Western Capitalism in Decline

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Democratic capitalism is in eclipse.

From Berlin to Tokyo, governments struggle to instigate enough growth to pay their bills and gainfully employ workers, meanwhile, China enjoys breakneck progress.

Democratic capitalism is not flawed. Rather, government policy-makers are destroying a system that took mankind from dark feudal superstitions to cracking the secrets of life with deceptions, delusions and abuse.

From Athens to Sacramento, politicians have deceived voters by telling them pension systems can be constructed allowing retirement at ages 55 or 60. Whether funded by savings and investments or taxes, no solvent pension system is possible that permits educated professionals, unionized workers and government employees, who get most of the income and benefits, to work only 30 or 35 years and retire for another 20 or 25 years.

In the United States, President Obama has convinced American families earning less than $250,000 a year that they can have guaranteed health care that costs 50% more than what Germans and Canadians pay and double what the British shell out without paying a dime in additional health insurance premiums and taxes.

To make that work, he will have to start selling shares in the Brooklyn Bridge --thankfully Mayor Bloomberg owns it.

Sadly, after Greece defaults the dominos won't stop in Berlin but in Washington.

Politicians have deluded themselves into believing an education system that encourages young people to "find themselves" instead of "finding something productive" will give society enough scientists and engineers to solve the tough problems needed to perpetuate growth. They have deluded themselves into thinking that professors spending six hours a week or less teaching and the rest thinking great thoughts, or verbally pistol-whipping the society that supports them, is somehow wealth-creating.

Finally, free markets can't be wholly free but from Tokyo to Berlin national leaders have peculiar notions about who should compete, who should be regulated and how.

Most national leaders having been educated in squeaky clean environs like Harvard, Oxford and the University of Tokyo believe anything created by hand, other than an exquisite meal or with a computer keystroke, is somehow unworthy of western post-industrial society.