Demographic shifts from blue to red foretell doom for Democrats |
The verdict has been in for some time now: In the centuries-old struggle between free markets and various strains of collectivism/socialism, the former decisively prevails over the latter.
If, in Milton Friedman's wording, people are "free to choose," they will choose economic freedom over state control and allocation of resources.
The farther along that path of socialism nation-states have gone, the worse they have fared, with many collapsing (the Soviet Union, East Germany, etc.), some still clinging to the faith while occupying rungs on world's most impoverished lists (North Korea and Cuba), and others remaining workers' paradises by converting to capitalism without admitting it (post-Mao China and post-unification Vietnam).
Dismal failure is the only common outcome (that, and lots of bodies piled high, too).
Somewhat ironically, given our status as the bastion of global capitalism, the most interesting "left versus right" competition in economic policy is occurring now in our own country between "red" and "blue" states. Under our system of federalism, they have come to offer increasingly distinct economic models, with blue featuring higher taxes and more regulation with more public services, and red featuring lower taxes and less regulation with fewer public services.
This left-right competition can be scored more easily than those of the 20th century........