Look, I know the information I'm reading is incomplete and comes from a loony website, and I really have to get ready for the dreaded "AC/DC Tour", so I'm just going to do a quickie on this one.

I have not considered Gerhardt Schroeder a friend of America, nor of capitalism, but after reading into the artice posted here, I can see that I'm likely at least a little misinformed. Apparently Scroeder is making huge cuts in ... you guessed it ... the German equivalent of Socialist Security and the German "Healthcare System".

Now, without getting too into the article's details (It's really just a bunch of commie whining and moaning ... you'd think it was the Donks writing it), let me submit a few ideas to you with regard to Germany and what they have and don't have.

First of all, just about everything in Germany is paid for by the taxpayer. Education (including college), hospitals, everything. Even Lufthansa is nothing more than a Soviet-style government-run business revisited.

The biggest problem the German people have is that they are overrun with socialism. I personally know a hard-working family of three that cannot afford to purchase a home in the suburbs of Munich, and they are in their late thirties/early forties. Why not? Well, between the pittance they likely receive as workers in the travel industry, and the extremely high rate of taxation necessary to support all the socialism, there isn't much left for them to save or put away for their retirement.

With about 13% of the German population living below the poverty level, this family is likely to be considered wealthy. These people have been living under a socialist system for so long, they really don't know any other way to live except with the government paying for their every need.

Don't believe me? Scroll down into the article a little and you will see that Schroeder was actually speaking at a "meeting" on "social market economics". First of all ... "social" and "market economics" shouldn't appear together, as they are a clear contradiction in terms. Anyone who tries to implement socialism and market ecenomics simultaneously is doomed to failure. In fact, any implementation of socialism is pretty much dead. All it takes to kill socialism is time. Hopefuly, the Germans are learning that now. It's pretty obvious they haven't known better if they're having meetings about "social market economics". Even the Russians got the idea (at least to some degree) back in 1989. We Americans figured it out in 1621, thank God.

The fact that there was a meeting, and one of enough note to write about what was said there, indicates that there are a lot of people in Germany who still don't understand how economies work. If Germany's elected officials don't have a clue, when do you expect the German people to figure it out?

Actually, I have more faith in the Germans than I do their government. They have largely learned the lessons taught them by the Nazis; most of them do think for themselves. The biggest problem they have is that many of them have not lived in America, and those that have do not see that our socialism (which also needs to be done away with) is tiny compared to theirs. American socialists would likely see the system in Germany to be something to salivate over even AFTER the cuts are made to (temporarily) save the German system.

In America, we are trying to find ways to keep from having to have our own "Agenda 2010". I applaud Gerhardt Schroeder for trying to put more freedom into the German economy. I just wish he would really see the light and put good old fashioned American capitalism to work in Germany- the kind of capitalism that does away with the need for socialism.

It's taking the world far too long to get its head out of the sand. Even here in the US, socialism has been tried in modern times. It has failed again just like it did in Massachusetts in the 17th century. How many millions more people have to be forced into poverty by governments who say they are trying to help them before the right thing is done?

Also ... Shouldn't we see the Germans' dismantling of their socialist systems as a hint with regard to what to do with our own? After all, we DO know better, and have for some time.

RWR