We Are All Socialists Now

Our fearless leaders in the Bush Administration just took a sudden turn leftward with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's new bail out plan. Amid all the talk about how much it will cost, few people seem to be discussing what this will mean in terms of government power.

In effect, we will be adopting a semi-socialist system, with the government entering, at the very least, the banking industry. I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I think our government and our polity should begin discussing what this will mean. How can we turn this to the greatest benefit of the American people? How can we best protect individual and entrepreneurial freedom under this system? We need a real debate about the course of our country over the next decade or so.