Like the generals of World War I who took four years to realize the machine gun had changed warfare, President Obama and the rest of the populists in both parties are fighting the last war, unaware that the world has changed.
I've been doing more reading about Juan Peron and Peronism. Peronism is a fascist government system that was created to break the power of the oligarchs of Argentina who dominated the working poor. It looks very similar to Obama's policies. Companies were siezed, unions were aided, government spending on the general public was increased and regulations over all manner of activities were strengthened. Despite initial successes, within ten years of its inception, the Argentine government had overspent, was unable to raise more money and ended up with runaway inflation.
While Peronism may or may not have worked for Argentina - it was a pretty mixed bag in the long run - it sought to solve problems that don't exist here. Peronism doesn't just fight the last war for us, it fights a war that never existed in the first place. The US has never had the conditions of illiteracy and tremendous poverty that Argentina suffered from. There is no landed gentry dominating a working class of peasants here and there never has been. Instead, we're on the far side of the societal development curve where our problems come from too much wealth and the expectation of rewards without effort.
Fighting the last war has never worked. I can't imagine that fighting someone else's last war is going to work, either.
2 comments:
KT, Good points.
While Peronism may or may not have worked for ArgentinaYou've got to be kidding. The only good thing to come out of Peronism was an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Off-topic: I once met Evita's hairdresser's sister. Woot!
OK, back on topic: it ain't gonna take ten years for this to play out, because our flirtation with Peronism has been going on since Roosevelt and the reckoning is fast approaching. Keep you eye on the long bond. All sorts of rumblings there, like this.
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