I dislike posing questions when writing about politics and current events. It's better to describe a situation and list potential solutions, leaving it up to readers to decide which is best.
There comes a time, however, when asking questions is the primary, if not the only, way to list what could or should be done to improve the political and social life of a nation.
Part of that list is to describe similar situations in other nations, and what happened there and then. And in doing so, the question comes up as to what to do here and now.
In the United States of America currently, people are making comparisons to what happened in Germany in the 1930s, when the National Socialist Party (NAZI) came to power and acted on its list of what to do to return the nation to prosperity and power. At the time, many felt their proposed way was the best, if not the only, way to recover from the damage suffered from the First World War and the punishment inflicted on the nation by the victorious powers.
Some say the worst of was the demand from the military winners that Germany pay for the damage inflicted on other nations. The reality that Germany itself did not have the economic ability to support itself, much less rebuild other nations, did not enter into the winners' planning.
(At the time, the U.S. did not have the influence on other nations that it developed in later years.)
The purpose of the "peace treaty" was to force the losers to pay for the damage inflicted on other nations.
The reality that the losing nation suffered as much if not more than the winners did not enter into the thinking. Eventually, this resentment led to Germany abandoned its forced debt to the winning nations and used its own funds, few as they were, to rebuild itself.
Within 20 years, this led to a Second World War.
It turns out that America learned a lesson from this calamity, and did not force Japan to pay for the damage inflicted during the war. Result: The Japanese nation became friends.
Sadly, the Chinese nation did not, but that's another story.
Meanwhile, American conservatives have acquired the political power to insist that their way the best and only way to maintain prosperity, and compromise is out of the question. Therefore, the thinking goes, the nation must impose tariffs (import taxes) high enough to keep out products from other nations to ensure prosperity for us alone and only us.
Reality check: Every time a nation in past years has done this, competing nations have retaliated by raising their own tariffs, this increasing customer costs on both sides.
So who loses?
There's that closing question again. Oh, well.
There comes a time, however, when asking questions is the primary, if not the only, way to list what could or should be done to improve the political and social life of a nation.
Part of that list is to describe similar situations in other nations, and what happened there and then. And in doing so, the question comes up as to what to do here and now.
In the United States of America currently, people are making comparisons to what happened in Germany in the 1930s, when the National Socialist Party (NAZI) came to power and acted on its list of what to do to return the nation to prosperity and power. At the time, many felt their proposed way was the best, if not the only, way to recover from the damage suffered from the First World War and the punishment inflicted on the nation by the victorious powers.
Some say the worst of was the demand from the military winners that Germany pay for the damage inflicted on other nations. The reality that Germany itself did not have the economic ability to support itself, much less rebuild other nations, did not enter into the winners' planning.
(At the time, the U.S. did not have the influence on other nations that it developed in later years.)
The purpose of the "peace treaty" was to force the losers to pay for the damage inflicted on other nations.
The reality that the losing nation suffered as much if not more than the winners did not enter into the thinking. Eventually, this resentment led to Germany abandoned its forced debt to the winning nations and used its own funds, few as they were, to rebuild itself.
Within 20 years, this led to a Second World War.
It turns out that America learned a lesson from this calamity, and did not force Japan to pay for the damage inflicted during the war. Result: The Japanese nation became friends.
Sadly, the Chinese nation did not, but that's another story.
Meanwhile, American conservatives have acquired the political power to insist that their way the best and only way to maintain prosperity, and compromise is out of the question. Therefore, the thinking goes, the nation must impose tariffs (import taxes) high enough to keep out products from other nations to ensure prosperity for us alone and only us.
Reality check: Every time a nation in past years has done this, competing nations have retaliated by raising their own tariffs, this increasing customer costs on both sides.
So who loses?
There's that closing question again. Oh, well.
No comments:
Post a Comment