‘Enough’
In his recent letter published by LEO Weekly, Louisville’s alternative publication, St. Matthews’ resident Paul L. Whiteley Sr. makes a weak, but deceptively empty, case against a free-market economic system.
Whiteley suggests “combin(ing) the best ideas” from socialism and capitalism to “forge a system in which compassion is abundant and greed is rare.” He adds: “Capitalism is not all good, and socialism is not all bad.”
Mr. Whiteley doesn’t bother to honor us free-market underlings with specifics of what is “good” about capitalism or “bad” about socialism, other than offering the worn-out mantra: “Greed is bad.”
Those who think that sounds reasonable should consider Whiteley’s concluding statement: “‘Enough is a feast’ is a good economic philosophy to live by.”
Whoops! Not only does Whiteley misquote 16th century English writer John Heywood, he also fails to tell us who determines what is “enough.”
Apparently, he thinks government determining what’s “enough” is one of the “good” things about socialism. He’s as wrong as his quote.