In my article Justice Roberts Calls President Obama an Incompetent Idiot I made the claim that Obama will teach Americans how socialism can bankrupt a country.

In response, reader Alex left the following comment:

I still think you place too much faith in our countrymen. Part of Europe was already under Communist control for quite some time and they know how bad it can get, yet in spite of all this, they willingly formed a Union of European Socialist Republics.

How, then, can you believe that Americans, who feel themselves remote enough from the trouble to be firmly convinced that "it could never happen to us," will be capable of understanding what just happened when it's 2016 and the economy (at best, only the economy) lies in ruins?

And again, what about those of us who understand the dangers of an Obama presidency but also aren't rich enough to invest in a bunch of gold and insure ourselves against the mayhem? What do we get out of 4 more years? I won't even get into his support of the Arab Spring...

I will respond seriatim:

• Why did Europeans, who knew how bad Communism can get, willingly become more socialist? Simple - they read about it but didn't live under it. Poland, and other countries who actually lived under the boot of Communism, when they were able to choose a political system to live under went the other way. Poland today is more economically free than most of Europe and as a consequence has one of the most robust and dynamic economies in Europe. That is to say, living under Communism taught them the lesson that Capitalism is better. European countries that have slowly become more and more socialist over the decades won't learn the lesson until they live under full blown socialism, when it completely destroys their economies.


• If our economy is in ruins, do I believe Americans will understand that it was socialism at fault? Yes. The reason that most Americans currently do not understand how harmful socialism really is is precisely because they have not been given a good dose of it. For example, after almost 60 years of liberal welfare policies we have just as many, if not more, poor people than we did back in 1965. That 99% of Americans do not blame liberal policies for this abysmal failure is because we haven't allowed our government to control every aspect of business life. Until now. Now we are entering into an era where the government can cause a catastrophic failure of our economy. Until a ton of bricks fall on my fellow Americans, they will not see clearly see how dangerous socialism really is. Obama is that ton of bricks.


• As for those who aren't rich enough to buy a bunch of gold - buy silver. An ounce of pure silver in the form of an American Eagle can be purchased online for as little as 31 dollars. A few of these will allow you to buy food, guns, water, and other necessities when paper money turns to crap.