Today the subject is historical ignorance. Every year at this time there are surveys galore that suggest that our population apparently lives in a cave – especially those under 30. Almost a third of the high school population is not sure what we celebrate on the 4^th nor who we became independent from.  The lack of historical background is not unique to the young but it is worrying that half of the young folks polled can’t name three of the founding fathers.

When one looks at the subject of the economy that ignorance is deep indeed and that makes decision making more than a little tough.  A whopping 75% of college students at a Midwestern school that shall remain nameless could not describe capitalism at all. Of that enlightened 75% almost half described their ideal economic system as socialism.

I started my professional life as a Soviet analyst and my life was shaped by the specter of the USSR. I spent years assessing and analyzing the “evil empire” and was intimately engaged in that study as the system began to crumble and fall apart in 1989. Today that seems like an eon ago and I am coming to grips with a generation that has no knowledge of what took place in the Soviet Union – much less why the rotten system caved in from the inside. The stories of a government bureaucracy run amuck have faded into history and are no more relevant to the modern generation than the rise and fall of Mesopotamia. Except that they are.

Capitalism is all about risk and reward. There are a precious few that want to run the risk of total failure to pursue a dream – small or large. There is nothing easy about being an entrepreneur or the decision maker of a company. The rewards are generally paltry as many more fail than succeed. When one’s idea comes to fruition it is due to that willingness to risk everything and to work harder than anybody can really imagine. One of the promised outcomes of success is material gain. When a system decides that nobody should expect to gain from their efforts on this scale the system will fade and fail as those that want to advance ask the question – is this worth it? If the answer is generally no there is not much future for anybody in society.

This is not to suggest there is no greed and avarice and that people are working from the wrong motivation in some cases. The assertion is that the vast majority of the people who own and run business are neither greedy nor all that avaricious. The motivations to build something are complex but money is part of it. Take too much of that money away to give to those that don’t do the building and the cash runs out.