“Don't Trust Anyone Over Fifty”

Socialism was the dominate political/economic idea in post-war Europe and America, Winston Churchill lost the election in 1945 to the Labor party who promised the prospect of a new social order that would ensure better housing, free medical services and employment for all.

These same Marxist ideas influenced the academic world in the U.S. during the post war period and they were the teachers of social sciences during the sixties. I remember my economics 101 class, the first day the teacher explained the laws of supply and demand and then went on to show how imperfect they were and how the government must intervene.

The baby boomer generation grew up in an age of unprecedented affluence but alienating world. Our parents and the leadership of our generation grew up during the depression and war years when the role of government in people’s lives was dominate as never before in American history.

The affluence along with a desire not to become part of the hierarchical corporate world that created this prosperity gave many people the means and desire to make the world a better place and help the less fortunate so they studied social sciences instead of business, engineering or finance. I admire their goals and they managed to accomplish many wonderful things, however many of these people have had no business experience, they have had careers in the “public sector” and they still believe the statist economics that they learned in school.

The leadership of the “liberals” in government, the media and academia are from this generation. They are not evil people; they just have not the experience of competing in a free market. They live in a world of coercion, their marketplace is one of ideas and they seem to think that the best ideas will be forced on the American people through government.

The problem that we are facing right now is this generation is taking power in Washington. They are the leadership of Congress and may soon be in the White House. The policies that they will enact will cripple our economy and will make it very difficult to finance the existing “entitlements” of the retiring baby boomer generation.

The young supporters of Ron Paul are the best hope that I see for the future, if we don’t begin to change the direction of our government in Washington they will pay dearly.

So “Don't Trust Anyone Over Fifty” but try to learn from their experience.