Socialism
Karl Marx died in 1883. His ideas did not. The collapse of the Berlin Wall put a major dent in enthusiasm for socialism. The flame was kept alive by a few professors. It has now brightly rekindled on the left side of the Democratic party.
First, let’s summarize socialism’s basics. Private property is to be eliminated. All sources of wealth will be owned by the “people” (with some guidance from the vanguard of the proletariat). Equality of outcome will be guaranteed by a shining motto — “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (women not mentioned).
Next, we can look at the history of socialism in action. Soviet Russia starved millions. Paradise came in the form of secret police and gulags. The system eventually collapsed under its own weight. Its means of production didn’t create value. It took valuable leather and produced worthless shoes. Eastern Europe abandoned socialism as soon as the Russian army left. Mao starved tens of millions in search of collective purity. His successors, focused on retaining power, enabled a private sector, state capitalism and blatant mercantilism. Britain tried socialism after WW II but abandoned the effort. Margret Thatcher administered the coup de gras. Socialized medicine (supplemented by private practitioners) is the only remnant. Israel’s early Zionists were socialists, but the country is now vibrantly capitalist, exporting cutting edge technology around the world. An untold number of communes have folded. A shrinking number of monasteries and convents are the last gasp, held together by religious fervor.
Today we have three survivors. North Korea is a gigantic concentration camp. Cuba is a basket case kept alive first by the Soviets and then Venezuelan oil. Venezuela couldn’t support itself while sitting on the largest oil reserves on earth. Just under 4 million of its citizens have voted with their feet.
I can hear you screaming . . . SCANDINAVIA!! You forgot Scandinavia! If only we could all be like Sweden. Sorry to say, the Scandinavian nations are not run on socialist principals. Norway is an oil company that pays generous dividends. All four have vibrant private sectors and property rights. Their exports are world class. They are welfare states, with a high level of taxation and wealth transfer. They are not just taxing the rich; everybody pays a high tax. All of them are currently cutting back the scope of the welfare state to accommodate fiscal and demographic realities.
In all likelihood, all evidence to the contrary will change no votes. We stand a good chance of electing a President who wants to move our country in a socialist direction. Eventually, he/she may command a legislative majority. Command of the economy will be done thru regulation, not outright ownership. The “each according to his needs” mandate will first be met by taxing the rich. When the rich are fully milked or have voted with their feet, all income will be heavily taxed.
The problem with socialism is that it doesn’t achieve its objectives. Its philosophical underpinnings do not comport with the nature of the human species. Those with ability don’t feel like giving the fruits of their labor to strangers. They become apparatchiks instead, shopping in “party members only” stores and spending weekends in their dachas. Those with “needs” work the system. It eventually gets down to the motto of the Soviet labor force: We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us. Human beings are not angels. That is the reason that socialist states resort to coercion (gulag or guillotine). Prosperity through radical redistribution will not work indefinitely because wealth has to be created before it can be redistributed. Wealth can only be seized once. Socialist enterprises don’t create wealth because there is no punishment for failure. The heart of capitalism is not profit; it’s bankruptcy. Those who can’t perform are weeded out.
Those who ignore history are unable to learn its lessons. Our best hope is the the British model. We may come to our senses before we run out of other people’s money, but our lives may have to resemble standing in line at the DMV before we learn the lesson.
