As liberals in Congress and the media push America into the clutches of a socialist oligarchy, they fail to mention that as part of this utopian fiction we’ll be giving up most of our personal freedoms. In exchange for government handouts and subsidies, Americans will sacrifice prosperity. In exchange for free medical coverage, Americans will sacrifice their personal health. And, in exchange for ‘fairness’, Americans will give up their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s a bad deal all the way around. The few who understand just how bad a deal this is are outnumbered 100 to 1 by the idiots who think they’re getting something for nothing.

When thousands stand in line for a flu shot, are denied a heart bypass because they’re too old, or are turned away for medical treatment because their racial quota has already been filled, it will be too late. America is turning itself into a socialist monster of unparalleled dimensions. Unlike Russia and China, which were largely underdeveloped and ethnically homogeneous when communism was imposed, the US is a huge and diverse society with a titanic, sprawling economy. What inequities exist will now by vastly magnified as the ‘experts’ from Washington try to micromanage our lives and livelihoods. For every stupid and short-sighted fix there will be dozens of unintended consequences, each radiating outward and interacting with other stupid and short-sighted fixes. These socialist dilettantes actually believe that they know what they’re doing. And we are their guinea pigs.

That’s where the true genius in the Constitution lies — it created a simple but rigid framework upon which to build a dynamic society and a robust economy that allowed the people, not the politicians, to direct their common fate. No micromanaging required. Society and markets regulate themselves. It may not be terrifically efficient and it occasionally gets messy, but it beats socialism hands down for one simple reason: the innate human drive for personal betterment trumps mediocrity imposed from above.

GM, Ford and Chrysler spent two days in DC trying to wrangle $25 billion out of Congress. Contrary to what the media outlets may have broadcast, they succeeded. In the world of Big Business and Big Government, where lobbyists and PR flacks lubricate the wheels of commerce, the drubbing taken by the Big 3 CEOs was a perfunctory procedure necessary to throw the public off the scent. The deal was sealed with the announcement that a special December session of Congress was to be convened to vote the measure into law. The transition from a free-market economy to a socialist economic has now formally commenced. And what most conservative pundits and ‘business’ analysts don’t fully appreciate is that it was pushed forward by the automakers, not the politicians.

That would seem counterintuitive, wouldn’t it? Here, these captains of industry were tossing out the welcome mat for Washington to waltz in and dictate how they were to run their businesses. But, these captains of industry aren’t capitalists. They are bureaucrats and politicians, just like the blowhards in Congress. Think about it — what percentage of GM does Rick Wagoner own? 1/100% or maybe 1/50%? How about Nardelli or Mulally? These guys are custodians, not owners. They have no capital invested, they have no skin in the game and they are paid millions of dollars to pretend they’re running these businesses. Unfortunately, American corporate governance laws allow people with miniscule ownership interest to run these companies as if they owned them. And these guys are able to give themselves, their friends and their relatives generous bonuses for doing nothing.

GM, Ford and Chrysler design, engineer and build good quality cars and trucks. But, the dead wood at the very top is holding back all three firms. If they are to receive money from the taxpayer in order to survive, then top management needs to leave. They’ve demonstrated their lack of vision, leadership and ability to manage.

There is a group of people out there that all Americans should get to know a lot better. They’re an adventurous bunch, putting up their own hard-earned money to fund the dream of some starry-eyed entrepreneur. They’re the ones who stack their nickels one on top the other as they work 12-14 hours a day running a construction company, a bakery, a car dealership. Yes, these men and women may be small business owners, but they’re much, much more than that — they’re capitalists. Not every small business owner is a capitalist, or even an investor. Most are too busy and too frazzled just trying to make ends meet. No, these capitalists come from a very small, elite group. They are the successful small business owners. The ones who have managed to become financially independent, and have the time and money to help others achieve success.

Help? Since when do capitalists help anyone except themselves? But that’s exactly what this rare breed does. They know what it’s like to start a business and bootstrap yourself to prosperity with hard work and sheer determination. And so, they offer start-up capital, advice and business connections to bring an idea to life. The risks are enormous and the rewards a long way off. And yet, they plunge ahead. This is how real capitalism works. Individual investors, groups of investors or a network put up the seed money for a new business we’ll be reading about five years from now. Are they expecting a return on that investment? Of course, they are. Would they be better off putting that money in a safer place, like a government bond? Yes, but they wouldn’t be happy. You see, they’re risk junkies. After a lifetime of taking risks in their own business and with their own livelihood, they’ve made a little bit of money. And, they can’t help but put that money to work in the most creative, dynamic way they know - by helping start another business.

Some of these new business concepts are incredibly ambitious - early detection of Alzheimer’s, or maybe a low-cost phone system for developing countries; ground-breaking clean energy technology or incredible new personal security devices. Many of these ideas start out small, in the hands of one or two visionaries and the risk junkies who back them. And, many of them fail for reasons too numerous to list, much less analyze. Suffice it to say that the road to mega-success is strewn with roadkill, much of it small investors who bet the farm on a big idea. Curiously, when the risk junkies win, they’re even more generous than they were before. And when they lose, they don’t complain, they don’t whine. They roll up their sleeves and work even harder to rebuild their investment capital.

What does our government do for the people behind the entrepreneur, the people without whom the entrepreneur would be nothing but big talk? Well, actually nothing. Our government makes it ever more difficult to save money. Our government’s progressive tax scheme effectively targets successful small business owners and Congress has made sure to eliminate just about every perk and advantage to owning and operating a small business. The Democrats in particular have made wealth accumulation nearly impossible. And what these socialists don’t understand is that many successful small business owners plow that hard-earned, heavily-taxed capital right back into another business. They invest. They mentor. They get involved. These are people driven to succeed. And what’s appalling is that the parasites hitch their wagons to these incredibly energetic people and go for a free ride.

The risk junkies aren’t stupid. They understand that they’re being unfairly exploited because they have this insatiable desire to succeed. They also know America is the only place on the planet were anyone with drive and ambition can succeed regardless of family connections, political or religious affiliation, tribal or caste distinctions or miles of bureaucratic red tape. And so, this group soldiers on. But at some point, when the odds are overwhelmingly against them, when they are brutalized for just trying to get ahead, this special group of investors - the risk junkies, will disappear. And so will our way of life.

Hank Paulson, Jr. has the unenviable task of trying to shore up America’s economic system after it was looted by his compatriots, with the help and encouragement of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party played a supporting role, and George W. Bush just happened to be in the White House. Poor timing on his part. Mr. Paulson didn’t need the job. He was very comfortable in his post at Goldman Sachs. But, when his country called, Paulson answered and shouldered the load as Treasury Secretary. This is a scary, stress-laden job with huge downsides and incessant second-guessing by politicians and media types thathave no idea what they’re talking about. There are hundreds of moving parts and thousands of possible combinations that can end in disaster. And, there’s probably no single person in the entire country that’s better suited for this responsibility than Secretary Paulson.

But, we have to consider his mindset. Although he is tough, direct and dedicated, he operates reflexively within the Wall Street mental paradigm. And his moves are anticipated by Wall Street, the banking system and the Fed. For example, the bank bailout bill he championed had a provision to buy toxic loans from banks, entitled TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) which spurred stock brokerages to immediately apply for federal charters as bank holding companies, and therefore eligible for free money from the government. Even Goldman Sachs, his former employer, has asked for an expedited charter as a bank  holding company. Secretary Paulson deftly maneuvered around his Wall Street peers, choosing instead to buy equity in troubled banks, rather than buying their loan portfolios. It’s a smart move. So, instead of praising the man for making fast, effective decisions and changing the plan to reflect reality, Congress and the media are jumping all over the guy because he changed his mind and didnt’ let them in on his strategy. Had he done so, the morons on Capitol Hill would have called their buddies in order to give them an unfair advantage.

Henry Paulson is doing a good job, given the circumstances. What’s truly scary is the prospect of Secretary Paulson leaving his post, to be replaced by some Democratic ideologue that will surely drive this country over a cliff. If President-Elect Obama has any sense at all, he’ll retain Secretary Paulson until this most acute state of economic distress eases up.

Capitalism has finally ground to a halt, undercut and compromised by unbridled greed, self-interest and a willingness to put everything at risk for a fast buck. The “It’s no one’s fault/It’s everyone’s fault” bunch want to paper over (with worthless dollars) the root causes of this calamity and divert attention away from the source of the problem – Congress and Wall Street. Basically, Congress made up stupid rules and Wall Street then gamed those stupid rules. And, faster than you can say “Fannie Mae lobbyist”, they found their collective pants around their collective ankles while the champagne glasses were still in hand.

Predictably, the media cabal and Sen. Obama blame the ‘failed policies of the Bush Administration’, while providing cover for Obama’s ‘housing’ advisor Franklin Raines and VP search committee chair James A. Johnson, both of whom pocketed millions while running Fannie Mae, and who donated generously to the campaigns of both Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Obama.

And now, the innocent will be sacrificed to save the net worth of the guilty. The producers will be weighed down with more debt and obligation while their incomes shrink and opportunity evaporates. Parasites, on the other hand, will celebrate. After all, 700 billion doesn’t come down the pike every day.