Socialism, communism has failed; Obama must know this

Letter to the Editor,

When President Obama told us “You didn’t build that,” he was expressing his belief that successful business is less about individual initiative or free enterprise and more a result of infrastructure and central planning provided by the government. 

I find it incredible that anyone can hold this belief while living in America which happens to be the most prosperous nation in the history of the world as well as the absolute epitome of free enterprise and (until Obama came along) limited government. 

After the examples of free enterprise vs. central planning in West Germany vs.  East Germany or South Korea vs. North Korea, one would have to be myopic to conclude central planning is superior to free enterprise for a nation’s economy. 

Socialism, communism, central planning or whatever you choose to call it simply does not work as the driving force of an economy. 

The Soviet Union discovered this as did China when (after decades of stagnation) they tried the free-enterprise model and began to flourish. 

Free enterprise is not without faults. The tendency for corporations to collude with government is one of these. 

Today, it seems, Congress owes more loyalty to the giant corporations and special interest groups who finance their election campaigns than to the people they are supposed to represent. 

The will of the people will continue to be compromised or ignored altogether until campaign finance is reformed and lobbyists are booted out of Washington. 

Replacing free enterprise with socialism as Obama advocates, however, will soon drive our country into insolvency as it has nearly all countries that have tried it. 

— Bill Payne

Libby