Spend! Spend! Spend!

Heroyalwhyness sent us a photocopy of the following political cartoon, which was published on April 21, 1934, in the Chicago Tribune — just over seventy-five years ago.

It’s funny how the mistakes of history recur. Heck, this isn’t even a rhyming exercise: this is history xeroxing itself.

Just change the names and faces of the major players to upgrade your New Deal version 1934 to AmSoc 2009:

Cartoon from 1934


Some of the labels and captions may be hard to make out, so here’s a transcription of what’s in the cartoon. Seated at the left is Trotsky, who says, “It worked in Russia!” as he writes the following “Plan of Action for U.S.”:
– – – – – – – –

Spend! Spend! Spend under the guise of recovery — bust the government — blame the capitalists for the failure — junk the Constitution and declare a dictatorship

The sign on the back of the cart reads “depleting the resources of the soundest government in the world.” The professor with the flail riding on the mule is “[Rexford G.] Tugwell — Brain Truster”. Riding in the cart, brandishing a bottle labeled “Power”, are “young pinkies from Columbia and Harvard”, along with:

  • [Harold] Ickes [Senior] — the daddy of the more recent and familiar apparatchik from the Clinton Administration.
  • [Henry] Wallace — a Progressive, Stalin apologist, and future Vice President, to whom the epithet “pinkie” fails to do justice.
  • [Donald] Richberg— the Progressive director of the NRA (not the gun nuts, but the fascist National Recovery Administration).

In the distance on the right stands Stalin, who says, “How red the sunrise is getting!”

Plus ça change…

5 thoughts on “Spend! Spend! Spend!

  1. Latest details at NYT. While they didn’t manage to squander a trillion (net) in the first half of the fiscal year, they are picking up the pace and aiming for $ 2 trillion total. WWII levels.

    Mr. Bernanke is confident that his money-printing will fix the problem. For good. Don’t worry, citizen. Be happy!Are you happy now, Citizen? Good!

  2. Rusty (MPJ) indicates this image was included in ‘The Road to Serfdom’ a book written by Friedrich Hayek (recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974). The introduction to the 50th anniversary edition is written by Milton Friedman (another recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics 1976).

  3. In a real socialist sketch the citizens stay at home and print the money themselves: Get busy, make some money.

  4. The new socialist will spend and spend to gain the support of the masses, while all the time knowing that this spending cannot be maintained. However, by the time the common man realizes whats happening its too late. The socialist are completely in control. Things go downhill from that point on since all of middle class and upper classes have be taxed into the poor house and the government has nowhere else to raise money for all the programs. The poor become poorer.

Comments are closed.