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Red emperors exploit red ink

By Dr. Robert Owens
web posted May 31, 2010

Where does our federal government get the right to put the chains of hopeless debt on our grandchildren to buy a better hammock for those who won’t work?  The 10th Amendment says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  If we never delegated the power to create a National Debt how did the government get it?  The power to encumber is the power to destroy.   This habit of charging the Visa to the MasterCard is selling us out to the rising red star in the East and if we don’t pull the brake we’re heading for a cliff.

East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet passed for wisdom in the days when information took more than a nanosecond passing between continents.  Today they not only meet they compete, and the Red Emperors of the East exploit the red ink of the West.  Today our Progressive leaders embrace the suffocating sameness of socialist conformity and collectivist confiscation while communist mandarins release the long pent up energies of their people.

Living behind the veil of a high-tech Forbidden City unseen by the outside world Red Emperors abandoned the unattainable ideal of equality of outcome for the more economically successful model of indigenous industries and monetary policies designed to ensure a favorable balance of trade.  Alexander Hamilton once recommended these policies and the early United States followed them.  The unseen hand of Chinese leaders transforms Mao’s Stalinist nightmare into the poster child for an economic miracle. 

Transforming a cult of personality into an oligarchy holding local elections monitored by the Carter Center and judged by them to be open and competitive top leadership faces intraparty elections and peacefully transfer power from one leader to the next.  They’ve jettisoned Communist economic policies, which inevitably lead to ruin transforming themselves into a corporate-style authoritarianism resembling the Five Families of New York, or the Outfit and Machine of Chicago.  An efficient arrangement that provides ample benefits for those who shut-up and go along to get along and ruthless whacks for any mole silly enough to poke its head up.

The tale of two civilizations: America slides into the decay of collectivism with oppressive regulations and confiscatory taxes discouraging the innovation and enterprise which made us great.  China turns away from these tools of re-distribution and embraces capitalism without naming it.  Today, business opportunities found in the shadow of Tiananmen Square are discouraged and penalized in the shadow of the Liberty Bell. 

Today Union Bosses no longer break your legs if you oppose them, instead they sell your stock short, likewise the leaders of the People’s Liberation Army openly urge that China dump American bonds to influence American policies a naked example of Chinese power and American weakness.  China knows they can’t face America militarily.  However, due to crippling collectivist policies the American economy is on life support propped up through massive borrowing from China making us vulnerable to extortion.  In addition to the $798.9 billion in U.S. Treasuries China holds its accumulated $2.4 trillion in foreign reserves mainly in American dollars.  How are they using this economic arsenal?  China buys American natural resources, major stakes in American Icon companies, and control of vital natural resources around the world.

As the economies and social systems of Western Europe stumble and America lurches in the same direction what type of system will rise from the abyss?   Will dazed survivors of the coming crash shuffle off into a shabby future replicating the collectivist mistakes that drove us off the cliff adding totalitarian terror tactics to the mix or will the re-booted West re-embrace the inspirational thinking of the Enlightenment?   Though it’s the excesses of casino capitalism protected and bailed-out by cronies in government inflating the bubbles of our drowning civilization economic freedom and republican principles are blamed for the crime.  The true engine of our decline is the collectivism of the Progressives slipping in one entitlement and one tax at a time regulating opportunity and predetermining outcomes.  This undermined the economic and social forces of Western exceptionalism.  As bewildered citizens become aware of what’s happened to their countries they’ll gravitate to whoever promises the best example of success.  It’s an inescapable conclusion China is well situated to provide that example.

Confucius said, “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”  The debtor is slave to the lender, and he who pays the piper calls the tune.  Whether it comes from the East or the West, wisdom tells us spending yourself into oblivion isn’t such a good deal when it comes time to pay the bill, and payday’s coming some day. ESR

Dr. Robert Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System. © 2010 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net

 

 

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