Harry Truman loved to say that the only thing new under the sun is the history you don’t know.  As the United States is making a hard left, Truman’s quote is hauntingly accurate. 

They may call themselves “Progressives” but I prefer the label “Utopians.”  Today’s snake oil salesmen aren’t Teddy Roosevelt progressives – the man who busted monopolies, cleaned up the food industry, and created national parks – or even Franklin Roosevelt humanists, who gave us fair labor laws and Social Security.  They are out to transcend human nature itself, by reinventing a wheel that fell off the wagon ages ago.

This week, the federal government began distributing monthly checks to anyone with a child under 17 years of age to make up for lost income during the pandemic.  If you’re a single taxpayer earning less than $112,500, it’s an advance on your 2022 child tax credit.  If you’re too poor to pay tax, it’s a gift – up to $3,600 per child for one year.  Once you’re hooked, Utopians want to make it a permanent welfare system called Guaranteed Family Income.  How will the Utopians pay for it?  The same way they want to pay for trillions of dollars in other dreamy programs to recoup the economic cost of the China Virus, eliminate poverty, make college free, forgive student debt, solve Climate Change, eliminate fossil fuels, and fund reparations for slavery – tax the rich.  Sounds fair, right?  I believe the phrase is “From each according to his ability; To each according to his need.”  This is the operating principle of Communism, and the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest.  It has never worked anywhere, any time.

It’s nothing new, but today’s “progressives” must have gotten an F in history, as well as economics and political science.  They think they’re original.  They see the fantastic wealth of America as an accident of Nature rather than two thousand years of Western Civilization and values.  They don’t see how giving away cash without strings can destroy the values of that civilization.  They don’t see how a human being can be made lazy, dependent, or ultimately parasitic.   The dark side of human nature doesn’t exist in their visions.

Jesus was a Utopian. Reflect on the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) that Jesus offered his followers:  A landowner hired workers at different times of the day to pick grapes.  At the end of the day, he paid everyone equally regardless of the hours they worked.  Jesus said it was the landowner’s right to shortchange the longest workers because he hadn’t discussed terms before the job.  This is the “last shall be first” lesson of Christianity.  How’s that for killing initiative?  Good luck getting the hardworking guys back again! In a nutshell, this is why Communism, Socialism, and Utopianism never work.

Now, an Italian example:  During the reign of Emperor Trajan (A.D. 98-117) there was concern for the future of Italy as the mistress of the Empire.  Trajan had recently conquered Dacia (modern Romania – hence the name).  The legions were still exclusively led by Italic officers, Trajan himself was born in Italica, Spain – a Roman colony).  To spur the birthrate of Italy, Trajan established the Alimenta (“feeding fund”) to insure that Italian children were fed and grew up healthy.  The program was funded in a capitalist manner.  The spoils from Dacia were banked and invested in mortgages extended to wealthy Roman landowners at 5% interest (half the going rate at the time)  The interest payments were distributed to needy Italian families who were, in turn, monitored by local officials to insure the funds were spent on the children.  The system lasted over a century. The Romans were experts on human nature – they didn’t trust it.

Social Security may be considered socialism by many, but it was designed to be self-sustaining – workers and their employers pay into the system.  It has grown in directions never envisioned, threatening its funding, including Aid to Dependent Children which unintentionally has helped destroy the nuclear family by allowing “grandma” to take care of her daughter’s illegitimate child(ren), leaving the daughter and her “baby daddies” to further undermine the nuclear family – the bedrock of a stable society.  Beware Human Nature!

Admittedly, our society could use more safety nets, but they must not undermine the source of our stability, wealth, and drive.  Of the many causes for the fall of Rome, free “bread & circuses” was right up there. -JLM