As G. K. Chesterton wrote in ''The Everlasting Man,'' ancient Rome's great rival in the period of the republic was Carthage.  Along with Tyre, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, Carthage, in Chesterton's characterization, was a Phoenician city-state dominated by commercial councils who cared little for spiritual religion based on principles of morality and benevolence.  Everything was measured in money and goods, even propitiating the gods and seeking their favor.

        Carthage's principal deity was Moloch, a particular object of hatred by the Romans.

        Rome's deities were relatively benevolent, representing the spirit of home, hearth, and agriculture.  In violent contrast, Moloch demanded of his worshippers a steady sacrifice of young babies, who were placed in the metal arms of Moloch's image over a raging fire, where the infants were burned to death.  In recent times, archaeologists excavating the site of ancient Carthage have uncovered altar sites surrounded by large numbers of human infant skeletons.

        We have sixteen references in the Bible to the barbarity of Moloch worshipping.  In the earliest of these, recounting God's injunctions to Moses roughly 3,500 years ago, we read:

Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed [or to be passed through the fire ] to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God.  I am the Lord.  (Leviticus 18:21)

        Sacrificing some of their children to Moloch was simply good business practice in a Carthagenian society dominated by a materialistic philosophy.  Moloch worship effectively continues to the present day, albeit in a more attenuated form.  For today's liberal-progressive politicians, sacrificing the young working people a couple of decades hence to staggeringly high taxes is just good political business.

        Liberal politicians and a public besotted with welfare handouts get what they want today, measured strictly in materialistic terms, while ignoring their longer-term social responsibilities.

        Liberal-progressive-socialist politicians, intent upon buying votes of the masses, deliberately ignore the ongoing sacrifice of young, working people on the materialistic altar of mandated welfare-state spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  As with the Carthagenian ruling councils, it's all about near-term political success, without a scruple over immolating our children.

        The ratio of younger workers to older folks on Social Security and Medicare-Medicaid is rapidly declining.  FICA taxes have risen relentlessly.  One of two things must occur over the next couple of decades.  Either taxes on future young workers will rise to devastating levels, or today's young workers will not receive the welfare handouts for which they now labor.

        Present-day liberal-progressive politicians ask why should they fix the roof today, when the rain won't come until tomorrow.  Let someone else deal with the disaster in the future.  Meanwhile just keep piling more young workers on the altar pyre of modern-day, liberal-progressive Moloch.