Dear Editor,

Walter Williams’ article on Capitalism was well-said.

This is what has made this country great.

Socialism, in all of its various forms, fails because it takes away the incentive to work hard and smart by denying individuals the fruits of their success.

There are more people depending on the government for life’s basic needs because we have made it so easy to SCAM the system.

And, of course, you vote for the hand that feeds you.

It is called buying votes with public money — both parties do this, of course. But now we are broke as a nation.

For those who say the military spends too much: If you completely shut down the USA military and applied all the money saved to the annual deficit, it would not eliminate it.

Nor would it even pay the interest alone on the national debt (now $16 trillion and rising almost another trillion each year.)

This MADNESS must stop to save the nation.

The nation would not last 10 years without the military, so where are we going to cut spending?

Stuart McCanless

Oxford