Time To Let The Country Crash?

“Let it crash!” “Give them what they want and they’ll see what happens!” “Surely, once the left’s programs are implemented and the economy crashes, people will come to their senses.”

Since the election, many on the right have echoed this meme. They are convinced that widespread poverty and lack of opportunity will bring a resurgence of the America many of them knew growing up. Grandma and Grandpa’s America.

Perhaps these people forget that Roosevelt was re-elected three times during a depression that he helped prolong — a depression that featured soup lines and starvation in a population that actually wanted to work for a living and went on relief only as a last resort, and then with a sense of shame.

Thanks to food stamps, EBT cards, and other entitlements, Barack Obama actually had an easier time. He just had to threaten that the evil rich would take away flat-screens and “crazy money” to get enough votes. Imagine if people were really hungry.

Roosevelt and the Great Depression is only a mild example of what happens during severe economic stress. Think about Germany during the Weimar Republic hyperinflation. What did that give the world? Look at Argentina, at one time in the twentieth century more prosperous than the United States. Cristina Fernandez easily won re-election after she nationalized retirement accounts. Do you really think that no one views your 401(k) as unfair? What could be fairer than making sure it is kept protected from the greedy Wall Street bankers? Look at what is happening in Greece, with a quazi-Nazi party gaining ground. Look at France, who elected a socialist government to solve problems caused by socialism.