Bernie Goldberg
Here's an Idea, Mr. President...
February 12, 2014

As a general rule, I believe that on any give day there’s more wisdom in the Letters to the Editor section of the Wall Street Journal than there is in the entire Obama administration.

For example, Jonathan Lesser from Sandia Park, New Mexico writes:  “To argue as White House economist Jason Furman does, that reducing the workforce by the equivalent of 2.5 million jobs will empower workers to make better choices is beyond ludicrous.  If that’s the case, then perhaps we can achieve complete societal  nirvana by eliminating the incentive for anyone, anywhere to work productively.

And this from Deborah McMicking from San Francisco:  “Maybe I should quite my job and become a poet or artist and let the next person pay for me.  Pretty soon there will be no more ‘other people’ to subsidize all the new artists and poets.”

And apparently what occurred to Chris Zunkel of Des Moines didn’t ring any alarm bells in the west wing.  “I worry about Social Security accounts.  If you aren’t contributing to Social Security as an earner, doesn’t this lower the amount you get at retirement?  Will we be a nation of low-income elderly?  Won’t that cause an even harder burden on the generation born in the 2030s to support the Gen-X-ers and Millennials.  Do the math.”

Or how about this from Steve Milloy from Potomac, Maryland:  “Even Karl Marx would likely be aghast at the left’s view that ObamaCare ‘liberates’ workers from working.  At least Marx wasn’t for a ‘slacker’s paradise.’”

And finally, words of wisdom from Richard Brawer who lives in Ocean, New Jersey:  “We are truly headed for ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ That didn’t work in Russia and China, and it will eventually be the downfall of the U.S.”

Memo to Potus:  Margaret Thatcher once observed that, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money [to spend].” You might want to consider that before coming up with another big government scheme to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.”  You might also want to read the Letters to the Editor in the Wall Street Journal before you come up with another of those “great” ideas.  And while you’re at it, make your economic team read the letters, too.  You, and they, might actually learn something.  And even more important, you might save the rest of us from another installment of your idealistic master plan that looks good on paper, but doesn’t work in the real world.

Posted by Bernie Goldberg at 3:24 PM
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