(Snapchat founder and 28-year old billionaire, Evan Spiegel, left. 29-year old, New York Congressional Marxist Nitwit, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right.)

It is the best of times. And it is the worst of times. Pardon the Dickensian plagiarism, but the great author’s most famous of opening lines has never been more true, in so many ways.

In the instance of America’s still reigning world capital of entrepreneurial zeitgeist, you could write the line in all caps. Emoji, emoji, emoji, et al. Internet millionaires are born every hour of every single day.

And yet, in 2019, we are churning out Marxist nitwits just as fast. And they’re busily sharpening teeth for blood.

Somebody stifle Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the junior Bolshevist league before they erect the guillotines and feed the bourgeoisie through the wood chipper, MAGA hats first. Or, turn us from dog walkers into the dog eaters of Venezuela.

Beset on every side by object lessons that should spare the trouble, the ancient duel between Adam Smith and Karl Marx rages on. A tale not of two cities, but of two mindsets, each bent on very different visions of the future. And none of it makes any sense.

Only God knows how or why, but in the very era where Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk have built history dwarfing fortunes in the span of a few short years, growing numbers of willfully blind, willfully disempowered Americans are absolutely convinced that there is no other way to wealth acquisition besides burning Rome and looting their neighbors strongbox with Marxist zeal.

At a time when the natural barriers to market participation and the capitalist purism of retail commerce have never been smaller, tens of millions of Americans are now pitiful sheep roaming the steppes of braying Marxist stupidity, begging for the arrival of benevolent wolves to hunt their neighbors and seemingly oblivious that they themselves will be the only feast on the menu.

Heaven save us all from the terminally dumb selling travel brochures for Caracas. I hear the sewer rat is delicious this time of year, if you can still find one. Then again, I’ll bet there’s an app for that, created by some plucky entrepreneur who got tired of waiting around for rat.

When they could just as easily be feasting on an entrepreneurial buffet of riches.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the span of a few hours from a laptop with an internet connection, with very little know-how and the simple persistence of want to, any person with the tech prowess of a 9-year old can open an internet storefront. On existing portals, with existing product lines or made with your own hands, the time from acquisition to startup to a decent stream of supplemental retail income has been reduced from years to hours. Literally.

You might even get filthy rich.

The stunning proof: lesser known and teeming ranks of fast forward millionaires and billionaires, who turned small, simple ideas into massive fortunes at a rate that makes a lottery ticket seem like Crock Pot wealth. Some you’ve heard of, most you haven’t.

Sure, Uber is worth $51-billion. But have you heard about the subscription fashion service that customizes women’s shopping wants and alerts them when their favorite styles go on sale? ShoeDazzle.com peaked at $260-million in value just six years after founding. By telling ladies when and where to buy shoes. I’m not sure, but I think that’s good money even for a Bronx bartender born in Westchester County.

Of the Forbes list of billionaires, 42 of them are “unicorns” that went from startup to a $1-billion in a blink. Of that group, 27 founders are under age 40. The average age is 36. Just a few years older than the dumbest Congresswoman ever elected who is busy preaching the Marx and Engels gospel that capitalism is dead, that wealth can only be inherited or stolen and that 70% tax brackets will save the world. Her own generation may kill her first.

Or, she just might get herself elected President and loot the richest nation on earth of any venture capital ability to participate in the golden age of free market access at the click of a mouse.

Heaven save us all from the terminally dumb selling travel brochures for Caracas. I hear the sewer rat is delicious this time of year, if you can still find one. Then again, I’ll bet there’s an app for that, created by some plucky entrepreneur who got tired of waiting around for rat. RatTracker.com or some sh**.

Founder went public and bought an island, or so I hear.

Best of times, worst of times.