The Gods of the Copybook Headings
The Gods of the Copybook Headings: Haven't We Learned Our Lesson Yet? - CrownThomas
The point of this poem is that if we decouple ourselves from common sense & reality, we will ultimately pay for it in the end. And each time, as we begin to recover from our mistakes, the "enlightened" ones (who led us down the wrong path in the first place) always pop back into the picture. They once again tell us that 2 + 2 = 5, and we can have prosperity for everyone without having to work for it, thus leading us down the road and into our next crisis.
Hopefully someday we'll learn our lesson.
Instapundit
A God of the Copybook Headings - Bret Stephens
In today's economy, the hard truth is that we can't spend, consume, manipulate and inflate our way to general prosperity—as opposed merely to the enrichment of Democratic Party interest groups. This was the dominant economic model of the 1970s, with results that were once well known. "The Great Money Binge" makes short work of the theory:
"Demand-side economics holds that the economy derives its momentum from consumption, and it is of little moment if that consumption is financed by credit," he writes. "But if that were true, everyone could merrily use his credit card to supply his wants and never have to work. Maybe there's a logical flaw there somewhere."
The great strength of Mr. Melloan's book is to show, in exacting detail, not only how we came to our current crisis—thank you, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Alan Greenspan and Tom DeLay—but where that logical flaw is destined to take us again.
The alternative is supply-side economics, which, for all the invective heaped upon it, boils down to the inescapable fact that "consumption must be paid for with production"—that if you don't work (i.e., produce) you die (i.e., can't consume). The obviousness of this is so manifest that the real wonder is how it has escaped the grasp of otherwise intellectually competent people.
