I am beginning to think America deserves what is inevitably going to happen if Barack Obama becomes president. Notwithstanding the fact that there will be a literal liberal thugocracy in Washington, America will have voted a true blue socialist into the highest office in the land. Barack Obama is the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, and has very publicly and in no uncertain terms announced his economic plans for the country. Very few people seem to grasp the gravity of the situation currently brewing. These same people also seem to fail to comprehend some of the most basic economic truths.

Raising taxes is not the right thing to do. Raising taxes on small businesses making over $250,000, regardless of any promised tax break for operating said small business (How contradictory is that?) is absurd given the country's current economic state. However, this simple concept seems to evade the Obama Christ and his throngs of diciples. When a business incurs costs (Read: taxes) greater than those for which they planned, more often than not they simply transfer that cost onto the consumers. Businesses can only remain in business if they are profitable. Well, that is, of course, unless they are a bank that offered ridiculously dangerous loans to people who couldn't be trusted with safety scissors. But I digress.

It seems the trendy thing to do at the moment is to decry capitalism and the greed that invariably powers it. Greed caused the meltdown on Wall Street. Greed is what almost led the global financial markets to collapse. Greed is evil. Ok, sure. I'll grant you greed is sometimes evil. Greed leads people to do horrible things to other people. But that is only one side of the story. Greed, or, more accurately, the desire to succeed and become wealthy, has led to many of mankind's greatest discoveries. Insomuch as greed leads to evil, it also leads to good. It is really hard to have success without desire. If you stifle someone's desire, you inhibit their ability to succeed.

This all comes back to Barack Obama and his desire to "spread the wealth around". This, I believe, will ultimately lead America into the darkest period of its history. When you take away a person's desire and motivation, what reason does he or she have to try to be successful? If Obama wants to increase taxes on those people making more than $250,000, why would anyone strive to make that much money? It is as if he is punishing an individual's success. This seems to go against everything for which America stands. Individual achievement is no longer something to laud, it is something to be hidden and suppressed, lest it be discovered and taxed.

If Obama is elected and the Democrats in the Senate obtain a filibuster-proof majority, prepare for four years of rubber-stamped, institutionalized socialism the likes of which this country has never seen. Prepare for the rise of unions and the villainization of the business owner. The upper class will be increasingly be seen as not paying their fair share in taxes, even though the top 1% of economic earners in this country will pay upwards of 90% of the country's taxes. It doesn't matter really. The poor and middle classes will demand the upper class pay more. Sixty, no, 70% of their income will go to the IRS, all the while the poor and middle classes, which often pay little to no taxes at all, will continue to get increasingly larger rebate checks from the government.

This generation will become known as the entitlement generation. Personal responsibility and achievement will be cast aside for the greater benefits the government can provide. And Obama and his cadre of liberal yes-men will be all too happy to provide it. I know it seems like government can't get any larger and more intrusive than it already is, but just wait. I have complete faith in the power of the Obama Administration and the do-nothing liberal Congress to expand the government into heretofore unseen levels.

Oh, there will be voter's remorse. Once Obama's shine dulls and we tire of his eloquent, yet empty speeches, we will realize we have elected a socialist as the president of America and the leader of the free world. And we will have to endure four years of hell and suffer irrevocable damage to our country's economy and our livelihoods before we can rectify our incredible shortsightedness.

But, like I said, it might be good for the country. We need a wake-up call. We need to realize we can't place our faith in every snake oil salesman that comes into town making promises he has no intention or power to keep. Platitudes and niceties sound good in a speech, but "Change" and "Hope" do not make for good legislation or a platform to run for president. However, we are a fickle and all together unintelligent people prone to fits of fancy and who are often caught up the latest trend. It seems that George Bernard Shaw was right when he said "Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."