Compassion is so, so important if civilization is to rise to the heights most of us wish for, but compassion without wisdom can produce Karl Marx communism. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” the historical figure said by way of summation in 1875, and what we actually have seen in this fraudulent, dehumanizing economic system is “from each according to tyrannical orders and to each according to whether there is any food available.”

If that’s an understatement, not taking account of millions of deaths, I apologize, but many recent, progressive, mostly Democratic miscalculations have likewise done less to produce a brave, new world than to pulverize the innocent. Consider free, often unneeded, $1,400 stimulus checks passed out nationally to help individuals and to excite a COVID-recovering economy when the chief consequence instead has been to increase demand when supply is diminished. Even President Joe Biden has agreed that this particular utopian dream evolved into an inflationary nightmare.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as a living example of intellectual imbalance, profound falls and long-term governmental limping, wants 16-year-olds to be allowed to vote nationally, maybe an ego boost for the unqualified as well as an electoral boost for leftists. Imagination invites all kinds of possibilities, such as more support for a nationally mandated $15-an-hour minimum wage helping teenagers that would likely result in 1 million people losing their jobs, for starters. Each business is different (some with great profits, some with next to no profits), just as each state is its own thing (some would suffer under such a law) and workers come from different circumstances (some the second or third wage earner in a household and some maybe likely to get a quick promotion).

Transgender and gay folks are more and more accepted in modern society, and that’s good: less bullying, less cruelty, more open-minded courtesy. But biological men are superior athletes on average to biological women, and it is not OK when one is especially talented and, as a transgender woman, gets in contests with fiercely competitive, hard-working, devoted biological women and cheats them out of victories they deserve. It is putting self before fair play and showing contempt for the sex with which the person now identifies.

One of the most outlandish mishaps during our engagement with the pandemic was keeping schools closed for too long. The point was to save students from COVID infection when we knew that was not much of a threat especially for the younger students and that they would also likely be quick to recover. Experts say they could suffer psychologically and intellectually for years, maybe for the rest of their lives. Thanks, teachers unions.

Climate change is a real problem that we are going to be less capable of handling because of disruption of our fossil fuel production here at home. That handy source will be needed to enable us to have the money necessary for improved technology and decent living conditions with less dependence on untrustworthy international connivers taking advantage of our stupidities.

We ought to keep in mind that we were not affording adequate medical care for veterans until we started having private hospitals and health care providers do more. Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders was initially furious.

The Biden administration plans to reduce the overweight student loan burden from imprudent students who knew what they were doing when they took the money to often attend schools with unbelievably high tuition as well as nice reputations. Those paying them off through taxes will include responsible students who did not receive loans and went to less expensive, less prestigious schools that they could afford if they also worked at tough jobs at the same time. It can be more complicated than that, but it’s not right.

The denied progressive formula: From each according to politics and ideological misconceptions, and to each according to what’s dishonorable.

Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Readers may email him at speaktojay@aol.com