Letter: Classic tale recurring

Rome didn’t fall because of the barbarians at the gates. It fell after centuries of triumph because of internal conflict and incompetence from within. Read Edward Gibbon’s “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” he provides great insight into the fall of an empire.

Now, after the fall of the French, British and Soviet Empires, America has her turn. And what will destroy our dream? It will have been our own largess, our own generosity that led to the mortgaging of our future. It will have been for the best of intentions, to help and provide for the most needy.

First came Social Security, a wonderful idea, but ultimately unsustainable by a longer life expectancy and demographics.

And then there was Medicare and Medicaid. Again, great ideas and wonderful motives, but they added their share to the fall.

Now it’s Obamacare, helping the vulnerable; hard to argue against it in the abstract, until the trillion-dollar bill becomes due.

So someday another Gibbon will write another classic, this time about the rise and fall of America. It will read that Hitler couldn’t destroy us, nor could the Cold War. We destroyed ourselves; destroyed by our own good intentions. It was suicide by unsustainable entitlement programs.

Bankruptcy befell America.

Michael B. Lumbard

Washougal