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©1999 - 2014
Edward D. Reuss
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THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC SYSTEM

What has happened to the American Economy?   As we see our fellow Americans struggle in this pathetic economic “recovery” do we sense that somehow we have been sold down the river by our so-called “Captains of Industry”?  We are all told by self-proclaimed “conservatives” that we must create jobs for the middle class.    

 The neo-conservatives simply state that we only have to reduce taxes to create the economic climate in which our “captains of industry” will flourish and with their new found wealth, they will create jobs for the rest of us.  Then, a share of that wealth will trickle down to the middle class and all “boats will rise” in the new found paradise.   Yeah, and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny will come to town,  too.

It is unfortunate for us that the so-called  “progressives” don’t have any answers to this economic disaster either.  “Progressives” believe that more government programs are the answer to our problems.  I believe the reason for this sorry state of affairs is due to a lack of knowledge of American History by those in government as well as our citizens in general.

The fault lies in our academic institutions of learning that have failed to educate Americans in basic economics.    How did the United States of America become an economic giant that fed the world and was the “Arsenal of Democracy” during World War II?  How did the original Thirteen United States of America grow into such a powerhouse in so short a time?  How did such a new nation that was only one of many British Colonies outstrip the economy of Great Britain as well as the other European Nations in a few decades after the War of Independence?

We must look at the record of human experience to examine those reasons.     In what would eventually be called:  The “American Economic System” the United States of America began a system that would be protective of the tiny manufacturing base here at home.  One must remember that the European Imperial powers of the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries were Great Britain and France, and Spain. These nations as well as Portugal and Holland had created vast systems of colonies throughout the world.  They used those colonies as a source of raw materials for their manufacturing base in the “Mother Country”.  They in turn exported their products back to their colonies as well as other nations.   There were few jobs created for the people of the colonies. The colonial powers relied instead on the Institution of Slavery.   In other words, in the Colonial System, the “Mother Countries” stripped their colonies of both their natural resources and their human resources.

Why is it important to recall the colonial period and the Age of Imperialism?  The “Age of Imperialism” is well taught in schools of the former colonies such as India, the African Continent, and Latin America.  The slaveships that brought Africans in bondage to the New World were primarily English, Spanish, French, and Portugese.  The slaves worked the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean Islands,  the tobacco and cotton fields in the English Colonies, and in the production of molasses and rum for their European Mother Countries. This colonial period lasted for hundreds of years.

With the birth of the United States of America in 1776, something wonderful happened to the human race.  For the first time in history, a free people declared themselves to have been “created and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are the right of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”. This Declaration of Independence gave the rationale for the establishment of a new nation that should be free from the tyranny of a monarch who claimed to have the “Divine Right” to govern.   The rights of Americans were not granted by any power on earth, nor any legislation, nor any court of law.  A look at the Royal British Coat of Arms, one read the words: “ Dieu and Mon Droit” French for “God and my Right”.  Americans fought a seven year war of rebellion to free themselves from rule by a King with that motto on his crest. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieu_et_mon_droit  

With the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1787, the original 13 colonies now had a written body of law that guaranteed the rights of Americans and unified the 13 States from a loose confederation of states into a Federal government with a strong central government that could raise an army and navy, collect taxes, and mint currency that was accepted in all 13 States. The Constitution was what would serve as the law of the land for America.   The first President,  George Washington,  appointed his fellow wartime veteran, Alexander Hamilton,  as the first Secretary of the Treasury.   I have written four articles about Alexander Hamilton.    Hamilton was an economic genius who guided our young nation in a sea full of sharks.  His vision created our Economic System that within a few years would outsrip the British Empire as the leading economic force in the world.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

Those who profess their undying admiration of Adam Smith,  who wrote the “Wealth of Nations” that was published in 1776,   advocate what is laughingly called “free trade”.  Smith wrote his book when the British Empire ruled a vast colonial dominion. He never envisioned the modern world of “Globalization”  when the colonies would be selling their manufactured goods to the Mother Country.  Hamilton ignored that book and went on to create his own patriotic version that instituted protective tariffs for our manufacturing base here at home.    This would lead to a division between the Northern states that depended on manufacturing and the Southern States that were primarily agricultural.   That agricultural economy based on cotton, tobacco, and other products was dependent on slave labor that still existed until the War Between the States or Civil War determined once and for all that slavery was an evil that these United States of America would end. 

Today, the writings of Adam Smith and the idea of global “free trade” has been adopted by our modern “captains of industry” and their pals in Congress and the government. to read how “free trade”  and the globalization of our economy has led to the destruction of the American economy , just read “Betrayal of the American Dream” by Donald L. Bartlett, and  James B. Steele. 



 

 I wrote an article entitled:  “Globalization - Giving Away the Store?” in which I tried to follow the trail of the “free trade” crowd for the last forty years.  Many readers will recall the events of the last four decades that have led to the sad state of our economy.



LtoR   Retired Captain Edward D Reuss with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at the NYPD Holy Name Society Communion Breakfast, April 2013

I attended the annual NYPD Holy Name Society Communion Breakfast in April of 2013 and met United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at the parade assembly point on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  It is a fitting and a reflection of the dignity and honor of Justice Scalia that he met with the police officers in the street and marched with them down Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  He was the guest speaker for the Communion Breakfast.   At the Breakfast, Justice Scalia gave a talk that was a revelation to say the least.   As a faithful son of the Roman Catholic Church, he spoke of the fact that one of our historical figures, Thomas Jefferson was apparently not a traditional Christian.    Many do not know that Jefferson was not held to high esteem by in America for many years due to his views on religion.     Jefferson was a product of his generation that today is called the “Age of Enlightenment” which was in vogue during the 18th Century. 

Jefferson, as well as others that we refer to as “Founding Fathers” of the United States of America were children of the period that were influenced by philosopy espoused by writers such a Voltaire and Diderot who were anti-religious and especially anti-Cathoilic.    Justice Scalia  revealed a startling fact that Jefferson was so anti-religious, that years after the Revolution, he took time and effort to proselitize his belief system by publishing The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled. This was a book edited by Thomas Jefferson in the latter years of his life by cutting and pasting with a razor and glue numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus.  Jefferson's condensed composition is especially notable for its exclusion of all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels which contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages indicating Jesus was divine.
Jefferson Bible - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Jefferson was a “francophile” who greatly admired the ideals of the French Revolution.

Sad to say, the French Revolution started with ideas similar to the American Revolution, but with leadership from radicals such asRobespierre , the French Revolution led to the much feared “Reign of Terror” during which the nobility and clergy of France were murdered by guillotine. France underwent a reign of terror that led to the deaths of their monarch and over 40,000 members of the nobility and Roman Catholic Clergy. The French rationalist radicals were influenced greatly by such philosophical writers as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror


The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was desecrated and vandalized and was renamed  “The Temple of Reason” as mobs celebrated the fall of Christianity in France.
The radical “rationalists” who hijacked the French Revolution revealed their hatred of Christianity and sought to destroy all vestiges of traditional religion. The abuses by some of the Catholic Hierarchy and the poverty of the masses of French peasantry helped the anti-clerical radicals. The rationalist concept of  “Deism” was to replace Christianity. The Deist concept of the “Creator” envisioned only a God who created the universe, but then took no part in human history.
This then was the dawn of the newAge of Reason that is the basis of modern secularism today. Modern Western Europe has become the center of such secularist thinking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Reason


Jefferson and his fellow travelers are the darlings of modernity who espouse the so-called “separation of Church and State”.    Our modern day secular humanists and atheists have Jefferson as their hero.    It is a curious thing to remember that Thomas Jefferson never picked up the gun during the Revolution.     Enough said about that.   Maybe it is time that we took a second look at the record of Thomas Jefferson and his effect on our society.

Meanwhle,  how have our modern leaders directed the Ship of State?   Click on the following link to read about how  so called “FREE TRADE” has led to the destruction of our economy.

http://buchanan.org/blog/dr-pangloss-free-trader-6203



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