[Noumenon]

For those wondering why so many are attracted to socialism, This excerpt from the epilogue of Jason Muravchik's book goes a long way towards explaining it.

For the vast majority of its adherents, the socialist creed is a free lunch, a free ride, and a chance to feel superior to the rest of those not so 'enlightened.' Redemption and salvation on the cheap.

For the elite, it represents the ideal Ponzi scheme dedicated to the establishment and maintenance of their control and management of the human cattle upon whom they feed.

[Davis]

Another wonderful essay on this subject by one of our own...
http://www.atrentino.com/Mene.html

[harpseal]

For the vast majority of its adherents, the socialist creed is a free lunch, a free ride, and a chance to feel superior to the rest of those not so 'enlightened.' Redemption and salvation on the cheap.

For the elite, it represents the ideal Ponzi scheme dedicated to the establishment and maintenance of their control and management of the human cattle upon whom they feed.

For the new recruits from the insitutions of higher learning it promises membership in that ruling elite. If you will membership in a new class of nobility with even more rights and privledges than a medevil lord.

[Southack]

No, people are attracted to socialism only because it promises something for nothing.

Get your free welfare. Get your free drugs. Get your free house. Never get fired. Always get a raise no matter if you worked hard or not at all. Get your free education. get your free highways. Get your free dams and bridges.

To get all of these "free" things, you just have to think that it's always OK to have the State compell people how to behave. Want to start a business? Get permission from the state. Want to sell something? Set your price at the State-mandated level (e.g. taxicabs). Want to import or export something? get permission from the state. Want to travel somewhere? Get permission from the state.

Of course, over time Socialism ALWAYS controls more than just the behavior required to supply all of the "free things". Soon the all-powerful Socialistic government is mandating whether you can smoke or not, where you can smoke or not, if you can do drugs or not, if you can drink alcohol or not, when you can shop, when you can have a "sale", how many children you can have, how many homes you can own/build, what you can say, what you can write, whether you can be armed or not, what you can wear, who you can associate with, etc.

[LiteKeeper]

bump

[45Auto]

Socialism, in contrast, lacks any internal code of conduct to limit what its believers might do.

Which is why it is a very dangerous disease. And why it appeals to the young, the indolent, the criminal, and the demonRAT. All these groups have one thing in common: they don't want any code that might tell them how to live. Curiously, they want to install a government code that tells us all how to live. Socialism and its 'milder' counterpart, liberalism, have a lot in common with certain mental disorders, like schizophrenia.

[Free Vulcan]

Excellent

[Question_Assumptions]

That last paragraph, alone, is worth the price of the book. I've posted it several times here.

[Question_Assumptions]

By the way, I strongly recommend Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Annointed, The Quest for Cosmic Justice, and A Conflict of Visions. The three show an evolution of Sowell's ideas along very similar themes. You should find them interesting. The last one is particularly excellent if you want to understand the utopian leftist mindset.

[beckett]

Interesting and well-presented argument. Good stuff. I was not aware of Trotsky's inane belief that Beethovens would pop up wherever you look once a socialist utopia came to pass. His naivete about human nature and its malleability says a great deal about why the entire leftist project fails.

[Jeff Head]

Here's noumenon's thread. Good reading and good replies.

[Pagey]

BUMP for Later

[DoctorMichael]

Bump. Good read!