Posted on 02/10/2021 3:54:01 AM PST by Kaslin
Last week, I reported on two myths about socialism. My new video covers three more.
Myth No. 3: Socialism works if it's "democratic."
As the Democratic Socialists of America put it, "Society should be run democratically -- to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few."
Sounds nice. If socialists are elected, then we'll have a more just society.
But Venezuela's socialists were elected.
"They can start off democratically elected," says economist Ben Powell, director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech, but "once they centralize control over the economy, it becomes impossible to 'un-elect' them."
Hugo Chavez was elected but became an authoritarian who chose his successor, Nicolas Maduro. Maduro now gets "elected," by having opponents arrested and "ordering state employees to vote for him or they lose their job," says Powell.
"Socialism always becomes authoritarian?" I ask.
"Everywhere you try socialism, that's what you get," he replies. "It's hard to exercise political freedom if you don't have economic freedoms. If you're dependent upon the state for your livelihood, you lose your ability to use your voice to oppose (the state) because you can be punished.
And if the state directs the economy, some government department must manage millions of production decisions and prices. That never works. No bureaucrat can anticipate the needs and wants of millions of people in different places. No politician can match the wisdom of decentralized entrepreneurs making subtle adjustments constantly.
Celebrities like Rosario Dawson, Susan Sarandon and Danny DeVito star in videos selling "democratic" socialism as "public schools" and "interstate highways."
They are not wrong. "Some industries are government-owned," replies Powell, but "when you look at things that are inefficiently done -- public education, our congested streets -- (it's clear) socialized industries don't work well."
"They do in Scandinavian countries!" say socialism's promoters.
That's myth No. 4.
Scandinavia does have big welfare programs, but capitalism pays for them.
The socialists call Sweden socialist, but that's just wrong. "Volvo is a private company," says Powell. "Restaurants and hotels are privately owned. Markets organize the vast majority of Swedish economic activity."
Sweden did once try socialism. The result was high taxes, inflation and economic decline. It's an example of how people in prosperous places often don't know what made their lives better.
In 1950, Sweden was the world's fourth-richest country. Then Sweden tried socialism. Suddenly, once industrious Swedes started taking sick days. Wealth creation stopped.
"Talent and capital stormed out of Sweden to escape taxes and red tape," writes Swedish historian Johan Norberg. "Businesses moved headquarters and investments to more hospitable places. IKEA left for the Netherlands... Bjorn Borg and other sports stars fled to Monaco."
Sweden recovered only when it ended its socialist experiment. They cut taxes, government spending, and sold state-owned businesses.
After economically ignorant politicians like Bernie Sanders called Scandinavia "socialist," Denmark's prime minister even came to America to say: "Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy."
In fact, in rankings of economic freedom, Denmark ranks as more free market than the United States.
Myth No. 5: Socialism is completely different from fascism.
In Congress, Rep. Louie Gohmert called Hitler a "socialist." Rep. Steve Cohen took offense, shouting, "It's the Nazis that were terrible, not the socialists!"
But Nazis were "national socialists." There are differences between fascism and socialism, but "both replace market decision-making with command and control," says Powell. Fascism "leaves private ownership in nominal terms" but neither system allows individual freedom. "You lose... control over your own future. Only under capitalism do you have the freedom to say, 'No.'"
Socialism appeals to people today because it promises "equality and social justice," but look at its track record. In Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, Vietnam and China, socialism has meant a loss of freedom.
Socialist experiments also failed in Israel, India, Great Britain, Afghanistan, Syria, Algeria, Cambodia, Somalia, etc. There are no socialist success stories.
Only capitalist countries create real wealth.
"The history of humanity is poverty, starvation, early death," Powell points out. "In the last 20 years, we've seen more humans escape extreme poverty than any other time in human history. That's because of markets!"
Yet, millions vote for socialism.
And thousands of Demoninion voting machines...
but, but, but we’ve never had a more talented group of Mensa warriors implement it... What could go wrong with Buttgielge, AOC, Mad Max, and rest of cabal manning the SS America Last ship.
When leftists point to Scandinavian countries as socialist successes, they deliberately omit one glaring shortcoming: People don’t breed when taxed to death; they live in the present, but in the end they have to import an idle unskilled underclass just to keep the lights on - the natives are disappearing. The US is doing the same, for the same reasons.
The added police state- they passed Western socialism to full out communism!
Those countries never had the democratic traditions of the US, and I don’t think they want them - they’ve always embraced a nanny-state.
Socialism always becomes authoritarian because people discover the giv’t spending isn’t free.
It’ll work til they run out of other people’s money. h/t Thatcher
The problem arises when the fascists have to fund their programs and the tax donkeys aren’t participating correctly. There’s a reason sectors of the population need to be dehumanized and their wealth confiscated. ie The elimination of 6 million Jews provided the Germans a ‘rich vein of plunder’.
The only reason why socialism has really any appeal in the United States is that it is still now regarded as a novelty, appealing to the same sort of mentality that loved watching Monty Hall or Bob Barker or Gene Rayburn or Richard Dawson or Pat Sajak or even Alex Trebek give cash or cars or appliances or furniture or exotic vacations to those lucky people on TV. What really took place backstage afterwards is certainly not shown; in terms of having to declare such prizes won as taxable, earned income for U.S. federal and California state purposes and therefore owing such governments to one degree or another and that many as a result turn down the prizes themselves in exchange for a cash equivalent to pay the tax bill. And also that the vouchers for cars or other hard goods or airfares could only be honoured at certain places in Los Angeles (where many of those shows were taped).
The same sort of thing takes place with socialism not just with the sky high taxation, but it also really only serving the political and technocratic elite and also the public service unions who are basically bought (”stuffing their mouths with gold” as how the National Health Service was implemented in the United Kingdom) and really no one else.
This time the left will make it work. All they have to do is take the failed ideas from the French Revolution, Marx and others through today and try harder. It's sure to work this time. You just need to ignore the 200 plus years of failure and 100s of million deaths. No fear, it will work this time. They believe and will punish us until we believe. That is the socialist way.
Never has worked.
Never will work.
The only thing Marx and his company got right was that there will always be have’s and have-not under ANY system, to include Communism and Socialism.
“Socialism” will work in a computer environment. Computers controlling other computers. Not if AI is installed, though.
That's an interesting point.
I had thought that the primary reason for eliminating the Jews was to provide a scapegoat to divert attention from the shortcomings of socialism. I hadn't even thought about the confiscation of their wealth to fund the socialist experiment.
So true. Cheap labor is a globalist’s dream attained through destruction of borders and nation states
I don’t think “cheap labor” is even the goal anymore; it is a pool of CONSUMERS they want.
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