Category: Politics and Issues

A liberal friend of mine observed after Lt. Governor Dana Patrick view that many seniors would be willing to sacrifice their life to save the economy that she wasn’t aware of Republican death panels.  Extreme position to say the least and note that Patrick didn’t say that we would pursue a plan that would require that we would end Senior lives via Solvent Green.  (The famous Charleston Heston movie about a special nutrient provided to people in a future overpopulated America) but there is a thought that should be consider. When politicians start talking about seniors having a duty to die for the economy, it is not much different that a person has a duty to die for the state and the state rules all. It is a mindset that begins a slippery slope toward fascism in which state is all, the provider of all goods and rights.

Ezekiel Emanuel, a health care advisor to Joe Biden, wrote that medical care should emphasize, “people who have not yet lived a complete life,” and another time in a flu epidemic, ““Certainly if there were to be a flu pandemic, a younger person who has yet to live a complete life ought to get the vaccine or any antiviral drugs.”  Emanuel point can’t be misconstrued, the youth get medical care and elderly denied care.  Rationing heath care based on age is the ultimate results of many governments health care and in Italy, news reports are now reporting that seniors are being denied respirators.    

The slipping slope toward fascism is starting to happen, just looking at many Democrat proposals in which government will eliminate certain industry by government edict while subsidizing others.  The Green New Deal is a blueprint for complete control of American lives as one Democrat candidate noted that government will utility companies what electricity to buy, the size of the house or what kind of car American will drive.

America is more than a “economy” or a state but individuals provided by inalienable rights.  Rights are not gifts to administer by the state but provided independently of the state whose main responsibility is to protect the inalienable rights of individuals. When the State fail to protect those rights,   this is the path toward fascism.

In the 1990’s, a good friend told me a few years after the collapse of Soviet Empire that he was surprised how communism ended up as National socialism.  National Socialism will not run by small little dudes with funny looking mustaches yelling “Sieg Heil” but leaders in finely tailored suits and look more like a Wall Street banker than a nasty dictator.  This is the face of the new Hitler, President Xi.

China has concentration camps that holds millions, they use social media to control the population and President Xi is the George Orwellian 1984 Big Brother.  No freedom, and while China Communist Party allows profits to be made but the state controls all and companies may make money, but they serve the state. It is state corporatism and China view itself as the new center of the universe, with all nations bow to Beijing.  While I don’t view China’s National socialism means conquest of nations, it does mean that their ideology reign supreme but there is one exception to conquest: Hong Kong and Taiwan which would bring “All of China” under Beijing. 

I have asked the question, what will a world be like if China was the most powerful country in the world?  It would be a poorer world, less free and we will see other nations or group of nations copy Chinese National socialist movement.  We see many of own elites who for years admire China, just listen to Mike Bloomberg own view of China in the primary. Mike Bloomberg has stated that “Well, it’s a question of what is a dictator. They don’t have a democracy in the sense that they have general elections. That is true. They do have a system where a small group of people appoint the head. And they churn over periodically. If you go back and look at the last two or three decades, there have been a number of people that have had the same position that Xi Jinping has.”

China is the modern version of National Socialism, and now this is that moment to ask will we allow China to become the number one power?  If China is number one power, only means the United States will decline in both economic power and freedom we take for granted will slowly disappear.

Since I spent time working for big Pharma, one of my responsibilities was to keep up with the latest scientific and medical journal. Over the years, I have read thousands of research papers including medical literature, scientific and economic journals. I have overseen some thirty some research projects for Americas Majority Foundation.  So, I know something about science and economics, something that most of our media personalities and reporters don’t. 

COVID-19/CCP Virus

You will notice I use COVID-19/CCP virus.  CCP stands for the Chinese Communist Party virus to remind Americans that this virus originated in China and that the Chinese Communist Party not only suppress information about the virus but also allowed this virus to escape their country.  They are responsible for thousands of deaths and world economy on the brink and we can’t allow them to escape responsibility.  More on this later.

Who knows the final results but a few thoughts on worst case scenario and best-case scenario.  We don’t know for certain how virulent this is, but this has been under debate.  Anthony Fauci estimated that the mortality rate is 1% but he also noted in the New England Journal, “If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.”  So, while Fauci uses the 1% mortality rate, he suggests that it could be overall lower and since we are not testing everyone, many mild cases will go reported so we have to make assumptions based on guest work.

In reviewing data from March 20 on those diagnosed infected vs those tested, I found that in reviewing data produced https://ourworldindata.org/covid-testing, that in nearly I million tested, we saw an ratio of 9.7% of diagnosed versus those tested.  Most nations saw data between 3% to 20% of infected to tested.  We can only guess but here are some numbers. Worst case scenario would be based on this data is that 20% of Americans would be infected, similar to what we estimated in 2009 outbreak.  60 million Americans would be infected and 1% mortality rate results in 600,000 deaths and at .1%, it is 60,000 deaths.  The latter may be a worst-case scenario and close to what we suffered during the Spanish flu.  (We lost 650,000 to the Spanish flu which would be equivalent of 2,000,000 today based on population.  During the Spanish flu, our population was one third than today.)   At 3% which is South Korea numbers, we will be looking at between 9 and 10 million infected with at 1%, mortality 90 to 100,000 deaths or as low as 9 to 10,000 deaths at .1%.   At 10%, we are looking at 30 million infected with a range of 30,000 to 300,000 deaths. (The 10% number would reflect what we are seeing in data collected in much of Europe, Australia and the United States.)

There is a wide disparity that could happen, and it could either be a bad flu season, slightly worse than a flu season or as many as half million dead as a result.  This still makes it less than the Spanish flu which killed triple per capita.   The 1957 Asian Flu and 1968 Hong Kong Flu attributed to 100,000 to 120,000 deaths in the United States, there is a strong possibility that this virus may be similar in mortality.

This is not minimizing COVID/CCP Virus since it appears to be more virulent than the flu but certainly less virulent than the Spanish flu.  The true mortality rate will never be accurate and will be as much guesswork as anything else since we are not testing everyone but those with symptoms so we will overestimate the actual mortality rate. 

Economics

The problem with Trump economic plan is based on a combination of shutting down the economy by closing business while going on Keynesian economics on steroids. It is hard to stimulate an economy when no one is working as part of a policy by the government to reduce virus outbreak by isolation and quarantine.  With people panicking, it makes sense to do an isolation/quarantine strategy to reduce the outbreak, but you can’t continue doing this for too much long without serious damage to the economy. Eventually people have to go back to work or else you have a major depression that will be hard to dig out of.  The second problem with this plan is that you have ton of money sloshing around unproductively.  With this stimulus, we may be creating a situation where we “have too much money spent chasing too few goods” and this could create another problem in 2021, inflation.  In the 1918-19 Spanish flu, there was a post-World War One boom but there was a major inflation that appeared.  1920, severe recession occurred as the newly form of federal reserve found itself ringing out the inflation as incapacitated President Woodrow Wilson did very little in fighting the recession and Warren Harding allowed the economy heals itself. 

The point that one may take out of this, we did have economic activity in 1919 in a pandemic that killed 650,000 people.  My own view is that this is a worse case scenario and those that talk of millions of dead are giving a scenario that won’t most likely not happen.  (As mention before, 650,000 dead in 1919 would equate to 2 million today.  And quarantine did happen in many communities and the medical technology was nowhere what we have today. Could we adopt a similar strategy in which we isolate the more vulnerable, those immunocompromised and the elderly while getting others back to work, knowing that many may have a mild or moderate case.  80% plus of adults and even higher number of children have mild or moderate cases. 

There is another aspect is that we know that azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine looks promising as there are cases where people cases improved.  While we have not a double-blind study, the evidence looks promising enough for physicians to try it either for viral pneumonia or maybe suppressively. 

One strategy in the short term is to use this combination as needed for those in critical and severe cases, while allowing others to get back to work.  There is much to learn on both efficacy and dosing of this combination, we can begin to expand its usage while studying.  This will allow us to get back to work quicker. Also, with increase in testing and the new test that can get results in forty-five minutes will allow us to isolate and track more efficiently. 

There are drugs including anti-viral being tested and we are now testing a vaccine so we may have a variety of treatments by the summer end if not sooner plus a vaccine at the end of the year, depending if it is successful. If successful, how quickly the FDA approves it.

The Democrats have made it clear over the weekend; they will as soon see the whole economy tank than even pass compromised a bill that mostly favored their philosophy.  So better come up with plan B and plan B is get America working by May first.    

Foreign Policy China

I have made a point to call this the COVID/CCP virus since this virus originated from Asia. This is not the first pandemics starting from China.  The 1957 Asian flu and the 1968 Hong Kong Flu as the names showed, originated in China and 100,000 to 120,000 Americans died.  Chinese Communist party lied from the very beginning of this.  They suppress information about the origin of the virus, they lied to WHO about the transmission and they allowed their own citizens to leave the country to others.  They may still be lying as one new story reported that Chinese may have quit testing as to show the world, “they conquer the virus.” I don’t believe that the Chinese are as effective as the South Korean in dealing with this infection and South Koreans are still seeing some 70 to 100 new cases according to worldometer.

The biggest weakness of globalization is what you do when a major power doesn’t play by the rules like China or rogue country in a crucial area like Iran.  China should be held responsible as well as the politicians who have for years promoted the relationship. The key was that as China became more integrated into the world economy, it would also liberalize their own government. They did not do the latter.

Shadi Hamid of the Brooking Institute wrote, “After the crisis, whenever after is, the relationship with China cannot and should not go back to normal. Nothing, in any case, will go back to normal after the sheer scale of destruction becomes clear. Of course, the rest of the world will have to live with the Chinese leadership as long as it remains in power. But this pandemic should, finally, disabuse us of any remaining hope that the Chinese regime could be a responsible global actor. It is not, and it will not become one.”

The moment of decoupling from China must begin and China must be replaced as a major chain supplier to other nations we can actually trust or bring them home. The latter would require America have even better business environment than presently and certainly better after this adventure.  This century, the United States have moved backward on economic freedom as measure by various organization and this has to be reversed.  It means new alliances including building up India as a counterweight to China. By building India economy, we could build a potential ally in our future that we can trust.  India contains the second largest English speakers with 125 million who speaks the language, and this could quadruple over the next decade. That would make it the largest single English-speaking country in the world by 2030. 

China can’t be ignored due to the size of its military and military, but it is still the second leading economy in total but on a per capita it ranks only 79.  It is combination of third world developing country and a developed country and we will still trade with China, but it is time to reduce that dependency and move elsewhere for trade. 

It is also time to review our alliance and while maintaining many of our alliances, it is time for development of the Anglosphere which I describe in my book, The Rise of National Populism and Democratic Socialism, what our response should be?

On the Crown Princess 17% to 20% of those on ships got Chinese virus and based on worldometers numbers 3% of South Korean have caught the virus based on number tested.

Let just say if 20% of Americans received  coronavirus, that would be 66,000,000 infected and at 1% the death would be 660,000, which puts it in line with Spanish flu overall mortality.  (while we lost nearly 660,000 in the Spanish Flu but that would be the equal of 2,000,000).   Right now as to today, we are seeing US mortality rate at 1.3% and new cases today mortality rate was .5%.  So we most likely seeing a lower rate than 1% since we are not testing many mild cases and we won’t.  So at .5%, we are at 330,000 deaths.  Worse case scenaro.

If we take the Korean numbers, we would be talking slightly under 10,000,000.   That means we are talking at 1%, 100,000 death and at .5% it is 50,000 or a very bad flu season.  

So depending upon the numbers infected overall and with all of our social media and shutting down the economy, we will be close to the Korean numbers.  Now if we choose to open up the economy a little more and take a chance on more getting infected,  we would most likely with deaths far lower than what we talking about. 

My own view is that Trump keeps the mortality low below worst case scenaro and doesnt blow up the economy, he will be remembered foundly.  It also depends upon putting the virus i proper perspective.

Part One

Just finished reading James Grant on the Depression of 1920. A few observations. One, despite the Spanish flu and the death of 657,000 Americans which equals 2,000,000 today, there was a boom in 1919. Economy continued.

Second, the Feds overshoot and created inflation in which it took 18 months to clear up. (Harding did most of the right thing, to clear up this depression.) We are now doing the stimulus minus the boom but eventually a day of reckoning on Keynesian stimulus will occur.

Third, lessons are that the economy can hum on nicely in a pandemic far worse than what we will see with Wuhun virus. The question is too late? It may be and considering the advice Trump is being given, it is not looking promise.

Part Two

Trump is about to lose 2020 election if he doesn’t change his economic plan. And America will lose in a big way since we have political opposition is socialist party in all but name only and will allow China to take over world leadership.

Part Three

Chloroquine is looking effective. But here are some issues to consider. First with an effective drug, you can continue with the guidelines while getting America back to work. So that is the good news.

Issue one as I have mention before is production.  Can we produce in massive amount needed a drug with limited indication or use in the West?

In the initial phrase of the HIV epidemic, the anti-retroviral were given at too high of dose and we found lower dose worked as well with less adverse effects. Three the FDA may be scared off by adverse events and may take it off the market for this indication.

Risk vs benefits need to be considered and any company marketing or producing this should be exempted from liability. Risk of a depressed economy is worse than adverse events from the drug. This drug or combination with Azithromycin is a cure all but a good first step.

In the initial HIV epidemic, we found effective drugs, but we also found the initial adverse events were high. We found lower doses worked with less events. I suspect we will find the same.

Everybody gets a free ride!

By Dr. Larry Fedewa (March 16 ,2020) Recent polls show that a large plurality of Americans prefer socialism over capitalism. On its surface, such a preference is shocking. Digging beneath the surface, however, we find a somewhat less alarming reality. So, let’s dig a little.The first question is, what do most of those Americans think “socialism” means? To many of our fellow Americans, “socialism” has been defined by Bernie Sanders, the socialist Senator from Vermont. He describes socialism in terms of an expansion of “human rights” into services, notably health care, higher education, and income parity, if not equality. He advocates free delivery of these services to every American. He also believes that the USA should have open borders, inviting anyone who wishes to become an American citizen to come at will. Then there is the other side of his views. He also believes that Americans’ access to gun ownership should be severely restricted. He says that climate change is “an existential threat” to the world and adopts the “green agenda”. That agenda includes the elimination of fossil fuels, and the substitution of renewable forms of energy (even though no such energy sources exist) and the re-entry of America into the Paris Accord, which obligates the USA to pay the bill for converting the major polluters of the world (China and India) to renewables. These are samples of the price we would pay under a Sanders idealized world-view for all the “free” services. The Sanders followers tend to be one of three types: 1) inexperienced and idealistic youths, 2)people who see themselves as victims of life because of poverty or rejection or discrimination, and 3) the educated idealists who long for a perfect world, frequently from the safe perch of academia. They are not the people who have to pay the price of this fantasy. It is therefore not hard to understand why this vision has attracted so many followers that it now dominates the Left Wing of the Democrat Party. While this description of socialism consists principally of concrete policies, there is an underlying theory on which these policies rest, and which is not much discussed by Mr. Sanders and his followers. That theory in a nutshell is that the rich and privileged of society occupy their elevated position due to their oppression of the poor and neglected people in that society. Justice therefore demands that the elite be rejected in favor of the underclass and the wealth of the society be spread equally among all its members. Essentially, that means the riches of the elite be taken away and be distributed to the poor. The only instrument which could accomplish this feat is government. But, in the end, the means by which the upper class retains its power over the underclass is force through police and army. The shorthand for this is “whoever has the guns rules”.  Revolution is therefore inevitable. To this point the description of socialism follows the views of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher. It was his works which were the basis of the Communist revolutions of Russia and China, among others. Marx’s ideas led to dictatorships because, the revolt of the proletariat (i.e. the oppressed) took military force to achieve, and the strong leaders of these armies were not about to give up power as soon as they won the war, especially since the transitions to new leadership were long and bloody. Once established, the leaders became dictators, and in the name of the revolution, the new State took over virtually everything. Personal freedom was no more available to the Communist society than it had been under the royalty. Another version of socialism evolved in Europe and other areas, such as Canada, Australia, and South America. This version maintained the supremacy of the State and its obligation to provide free services to the masses, but it recognized private property and also democracy in the form of elections of government officials. Some countries found this system very unstable, with frequent changes of government, e.g. Italy and Greece. For others, it was stable and productive, e.g. Germany and France. Many of these nations adopted strong strains of capitalism including free markets and an independent judiciary. Some of these countries cannot be called “socialist” in the 21st century e.g. Denmark, Iceland. It is reasonable to assume that Bernie Sanders is talking about this form of socialism, which he calls “democratic socialism”, although he does not speak in ideological terms. The issue then becomes, what is the difference between “democratic socialism” and “democratic capitalism”? There are two major differences: 1) Government responsibilities versus individual responsibilities; and 2) Restrictions on government versus restrictions on individual freedoms. Responsibilities: government and personal 1)     Socialism: the government is held responsible by socialists for providing virtually everything an individual may need – a list that keeps changing as new needs arise. This list currently includes health care, unemployment insurance, retirement, and a host of regulations including housing, working conditions, vacations, sometimes wages, etc. These regulations are generally the result of government-controlled central planning which attempts to control all the economic forces which combine to make up the economy. All of these efforts are funded by taxes on privately owned company profits. The problem is identified when taxes get so high that companies cannot pay them. As one-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, once said, “Socialism is fine until other peoples’ money runs out”. Then there is a Venezuela, Greece or a bankrupt Detroit or Puerto Rico. In extreme cases, people starve. The government thus has absolute authority to fulfill all these needs through taxation. 2)     Capitalism: the government is responsible for justice, foreign affairs and defense, and law enforcement. Beyond those minimal responsibilities, all other responsibilities are undertaken only with the specific consent of the people. Restrictions: government and individual1)     Government: the only restrictions on government – not to be underestimated – are those imposed by elections of officials to run the government. This works both ways, namely, new benefits that are advocated by the candidates for high office become mandatory under pain of losing the next election, and the same goes for new limitations on government power. Generally, that means greater benefits for the population and higher taxes on the businesses which earn the money in the first place. That situation eventually results in the loss of incentive to work hard and creatively in order to pay the fruits of one’s labor to the government. 2)    Individual: In a capitalistic society, the individual is required to provide for oneself and his or her family’s health, safety and welfare. These responsibilities require a great deal of personal freedom from government control. These same freedoms and responsibilities, however, encourage reliability and creativity, because of the competitive atmosphere which prevails in a capitalistic society. This drive has created wealth in the United States beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors. In the 21st century, however, our experience is that many of the characteristics of capitalism are also evident in socialist countries. The differentiator is the trajectory into the future which each form of government is on. Socialism leads invariably to dictatorship (China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba) or bankruptcy (Greece) and capitalism leads to resilience and prosperity (USA). For now, Americans must follow their instincts – freedom forever!

Here is a thought, what will fascism look like in the 21st century. China is a fascist state or you can use the term National socialism. China has long since abandoned international communism as a ideology and dismissed much of its class warfare since the 1980s.

China as allowed private ownership to save their economy and grow it but all property is still under the iron hand of the state. China control over social media approaches George Orwellian vision in 1984. This crisis has shown China true colors in ways that can’t be ignored.

China has used this crisis to tighten control over dissent, suppress information that could have saved lives and reports in which Muslims removed from prison camps forced to work in factories. This is what Nazis did. forced labor.

Chinese government are not run by guys who wears funny looking mustaches but in guys in Brooks brothers suits. We have asked numerous times on the Donelson Files, what do the Chinese want and what kind of world would we have if the Chinese are the dominant nation?

We now have a good idea of that world and it will be ugly, a world darken by a loss of freedom, with wide spread facsism worldwide. The EU is a adminstrative state nightmare that is strangling Europe economy and threatening both the unity and freedom of European nations.

California maybe a glimpse in the future of US, an medieval society in which run by the very rich. 1 out of every three individuals on welfare live in California, California with expanded poverty numbers has the highest poverty rate.

It is a state where individuals making 100,000 dollars in San Francisco or LA struggle month to month with energy double rest of country. California is a one party state heading toward a tyranny of the majority.

China is a fascist state and want to extinuish freedom everywhere and their ideology prevail. I don’t believe that China wants to occupy nations but they want nations to bow to them and reap the bounties of the world.

A 1984 control of social media over the people, using the media to spy, concentration camps and a propaganda machine that distort the truth. When this flu epidemic is over, we must ask what kind of world we want here or throughout the world.

We can no longer ignore China threat for as a second largest economy, they have leverage over much of the world and are using it now. Even threatening to deny us needed drugs if we don’t behave. Can globalization work if the number two economy is not willing to play be the rules

Or willing to allow a pandemic to occur that has threaten the world economy and allow innocents including their own die if it benefits their position in the world? Thus the name Wuhan virus to remind us of the origin of this pandemic.

And how the Chinese behaved in all of this. Chinese must be held responsible for their conduct or this will happen again and again.

Markets collapsing and proverbial mud has hit the fan. A few observations. One, the Chinese behavior includes the following: 1. They suppressed information of the virus and refuse to allow US and others to come in. They still are not working with US.

the latter is what the Nazis did, need I say more about what this says about the present Chinese government? 4. Chinese are using this crisis to crackdown harder on dissenters. 5. Chinese are now trying to shift the blame to US and others for the virus and deny their role.

Maybe calling this Wuhan virus is appropriate to remind the World of the Chinese role in starting this.

How this impact future policy. First, the oil war between Russian and Saudi’s. There are two implications, first it hurts our frackers and it could be a bomb loaded at destroying or hurting our energy development. The second is that Putin is hurt the most

We can restart our energy productions but revenues from oil and natural gas funds Putin activities in Middle East, and that is good if Russia incapable of helping Iran and Syria. Saudis need their revenues for their budget as well.

Saudi’s use their revenues to placate their people and keep them happy and Russia depends upon their revenues to fund their military and government. So how long can either play this game of chicken?

Iran is the major promoter of terrorism in Middle East and the rogue state. Iran has been hit with a double whammy, the economic sanctions killing their economy and now the virus spreading their country. Last fall, they had to put down riots.

The biggest impact will be to be rid of a major threat to the West, hurts Russian plans for their Middle East, and allows us the ultimate flexibility. It will make the Saudis the king maker in the region due to oil and OPEC more willing work with US on energy.

I will admit the latter is not likely as I would like but the Saudi’s/US relations changes. Whether it is cooperative adventure to stabilize the Middle East or a rivalry on the oil front, Cooperation is in both US and Saudi’s interest.

Cooperation is in both US and Saudi’s interest. I will admit the latter is not likely as I would like but the Saudi’s/US relations changes. Whether it is cooperative adventure to stabilize the Middle East or a rivalry on the oil front. Cooperation is in both US and Saudi’s interest.

Democratic Capitalism: The American Way“Right to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness

By Dr. Larry Fedewa (March 10,2020) Before CapitalismThrough most of human history, there have been two ways by which humans have organized themselves: tribal and totalitarian. Tribes were based on families which came together to form clans, which combined to create tribes. In the end, what united the various clans into a tribe was the culture they all shared – language, values, customs and religion. The primary driving factor in this move toward greater numbers was the greater power -and defense – afforded by greater numbers and the greater accumulation of wealth made possible by a greater variety of skills and a heightened group ability to take on ever larger projects, such as cities, roads, dwellings, and monuments. These factors eventually resulted in cities and nations. And empires. It was called “civilization”.Nevertheless, the original loyalties to families and tribes have remained forceful elements in all societies. As the more advanced “civilizations” grew in power and wealth, they grew also in territory, mostly by conquest of other countries. The management of the conquered territories was solved by the creation of a hierarchy of different classes of inhabitants: the ruler, his direct followers (usually military), the wealthy who provided financial resources, and the poor who were the vast majority of the population, whether slaves, peasants, serfs or servants, who supplied the labor on which the entire nation depended. The average life span of mankind was about 35 years. This pattern, with a few exceptions, endured for most of human history. Until the 18th century. Then human life began a radical series of changes. Between 1700 and 2020 human life span grew from 35 years to over 70. The average annual income grew from a few dollars a year to $10,000 a year. (Gallup 2012) And world population grew from an average 1% annual increase for 1000’s of years to about 610 million in 1700 and nearly 8 billion in 2020 (Source: Worldometer).What happened?     Capitalism happenedIt started with one of the exceptions to totalitarianism mentioned above. Beginning in the early Middle Ages (c. 11th century), some European merchants began to form caravans to travel from place to place buying and selling merchandise. Since merchants in general were discriminated against in Medieval Europe, they were not subject to any specific prince, and they were freemen. They soon banded together for defense against outlaws and princes alike forming the Great Caravans of Europe. In time, many began to accumulate wealth and became bankers as well as traders. They were the first middle class, instrumental in the formation of the guilds of tradesmen which consolidated the identity of a middle class — neither nobility, peasants nor clergy – all of whom opposed them. [Note: trade routes and caravans existed throughout the ancient world from time immemorial but were not “free” of any jurisdiction.] There had been numerous intellectuals who taught the separation of Church and State (including Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century) and limited government (e.g. John Wycliff in the 14th century), but none had the political and financial strength to effect cultural changes. In the 18th century, however, these ideas combined with an emerging middle class to begin the most radical change in history. A new movement came into being and caused the revolutions which characterized the next two centuries, from the American Revolution (1776) to the Russian Revolution (1917). This movement yielded three major views of how a country should be run: socialism and democracy as political systems and capitalism as an economic system. All involved the overthrow of the totalitarian government. The difference was in who led the revolt: the Europeans (and later the South Americans and others) were led by the poor people; the Americans by the middle class. The poor people had no experience of handling money or building an economy. They considered the wealth of the nobility a bottomless pit and they invented socialism. The Americans were led by wealthy middle class lawyers, plantation owners and merchants. They feared the power of governments and invented democratic capitalism. The different types of socialism will be discussed next week. But first, let’s look at America’s democratic capitalism. The American WayThe United States of America was a land controlled by people who had escaped both the walls and the comforts of the Old World and had survived in an environment which rewarded courage, skill and endurance, rather than birth and privilege. Their bias was against rather than favorable to government. They saw government as a greedy king out to take away their liberty. They therefore fashioned a government which was limited in every way by competing forces: the federal government by the states, the president by the legislature, each House of Congress was limited by the other, everybody by the courts – and so on down the line to the local dogcatcher. The purpose behind this design was to keep government officials from ascending to the powers of that old king. They understood intuitively the saying of John Lord Acton a century later: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What they have left us is the American version of a capitalist society. It is dynamic, constantly changing. The poor may not always be poor; the rich may not always be rich. In fact, most Americans (58.5 percent) will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75 according to Yale University’s Jacob S. Hacker (The Great Risk Shift, New York, 2006). The wealth of the society is expected to grow constantly through the creation of new opportunities, new products and services, new jobs, new skills, and new technologies, leading to new and expanding wealth. For Americans, the fundamental error of socialism is that it does not account for the creation of that wealth in the first place. Government cannot confiscate what isn’t there. Socialists foresee the proverbial pie of underclass income being cut into more and more pieces; Americans keep creating a bigger pie. America’s Democratic CapitalismThe United States of America has brought together economic capitalism and political democracy in a dynamic tension which we call democratic capitalism, and which has produced the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. Its greater attribute is that it provides hope – hope that the poor may be able to escape the bonds of poverty as so many Americans have done in the past. This hope is the shining city on the hill which still attracts the envy of millions. It has taken Americans most of our history as a nation to achieve the balance by which capitalism is accountable to democracy, and there are still many problems to be solved. Nevertheless, Americans are always optimistic. The motivation for individual Americans to persevere in pursuit of their personal goals is provided by the real and potential ownership of private property. No other motivator – not coercion, not slavery, not charity, not communal property – not even religion – has ever been found which can impel vast numbers of individuals in a society to be hard working and creative. Providing a good life for oneself and one’s family is a motivator above all others. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – the American Way Our history has proven that personal freedom is a necessary prerequisite for the success of this system. An oppressive government – even if well-intentioned – sucks out the initiative required to make an ever-better life for all of us. Personal freedom without economic freedom is no freedom at all. Capitalism, in a refined and mature linkage with democracy, provides the economic power which makes freedom possible. The challenge to Americans is not to change an evil system; it is to live up to the ideals which are required for that system to succeed.