Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
Several recent polls, plus the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, demonstrate that young people prefer socialism to free market capitalism. That, I believe, is a result of their ignorance and indoctrination during their school years, from kindergarten through college. For the most part, neither they nor many of their teachers and professors know what free market capitalism is.
Free market capitalism, wherein there is peaceful voluntary exchange, is morally superior to any other economic system. Why? Let’s start with my initial premise. All of us own ourselves. I am my private property, and you are yours. Murder, rape, theft and the initiation of violence are immoral because they violate self-ownership. Similarly, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another person, for any reason, is immoral because it violates self-ownership.
Tragically, two-thirds to three-quarters of the federal budget can be described as Congress taking the rightful earnings of one American to give to another American — using one American to serve another. Such acts include farm subsidies, business bailouts, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and many other programs.
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Free market capitalism is disfavored by many Americans — and threatened — not because of its failure but, ironically, because of its success. Free market capitalism in America has been so successful in eliminating the traditional problems of mankind — such as disease, pestilence, hunger and gross poverty — that all other human problems appear both unbearable and inexcusable. The desire by many Americans to eliminate these so-called unbearable and inexcusable problems has led to the call for socialism. That call includes equality of income, sex and race balance, affordable housing and medical care, orderly markets, and many other socialistic ideas.
Let’s compare capitalism with socialism by answering the following questions: In which areas of our lives do we find the greatest satisfaction, and in which do we find the greatest dissatisfaction? It turns out that we seldom find people upset with and in conflict with computer and clothing stores, supermarkets, and hardware stores. We do see people highly dissatisfied with and often in conflict with boards of education, motor vehicles departments, police and city sanitation services.
What are the differences? For one, the motivation for the provision of services of computer and clothing stores, supermarkets, and hardware stores is profit. Also, if you’re dissatisfied with their services, you can instantaneously fire them by taking your business elsewhere. It’s a different matter with public education, motor vehicles departments, police and city sanitation services. They are not motivated by profit at all. Plus, if you’re dissatisfied with their service, it is costly and in many cases even impossible to fire them.
A much larger and totally ignored question has to do with the brutality of socialism. In the 20th century, the one-party socialist states of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Germany under the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and the People’s Republic of China were responsible for the murder of 118 million citizens, mostly their own. The tallies were: USSR 62 million, Nazi Germany 21 million and PRC 35 million. No such record of brutality can be found in countries that tend toward free market capitalism.
Here’s an experiment for you. List countries according to whether they are closer to the free market capitalist or to the socialist/communist end of the economic spectrum. Then rank the countries according to per capita gross domestic product. Finally, rank the countries according to Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World” report. You will find that people who live in countries closer to the free market capitalist end of the economic spectrum not only have far greater wealth than people who live in countries toward the socialistic/communist end but also enjoy far greater human rights protections.
As Dr. Thomas Sowell says, “socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that socialism turns out to be a big disappointment, if not a disaster.”
Who was it again, who said:
Socialism works just fine ………. until you run out of other peoples money.
Margaret Thatcher ???
If she were around today, she’d be in a cell next to Tommy. Seriously, how long will it be before speaking against socialism in any way gets you labeled a racist and deplatformed? We all know that’s where this is heading…
What is Thatcherism? I think Reaganism is about Lobbyist, Think Tanks, Foundations, taking over the words and legacy of Ronald Reagan. But Thatcherism led to Punk Rock.
– Thatcherism is Militarism, Imperialism, Empire
– Thatcherism is Austerity for the people, Reductions in Money in the Economy while money of Financial Organizations(City of London) were left alone and enabled toward their purposes, gambling on the stock exchanges or in derivatives…
– Thatcherism is Shipping Capital Offshore in the English Tradition, and Shipping Jobs Offshore in the English Tradition
– Thatcherism is the opposite of the “New Deal”, it is Neoliberalism, Status Quo, Laisse Faire Economics, let the Corruption do what it must do, let corporations do what they must do… Globalism Unleashed… End of Borders… End of Capital Controls over Nations Currency… End of Capital Controls over Banks sending Capital to employ foreigners in Systemic Corruption
it’s obvious that capitalism has the potential for more individual freedom than socialism. if you like freedom…
Young people prefer freeshit over freedom. Time has changed.
USSR 62 million, Nazi Germany 21 million and PRC 35 million
The US is getting pretty damn close with this whole diabetes / high carb low fat diet promotion. The only difference is that in the US they have evolved to slowly slaughtering people in a lifelong profit mill instead of just killing them outright.
Greetings,
You forgot opioid addiction and eventual overdose.
This doctor has opened my eyes. Opened my arteries and intestinal tract, as well.
By the way, people quote Solzhenitsyn so much I read Gulag Archipelago Vols I and II. I mean to read the rest, but honestly, as fascinating as it is to read how very depraved and evil people can be when given absolute power over other people, it is kind of hard to take reading about the exact same attitude in the leadership (Stalin and his bureaucratic arms controlling the Soviet Justice system) as we see in our corrupt political leaders.
Yes, and both of those problems have to do with CRONY capitalism – or corporatism. Basically, people that like socialism, outside of a few real nutbag libtards are confusing what the US and most of the western world is under now – cronyism and corporatism, for free market capitalism. In a free market, not “influenced” by government, and the people that fund the elections of the government goons – Carlin called them the owners – very few of the economic / societal problems would exist, as the markets would be self correcting of imbalance.
However, in an economy where a few powerful donors and corporations can wield the privilege of the government gun, those imbalances never get corrected and continue to fester like a cancer. Government, of the people as originally intended with a true market economy is a self correcting system. Crony capitalism, and the control of the government guns by the parasites of the 1% will cause an ultimate implosion of the system, called revolution or collapse, as the imbalances just become too great.
Meh.
Young people are more for socialism because capitalism has screwed them as a generation.
Why would they support a system that loads them up with debt in order to get education then forces them into low paying jobs, ridiculously expensive health care : all with no economic security of any kind?
Socialism looks pretty damn good in comparison.
Yeah. Except that young people can’t imagine more than 6 weeks into the future. So, once they achieve their socialist utopia, they will no longer serve any purpose and be completely expendable, because they don’t know how to work.
And they’re afraid of guns, so they won’t be able to defend themselves.
Then they’ll die.
Pity.
Fucking idiot. Capitalism didn’t screw them. We haven’t had capitalism here in over 100 years.
Oh and by the way: you don’t just get economic security, you fucking earn it. Moran.
Walter Williams is a great writer with excellent ideas.