DOES HISTORY REALLY REPEAT ITSELF ???

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

Like we have often heard, HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF!


This sounds like we’re going down the same path !!!

Don’t Cry For Me, America

In the early 20th century, Argentina was one of the richest

countries in the world. While Great Britain’s maritime power

and its far-flung empire had propelled it to a dominant position

among the world’s industrialized nations, only the United

States challenged Argentina for the position of the world’s

second-most powerful economy.

It was blessed with abundant agriculture, vast swaths of rich

farmland laced with navigable rivers and an accessible

port system. Its level of industrialization was higher than many

European countries: railroads, automobiles and telephones were

commonplace.

In 1916, a new president was elected. Hipólito Irigoyen had formed

a party called The Radicals under the banner of “fundamental change”

with an appeal to the middle class.

Among Irigoyen’s changes: mandatory pension insurance, mandatory

health insurance, and support for low-income housing construction

to stimulate the economy. Put simply, the state assumed economic

control of a vast swath of the country’s operations and began assessing

new payroll taxes to fund its efforts.

With an increasing flow of funds into these entitlement programs,

the government’s payouts soon became overly generous. Before

long its outlays surpassed the value of the taxpayers’ contributions.

Put simply, it quickly became under-funded, much like the

United States’ Social Security and Medicare programs.

The death knell for the Argentine economy, however, came with

the election of Juan Perón. Perón had a fascist and corporatist upbringing;

he and his charismatic wife aimed their populist rhetoric at the nation’s rich.

This targeted group “swiftly expanded to cover most of the propertied

middle classes, who became an enemy to be defeated and humiliated.”

Under Perón, the size of government bureaucracies exploded through

massive programs of social spending and by encouraging the rapid growth

of labor unions.

High taxes and economic mismanagement took their inevitable

toll even after Perón had been driven from office. But his

populist rhetoric and “contempt for economic realities” lived on.

Argentina’s federal government continued to spend far beyond its means

with little regard for the future of the nation and it's next generations.

Hyperinflation exploded in 1989, the final stage of a process

characterized by “industrial protectionism, redistribution of

income based on increased wages, and growing state intervention

in the economy…”

The Argentinean government’s practice of printing money to pay off

its public debts had crushed the economy. Inflation hit 3000%,

reminiscent of the Weimar Republic. Food riots were rampant; stores

were looted; the country descended into chaos.

And by 1994, Argentina’s public pensions — the equivalent of Social Security

— had completely imploded. The payroll tax had increased from 5% to 26%,

but it wasn’t enough. In addition, Argentina had implemented a value-added tax

(VAT), new income taxes, a personal tax on wealth, and additional revenues

based upon the sale of public enterprises. These crushed the private sector, further

damaging the economy beyond repair.

A government-controlled “privatization” effort to rescue seniors’

pensions was attempted. But, by 2001, those funds had also

been raided by the government, the monies replaced by

Argentina’s defaulted government bonds.

By 2002, “…government fiscal irresponsibility… induced a

national economic crisis more severe than America’s Great Depression

of the 1930's.”

In 1902 Argentina was one of the world’s richest countries ON EARTH. Little more than a hundred years later, it is poverty-stricken, struggling to meet its debt obligations amidst a drought. It's people have been thrust into abject poverty and the fine lifestyles they once knew were all but just a memory.

Are you thinking, we’ve seen this movie before???

The Progressive Democrats’ populist plans can not possibly work,

because our government bankrupts everything it touches.

History teaches us that ObamaCare and unfunded entitlement programs

will be utter and complete disasters. Today’s Progressive Democrats are

guilty of more than stupidity; they are enslaving future generations to

poverty and misery. And they may be long gone when it all implodes but

Our children and grandchildren will be the ones left to suffer as a result.

The piper must ultimately be paid. One only has to consider the outcome

for Argentina and then remind yourself,

HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF!!!



Thanks to Preston Miller, for sharing the above post content.