Getting It Right- Learning From History's Lessons

December 6, 2007

By: Sid Riley

This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint concerning items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items that are impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and that it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:
What Happened In Russia During the Fifty Years Of Communist Rule Should Show Us What NOT to Do in the USA.
A few days ago I heard an expert on Russian Economics give an explanation of the reasons why Russia is having such a hard time transitioning into a capitalistic, free enterprise system. The reasons for their economic difficulties can teach us a lesson if we are willing to learn.
For over fifty years, after the fall of the tsars, Russia was ruled by the Communist Party. It was a "one party" political system, where elections were held and only party members could vote….but only for party candidates. Thus, for fifty years the Communist Politicians and their associated Communist Party Bureaucrats controlled the government, the political system, the economic system, and all of the money. The first thing they did after they gained power was greatly reduce personal rights, attack family values and religion, remove all property rights, and create a system where the public was totally dependent on the government and it’s allied bureaucracy for everything.
The politicians and bureaucrats were free to enact laws, rules, and policies which were designed to enhance their power, influence, and personal wealth. Corruption was rampant. You had to a make bribery tribute to obtain a service from any bureaucrat. Due to the lack of any reason for attempting to succeed in business, eventually the public began to play the system, do a minimum of work, and get as much as they possibly could from the government (sound familiar?). Eventually, these practices and concepts caused the system to self destruct into national bankruptcy.
However, during this fifty years of domination, the families of the key politicians and bureaucrats amassed huge personal fortunes. Family cartels exercised total control over the various key businesses in Russia, such as oil, mining, heavy industry, shipping, etc. As a result, today these same powerful family cartels control a major portion of the national economic system.
These powerful economic monopolies created by a corrupt bureaucracy are today doing all they can to resist a free market, free enterprise, capitalistic system in Russia. They would rather return to a one party rule political system, or even to a dictatorship that is friendly to their interests. This was evident this week as the Russian elections expressed a movement away from a democratic, capitalistic system. The party of President Putin, The United Russia Party, repressed all of the small, new parties and took total control of the Russian government.
This is the result when a government with powerful politicians and bureaucrats becomes totally dominant over the citizens, provides every need including housing, jobs, health care, social insurance, child care, education, and entertainment. We DO NOT want this to happen in our fine nation.
You don’t have to look back too many years and compare it to what we have in our relationship with the government and it’s bureaucracy to see what direction we are heading! We may not call it Communism…but a rose if known by another name smells as sweet, and a social-economic system can smell as foul!

Here are some things that we absolutely should NOT want for the USA:
- A one party political system.
- Loss of our property rights.
- Reduction of family values and religious beliefs.
- Erosion of our personal rights.
- A growing bureaucracy with ever increasing powers.
- A system replete with corruption and waste.
I fear that if you compare where we have come as a society and as an economic system over the past fifty years, you will discover a disturbing trend towards several of the "don’t want" listed above.
It is only through diligent resistance to the continuing growth and intrusion of government and bureaucracy into our lives and the corresponding reduction of our rights and freedoms that we can prevent the USA from eventually repeating the social and economic disasters that occurred in Russia. Vote wisely and join the fight! Do these things and you will be GETTING IT RIGHT!!
RUDAMENTS: ODDS AND ENDS WORTHY OF NOTE-
State and Federal Grants - As a result of my arguments against taking the State grants and building a 1.5 million dollar unnecessary facility for our new Jackson County Emergency Operations function, I received a call from a well known bureaucrat that wanted to know why I felt all grants were bad and he used the usual argument "If we don’t take it someone else will".
I told him that I was not against all grants. I was only against those grants that were taken only because the money was there, especially if it was to be spent on something wasteful and unneeded. Many grants are beneficial, facilitating needed projects that fill social and civic needs and enhance the public condition.
However, I strongly related to him that I felt our commissioners and officials should have gone to Tallahassee and argued for the right to use about half the grant and restore the Sykes building (40,000 sq ft) instead of taking the grant and building another new building for $1.5 million and only 8,000 sq. ft.
FPU Electric Rate Hikes -I want to encourage everyone who is forced to buy electricity from our friendly monopoly, Florida Pubic Utilities, to attend the December 5 hearing on their proposed 43% electric rate increase they want to give their customers as a Christmas present. In my opinion, the effort probably won’t do any good since the Public Service Commission, which is the regulating agency conducting the public hearings, never does anything but listen respectfully and then go back to Tallahassee and give the utility whatever it wants. At least you will have an opportunity to vent your frustration and to see the villains who are doing this to you face to face.
If you did not get to go to the hearing, you can still write an opinion or complaint and send it to the Tallahassee address shown in our front page story on the hearing.