America: The New Soviet Union?

America: The New Soviet Union?: "Personal freedom, irreplaceable in the exploitation of opportunities, is steadily diminishing as the scope of private decision-making shrinks in response to the expansion of the scope of decision areas reserved by the state. Once, unlike the Soviets, we decided what our children would be taught, whom we would employ, what crops we would raise and what we would manufacture; our doctors decided what treatments to provide their patients. Human creativity was unrestricted; opportunity beckoned any with the drive to pursue it.

Once, the U.S. dollar was as good as gold, preferred over most other currencies; it wasn’t a declining remnant of a one-time prosperity, steadily dwindling in response to the self-serving heedlessness of politically and personally immature spendthrifts in charge of it. The dollar seems headed to join the ruble.

And once, the United States led the world into the productive miracle of mass production, producing endless streams of the world’s newest, best and most useful goods at endlessly decreasing prices the Soviets could only envy. Now, as the Business Insider pointed out in a recent story, Americas’ top 5 exports at its number one container port at Los Angeles are all raw goods while the top 5 imports there are all manufactures made elsewhere."