It helped create an America that stood like a Colossus on the world scene, envied all across the globe as an economic powerhouse where the most humble citizen willing to put his shoulder to the wheel could prosper, yet today our vaunted system of free enterprise is on its death watch.

The goose that lays the golden eggs is on the chopping block, and Barack Obama and his sorry conglomeration of far-out liberal confederates now polluting the government are wielding the axe.

America’s industrial heartland, the storied fruited plain, is about to become the world’s largest ghost town as many of the nation’s most talented and wealthiest citizens contemplate fleeing for the hills — or in this case, other nations where they will be greeted with welcome arms.

In brief, the United States of America as we know it is being destroyed by a president and an administration determined to bring it down so they can rebuild it in their own image — in this case that of Karl Marx.

Make no mistake about it. Despite the impression of Barack Obama as an inexperienced neophyte unsure of how to govern, the man knows exactly what he’s doing.

How else can we explain the trillions upon trillions of dollars of un-payable debt he has fastened and continues to fasten around our necks and those of future generations of Americans?

Surely he is aware that no nation can sustain such a burden without soon collapsing under the weight of this monstrous mountain of debt.

Surely he is aware that you cannot long continue to buy the support of a large part of the population by confiscating more and more of the earnings of those few who already pay the overwhelming share of all taxes.

Surely he knows that there is no better way to encourage the most productive Americans to flee this country for greener pastures elsewhere on the globe, where their energy and ingenuity and resources will be welcomed.

If he needs to find an example of this eventuality he need look no further that the State of California. The gold in the golden state has turned into the basest of metals.

The state is broke. Flat broke. The economy can no longer sustain itself by mindlessly increasing taxes on a citizenry no longer willing or able to bear the tax burden. Yet the idiots who run this state think they can fill the gap between expenses and income by raising taxes and crippling taxpayers already overburdened by excessive taxation.

Yesterday when I was in my bank I watched two people withdraw all their funds — every penny in their accounts, every CD, all their savings. They were joining hordes of others who are headed out of the state where they won’t be punished for being successful, and where they will be allowed to keep more of their earnings.

This is no longer merely a leakage of talent and resources. It is becoming an exodus. If it keeps up, there won’t be anyone left to pay the taxes.

This is a microcosm of what this nation faces under the maladministration of Barack Obama and his wild-eyed appointees. Growing numbers of Americans are going to be pulling up stakes and fleeing to more accommodating areas of the world, taking their factories and businesses and wealth with them.

Why wouldn’t they? Thanks to the insane orgy of spending huge amounts of money the nation doesn’t have and must be borrowed, the value of the good old Yankee dollar is going to go swirling down the drain.

The prospect of paying $50 for a loaf of bread is no longer a potential nightmare, but a certainty. As the dollar loses its value, the cost of the goods it will buy soars. That’s just economic reality.

And when it happens, good old Dr. Obama will be there with the snake oil remedy that sold so well in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

He promised change. We’re sure getting it.

Mike Reagan, the elder son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on radio stations nationally. E-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.