Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Dollars and Common Political Sense
Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of massive proportions. "Cleanup" and rebuilding will begin to cost over a hundred billion dollars.
Incredible as this dollar value is (the human loss is something beyond numbers), America actually has $100,000,000,000, and that number will barely make a dent in the U.S. economy as a whole -- why? Because American economic dynamism is a result of its having had, for quite some time now, a free and open (capitalist) economy with limited government and the rule of law.
A disaster of such scale as Katrina striking a country based on Marxist principals would be more than a setback. Cuba, North Korea, or Vietnam being victims of such a catastrophe would be in complete ruin (all it takes is a couple of floods to put North Korea on the permanent receiving end of extorted "aid"). Even China, with its new reliance on market forces, would be in a tailspin after a disaster of Katrina's proportions (average income there is still a tiny fraction of what the common American middle class person makes annually). Communist countries would be wiped out...finished, because they're poor...and they're poor because they're lorded over by an authoritarian political party and radical political ideology.
...The things some people will risk or sacrifice to hold their grip on a bogus ideology is beyond comprehension.
Incredible as this dollar value is (the human loss is something beyond numbers), America actually has $100,000,000,000, and that number will barely make a dent in the U.S. economy as a whole -- why? Because American economic dynamism is a result of its having had, for quite some time now, a free and open (capitalist) economy with limited government and the rule of law.
A disaster of such scale as Katrina striking a country based on Marxist principals would be more than a setback. Cuba, North Korea, or Vietnam being victims of such a catastrophe would be in complete ruin (all it takes is a couple of floods to put North Korea on the permanent receiving end of extorted "aid"). Even China, with its new reliance on market forces, would be in a tailspin after a disaster of Katrina's proportions (average income there is still a tiny fraction of what the common American middle class person makes annually). Communist countries would be wiped out...finished, because they're poor...and they're poor because they're lorded over by an authoritarian political party and radical political ideology.
...The things some people will risk or sacrifice to hold their grip on a bogus ideology is beyond comprehension.
