By Charlie Smith
Charleston
US Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has proven himself to be the stereotypical “Christian Republican” who professes to the world that he is practicing the teachings of Christ in his policy-making, when in fact he is merely parroting the most unChrist-like teachings of Milton Friedman. Note to Senator DeMint: There is absolutely no way to reconcile the teachings of Christ with the teachings of Milton Friedman…especially on the subject of greed. Government exists to serve the needs of human beings first…not those of big business first.
Sen. Demint’s almost “Branch Davidian” reverence to Friedman’s unregulated, free-market, “Chicago School” economic philosophy demonstrates his total lack of knowledge of the history of its disastrous applications in the modern world. Since 1970 “Chicago School” economic policy has destroyed both the people and the economies of Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Poland to name just a few. Total economic devastation was forced upon these resource rich, but economically downtrodden people by Friedman’s “Chicago Boys” at a time when their economies were totally vulnerable to unbridled American corporate greed. Every asset held in trust for these people by their governments that could be “privatized” was sold off to the highest bidder in return for a few high-interest shekels from the IMF and the World Bank. Anyone who opposed these policies ran the risk of being tortured, murdered, “disappeared” or any combination thereof. Neither the people nor the economies of these countries have ever fully recovered; but American Corporations, the IMF and the World Bank have continued to “acquire” whatever they wanted and move on to the next victim. Afghanistan and Iraq are being sucked dry as we speak. Apparently we learned nothing from Germany after World War I.