxist, and McLame is too timid to beat the crap out of him on it.

While my new business grows, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will not be hiring any employees or expanding my business to generate more taxable revenue beyond the point where Uhhhhhhhh-bama’s tax plan punishes my success.  Don’t come to me looking for a job this time next year…go to The One whose crippling economic ignorance will cost you your job.

October 20, 2008 - Posted by crushliberalism | Obama, economic ignorance, socialism