Free bread and circuses was the prelude to the demise of Rome. Roman society was composed of Patricians, merchants, citizens and slaves. There was no trouble from the slaves, Roman legions saw to that. The outcry came from disparity between citizens and the very wealthy. Roman civilization spread over Europe and North Africa. Remnants of splendid architecture that gave deference to all of the arts in majestic amphitheaters remain in preserved ruin today.
Parallels have been drawn between the decline of Roman influence and civilization and the decline of the United States. There are those that refuse to accept a decline, thus no argument to the contrary will pull their heads out of the sand. Sitting politicians are among the eccentric ostriches that hide from the plain truth that America’s class act is over.
What brought about the decline of Rome were its far-flung empires, unwieldy commerce and exaggerated responsibilities at home. What has destroyed the U.S. economy has been lack of self-reliance. The United States of World War II was supreme in the boast that our democratic precepts of liberty and freedom would triumph. They did and for a time hope was returned to many save those that were dealt a bad hand by the Russian Communists.
Nazi brutes were mild by comparison with purges instigated by Stalin. Katyn saw the murder of 22,000 Polish officers whose bodies were thrown into mass graves. Millions were murdered in Communist atrocities. Communists dropped an iron curtain around a world divided up by the victors of World War II. The U.S. went home: the Nazis were gone, the Communists were in.
Nothing in the belief structure of Communism works. Eventually the human sense of enterprise and achievement will prevail. Communism in China can only be preserved by dictators and subjugation of the people by force.
The fall out of Communism is prevalent in political thinking everywhere yet the concept is still being pushed. Labels are changed since it has been unpopular to call anything Communist after revelations of the mass murders of Pol Pot in Cambodia, Soviet cleansing and Chinese tortures. Nobody derived any benefits from the system except wealthy leaders and their military.
What we have seen in the U.S. has been deplorable political action in the face of extraordinary greed. People bought homes they could not afford. The received mortgages they applied for with little personal investment of their own. The homes were mansions, something way beyond the station in life of the borrowers. The economy changed and the homes were worth far less than what they paid for them. These high flyers had to stop making payments on their two new German sports cars and fancy truck, were limited by their credit card debt so had to forgo daily lattes at a coffee shop, three martini lunches and dinners out. Recreational activities on their boat cost more since the price of fuel went up. Their kids couldn’t get the expensive Made in China electronic toys to fiddle away their time nor the day care that cost an equivalent of half what one spouse was making.
U.S. businesses found that their unionized American workers with mandated Socialist benefits were too expensive and unproductive. Treaties were passed that made it feasible for U.S. manufacturers to move their entire factory operations to another country. A major television news program did a feature about automobile workers. They interviewed a portly American in Detroit who made $265 a day and complained about his working conditions and medical benefits. He was compared to a slim Mexican worker that did the same job for $15 a day, got married and bought a house.
Every third radio ad proclaims debt evasion schemes. If a listener is in default on their mortgage, if they have more than $10,000 in credit card debt, if someone owes money to the IRS for back taxes, if they have student loans it will be forgiven for pennies on the dollar. Call the toll-free telephone of Abogado & Shyster or Amalgamated Debt Scam Associates to find out how to join your neighbors and friends ripping off America.
The news is full of the newest scam going. Student loans is the latest. Lenders are being labeled “predatory.” In today’s political-economic crisis, it’s borrowers that are predatory.
Banks are now paying less than ½ of 1% interest on savings. The head of the Federal Reserve maintains government lending at a level so banks do not have to seek depositor funds to make loans. One man in government has created low interest rates. People in debt refuse to repay their loans. Elected public officials bail them out. That’s how they get elected: free bread and circuses.
Check it out: call an airline, credit card company, bank, product warranty customer service or computer toll-free service line. The person that answers will be in India, Bangladesh or in the Philippines. Service jobs have been out-sourced. Go to the store. Any store will do: start with Radio Shack or Wall Mart. Try to find something, anything, that is not Made in China. Go to an automobile dealership and discover just how much is actually made in the U.S.
The U.S. is not even good at far-flung wars that drain the economy without cause. What was justified as a search for weapons of mass destruction has become a witch hunt that has provoked hatred against the U.S. throughout the Islamic world. Most of the stuff our soldiers use is also made in China.
Charles Dickens’ era was rife with abuse. People that didn’t pay their debts were put in debtor’s prison. Conditions in society were deplorable. Government was run by kings, queens and lords. We are a long way from returning to the draconian measure of punishing those that do not pay their debts. The other extreme fostered on radio advertisements is equally appalling. The brag in popular use today is that “there is no shame,” involved in defaulting on a mortgage or not paying debts.
Of course there is no shame: everyone else is doing it. A person would be foolish not to. Government pays debt, bails out lenders, looks to working class citizens they tax to make up for the folly. Politicians blame each other when they describe the failing U.S. economy. The economy is shot because jobs and manufacturing have been shipped to China where Communists arm their military, with Made in China guns, to enforce discipline. As far as China is concerned, the U.S. is already in debtor’s prison.
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Note: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and are not necessarily representative of Epoch Times.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Christopher Fine investigated government activities around the world while attached to the U.S. State Department’s Inspector General’s Office. He served in many posts including Special Counsel to U.S. Senate Investigating Committee and Senior Assistant District Attorney in New York County.
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