Good Advice, If You Can Just TAKE It...

If you've been reading my blog - which seems wildly unlikely - then you've no doubt seen me rant repeatedly about the evils of socialism.

Some of you may be wondering why, if you have glanced at my blog but not really READ it.

Especially since the media, our elected officials, and our entire government seem to be some sort of intentional cabal dedicated to driving us off a cliff, away from freedom and into a police state as quickly as they can.

Leave aside my personal experience with formerly socialist countries; leave aside the track record of socialism as a system promoting terror, oppression, and mass murder on an unprecedented scale; leave aside these inconvenient details.

I want you instead to look to the warnings of a man who is a former head of the KGB, the U.S.S.R.'s Committee for State Security. (Komitjet Gosudarstvjennoj Bjezopasnosti.) A man who has lived in and under communism and socialism all his life, birth to death; a man risen to great power under that system, a man whose intimate knowledge of that system surpasses that of anyone in this country a thousandfold; I want you to hear the words of a man in possibly the greatest position of authority to discuss socialism of anyone in the entire world.

I want you to listen to the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state's omnipotence is another possible mistake.

True, the state's increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.

The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.

Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.

And one more point: anti-crisis measures should not escalate into financial populism and a refusal to implement responsible macroeconomic policies. The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.

That's right. 

THE PRESIDENT OF FUCKING RUSSIA IS WARNING US NOT TO TRY SOCIALISM.

Is anyone but me listening?