Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, the advisor to presidents, Ambassador to India and all around statist has passed away. Galbraith was known around the world for his leftist economic principles, which trumpeted the power of the state in economic theory (ie, central planning). In Galbraith’s most famous work: The Affluent Society, the Harvard professor lamented a growing disparity between rich and poor. He derided consumerism, as Americans readily purchased the latest and the greatest and warned that large corporations like General Motors exert tremendous influence over the economy.

History has long since diproven Galbraith’s socialism-lite theories. While materialism may very well be a poor subsitutte for traditional family values, it by no means has contriubutred to income disparity in this or any country. Indeed income disparity in this country is directly a byproduct of poor decision making. Are there poor people in the world who are poor through no fault of their own, certainly, especially children. Nonetheless most people in America have the means at their disposal to escape poverty, while others have the means to contain its spread.

Galbraith’s theories were championed by generations of leftists as an excuse to justify increased state intervention in the economy and decreased economic freedom for individuals. It is state centered policies such as these which have doomed countless generations to a perpetual cycle of poverty, not the free market as Galbraith and his contemporaries would have us believe.

Those who who become dependent upon the state to provide for their material and substantive needs, soon lose the ability to make decisions for themselves either in theory or in practice, thus becoming surfs to the feudal state, or more accuately: slaves. In this country, a person who posseses a desire to achieve can through strenuous determination and hardwork. Every American has access to free public education (such as it is). Anyone can have a job who wants it, those who think certain jobs are beneath them do so at their own peril. Student loans are available to virually anyone, and most community colleges accept students without any entrance examination. Even for those who never darken the door of a college, there are opportunities aplenty in other fields.

It is no great trick to become a fast food manager, for example, if you work hard enough, yet most of the so-called “working poor” are opposed to working, prefering the handouts Galbraith’s economic theories espouse. Bad decisions like dropping out of school and having children you can’t afford are the principle causes for income disparity and no amount of state intervention or income redistribution will correct that. Self motivation and hardwork, however, can solve the problems of poverty, something the Galbraith lovers refuse to accept.

Above all Galbraithian-leftist principles are inherently incompatibale to representative or republican government, as it limits the freedom of the individual to chose and make decisions of their bealh (good or bad), instead individual’s lives are influenced by a all knowing state. While we should mourn the death of John K. Galbraith the man, would should celebrate the death and repudiation of bad economic theory.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1907947