Are Republicans and Democrats ruining America by supporting economic planning and social engineering?

Your definition is a gross over-simplification. Eisenhower famously remarked 1: "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things.

Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid ." Furthermore, your suggestion that Smith represents an utterly "free" market unfettered by watchmen is undermined by the following quote from Smith's Wealth of Nations, where he observes that people should be watchful of deceitful practices and collusion from business dealers i.e.

Fraud : the interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can serve only to enable the dealers, by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens.

The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it. A series of Presidents, from Carter through G H.

Bush have supported policies and policy makers that have weakened financial regulation to the point that during the Clinton administration, Fed Chairman Greenspan and Economic Advisor Summers and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin teamed up to oppose regulation of derivatives trades proposed by another regulator Brooksley Born, chair of the Commodity Future Trading Commission, 1993-1999.3 Teddy Roosevelt , a Republican also, founder of the Progressive Party pushed for legislation protecting worker's right to strike, as well as busting monopolies, whereas a Democrat less than 20 year before him Grover Cleveland was strongly opposed to this. You have confused the word conservative with free-market. Liberal meaning to free up goes better with free market.

Try contrasting Progressivism or Progressive a belief based, not in a political party, but is an idea independent of any particular party with Laissez Faire or Free Market. Conservatives often support protectionist measures, where as Free Market advocates rarely do. Many Republicans support much tinkering with the markets, especially Agriculture, and support price controls for their buddies in the Coal industry, as well as other similar corporate handouts and bailouts.

So do Democrats.

You're way off. Both factions are fiercely pro-corporate and anti- people. Republicrats pay lip service to the nonexistent "free market" but they would never accept it because they know private power can't compete.

They believe in corporate protectionism and welfare for the rich.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.