The Sweet Songbun Of ODirective 10-289

clipped from www.realclearmarkets.com In the aftermath of the Korean War, North Korea imposed the notion of “songbun” on its citizenry. The poor and shiftless for being poor and shiftless had “good” songbun, and today they are the privileged class for having failed most impressively. The successful in North Korea were demonized for being that way, and today they are the bottom caste in a society that has committed economic suicide right before our eyes. So while it’s surely a reach to suggest the U.S. is going the way of North Korea, it’s also true that bad policy has a way of slowly wrecking societies over time. At present, with the federal government creating incentives whereby companies will be rewarded by the tax code for not laying off unproductive employees, and just the same where irresponsible homebuyers are being sanctified for being irresponsible, the U.S. political class is imposing its own, minor form of songbun; these actions signaling our nation’s long-term economic decline.