Let people prosper by their own doing

I love people trying to make a political point by citing history about which they have no knowledge. Larry Barbarek suggested that the laissez-faire policies of Calvin Coolidge lead to the Great Depression of 1929. Wow!

Let’s look at what really happened. How many of us know about the “Greater Depression” of 1920? Not may I suspect. After World War I, Woodrow Wilson embarked on a spending spree to bring about a “New World Order” led by the U.S. His runaway spending brought about a depression in 1920 that saw the financial markets and business activity drop more than during the Great Depression. In 1920 business activity dropped an unprecedented 38.1 percent, we were in a period of deflation, and the government under Warren G. Harding reversed the depression by cutting government spending by about 50 percent. As a result, the depression lasted only 10 months and left us with the growth period known as the Roaring ’20s. Calvin Coolidge simply continued the small-government policy.

By contrast, the decline in 1929, though smaller, was met by a government under FDR whose answer was bigger more expensive government and the rise of the nanny state. Citizens were no longer to be self-reliant and prosperous their labor because the government would make sure everything was OK. With few exceptions, one of which not being George W. Bush, all of our presidents since Theodore Roosevelt have subscribed to the adage of Ronald Reagan when he said, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; and if it stops moving, subsidize it.” Maybe it’s time for the American people to become once again self-reliant so we can once again prosper by the fruits of our labor.

Jim Hader

Palatine