One side claims the other lives without moral clarity, while the other side finds man's reliance on faith and moral certainty appalling and unrealistic.
In these trying economic and political times, the world in which we live seems less certain and pragmatism appears to have gained the upper hand. The global economic and financial system which we have relied upon is broken. The world we live in is at war. Entire industries have been nationalized. The economic theory of mortgaged consumerism has provided the greatest progress the world has ever seen, lasted less than forty years, but has proven to be a colossal failure as it has left the world on the brink of bankruptcy.
The next great debate America will face is as old as the world in which we live. Will we cast aside the progress of Western Civilization as laid out in the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution in this new challenge and turn toward the siren song of Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin and the Communist Manifesto? Or will we recognize the catastrophic conclusion of a collective society best described by Friedrich Hayek in The Road to Serfdom.
It is difficult to see the answer, as we discover the depths of fraud on Wall Street, the incompetence of our government, and the reliance on mortgaged consumerism of every industry in the Western world. But the answer to our economic turmoil is as simple as it ever has been.
Every person, acting on their own behalf, must live within a set of boundaries determined to provide for themselves. Embrace freedom, and accept the responsibility associated with it. It is the moral duty of every capable citizen to provide for themselves and to save for the future.
It is time for idealism to triumph over pragmatism, as pragmatism leads to compromising one's soul and one's future.
Any other system does not work.
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