Letter to the Editor: Don’t repeat past history

Dear Editor:
Europe and the USA have many things in common, one of which noted currently is the massive debt crisis both are experiencing because of politicians who fail to learn from history. George Santayana noted that those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. In both Europe and the United States, power-hungry politicians have been trying to buy votes with money we don’t have, taxing not only this generation but every generation in the future, guaranteeing a lower standard of living for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
These short-sighted politicos, thinking only of the present, seem to think they can go on forever, steadily increasing the public debt, by just printing more and more money without an equal increase in goods and services, hoping to find someone to buy our consequently less and less valuable bonds. As history has repeatedly shown us, this does not work. Every society that has tried this has collapsed. A prime example is the Soviet Union. If socialism were a better system, we would all be speaking Russian. Previously democratic civilizations and nations that have tried this have collapsed into dictatorship. Some noteworthy examples are the Greeks, the Romans, and the post-World War I Weimar Republic of Germany, the latter printing so much money that its currency became virtually worthless, bankrupting the country, and resulting in the establishment of Hitler’s Nazi (National Socialist) party dictatorship that brought on the horrors of World War II.
It is time to rid ourselves of such history-ignoring, out-of-touch-with-reality, power-mad politicians, ousting them from power, and never let them in office again.
Harold Bob Jones
Blair, Okla.