Think about this before you accept socialism as something you want to see in America. READ ON….
Socialism is extremely in vogue. Opinion pieces which tell us to stop obsessing over socialism’s past failures, and start to get excited about its future potential, have almost become a genre in its own right.
“Charting new destinations for humanity” sounds amazing, right? But what does this mean, in practice? How would “the people” manage “their” economy jointly?
Would we all gather in somewhere , and decide how many products of one type we should produce? And just exactly – WHO GETS WHAT and how often! What, and really think about this one, if it turns out we don’t agree on much, WHERE DO WE GO FROM THERE?
These are not some trivial technical details that we can just leave until after a revolution. These are the most basic, fundamental questions that a proponent of ANY economic system has to be able to answer.
Almost three decades have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall – enough time, one would think, for “modern” socialists to come up with some ideas for a different kind of socialism. After all those years they have still not moved beyond just staging buzzwords that sound amazing, and oddly enough….just before an election!
Those authors do not seem to remember, that there is nothing remotely new about the amazing aspirations they talk about! Giving “the people” democratic control over economic life has always been the aspiration, and the promise, of socialism.
Is it not that this has never occurred to the people who were actually involved in earlier socialist projects? When facts are placed next to each other, on the pro’s and con’s of socialism, ultimately the majority of countries FAIL miserably when socialism is put into place!
As far as I could discover, there was never a time when socialists started out with the express intention of creating stratified societies led by a technocratic elite. Socialism, however, always turned out that way, but not because it was intended to be that way.
Socialism, democratic or not, is just what is/was found in the Soviet Union. It is also found in Cuba, East Germany, North Korea and Nicaragua.
These regimes are noted to have been, and still are the most impoverished, bleak, brutal, and inhumane in history. Obviously Democratic Socialists in America do not want to be associated with them at this point in time.
Other nations have been ruined by socialism, which socialists always purports to be for the people.
VENEZUELA
Hugo Chavez was praised by U.S. elitists for seizing the nation of Venezuela’s oil to eliminate poverty and provide free health care and education for all. In actuality Chavez murdered a nation.
When he died he left the country’s control to someone equally unscrupulous! This man made things much worse! The economy is in shambles, stores are empty! Many people live without what we consider basic needs; such as toothpaste and toilet paper.
Citizens are malnourished and sick. They are desperate. This country proved its oil reserves to be most plentiful on this oil hungry planet.
The U.N says since 2014, over 2 million people have fled. Another 800,000 to a million may leave by the end of this year! Only those in control of the government in socialism, live well.
GREECE
Greece, too, is in the midst of many tragedies. The socialist movement was founded in 1974, and has played a large part in the crisis’ that are still occurring. Greece has been called Socialism on steroids, by Stephen Moore, an economist who wrote for the Washington Times.
He said, that it is a place where the government gives a lot of things away for free, few people work, and millions receive government pensions, paychecks, or welfare checks. As of three years ago, only half of the young people were employed. Many people have been forced to retire early because of no work opportunities.
The people have hoarded food, money and medicine. The government had three international bailouts so as to avoid default on huge debts. The weaknesses of socialism are playing out right now!
SPAIN
Spain is another country that has experimented with quasi-socialist governments, and citizens are paying a terrible price for doing so! The country has gone from budget surpluses, and a growing middle class – to wrenching stern and extreme policies, and collapsing wages triggered by Spanish bank failures.
Spain had been a modern, wealthy, and technologically advanced European social democracy. Then the Socialists launched the largest stimulus package in the European Union( as a share of the economy.)
The national debt doubled rapidly, banks and governments failed, taxes were raised, and unemployment reached Depression-era levels. The economy was wrecked.
ISRAEL, UNITED KINGDOM, INDIA
These three countries embraced socialism, it always, seems successful at first. But As historian Lee Edwards wrote (the Daily Signal )-The United Kingdom, India, and Israel have all embraced socialism, however, decades later have moved towards free market capitalism.
At first all seemed wonderful and the countries seemed to be thriving. But as other countries have discovered, government planners could not keep pace with increasing population, and overseas competition.
The declining economic growth and rising unemployment in all three countries forced them to abandon socialism.
The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher reported that “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
NORDIC COUNTRIES
If someone reports socialism as a success in Nordic countries…that is actually a poor example. Actually they practice mostly free market economics with high taxes exchanged for generous government entitlement programs.
These countries were economic successes before they build welfare states…
the productive economies generated good incomes for workers, which in turn allowed governments to raise tax revenue needed to pay for social benefits. It was not the government benefits that created wealth, but the wealth that allowed the luxury of generous government programs.
Also, something that reflects the lack of government interference in business is that none of these countries have minimum wage laws. Workers are paid what they are worth, not based on government’s perception of what is fair.
Government planners were not able to keep up with an increasing population and competition from overseas. After economic growth declining, the three countries abandoned socialism and turned towards capitalism.
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This has been a very long post- but if you read it all, you should have some truthful ideas of what socialism is. It is a flawed system based on faulty principles. Those principles are not consistent with human behavior, and do not help the human spirit to thrive – it destroys it instead!
Socialism promises prosperity, equality, and security for all. What it ultimately delivers is poverty, misery, and tyranny! If you have any doubts these words are true….verify them yourself. I did!
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