Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
Presidential contenders are in a battle to out give one another. Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes a whopping $50,000 per student college loan forgiveness. Senator Bernie Sanders proposes free health care for all Americans plus illegal aliens. Most Democratic presidential candidates promise free stuff that includes free college, universal income, “Medicare for All” and debt forgiveness.
Their socialist predecessors made promises too. “Freedom and Bread” was the slogan used by Adolf Hitler during the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) campaign against president Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler even promised, “In the Third Reich every German girl will find a husband.” Stalin promised a great socialist-Marxist society that included better food and better worker conditions. China’s Mao Zedong promised democratic constitutionalism and the dream that “farmers have land to till.” These, and other promises, gave Mao the broad political support he needed to win leadership of the entire country in 1949.
Socialism promises a utopia that sounds good, but those promises are never realized. It most often results in massive human suffering. Capitalism fails miserably when compared with a heaven or utopia promised by socialism. But any earthly system is going to come up short in such a comparison. Mankind must make choices among alternative economic systems that actually exist. It turns out that for the common man capitalism, with all of its alleged shortcomings, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with his everyday needs and desires. By most any measure of human well-being, people who live in countries toward the capitalistic end of the economic spectrum are far better off than their fellow men who live in countries toward the socialist end. Why?
Capitalism, or what some call free markets, is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way individuals amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. With the rise of capitalism, it became possible to amass great wealth by serving and pleasing your fellow man. Capitalists seek to discover what people want and produce and market it as efficiently as possible as a means to profit. A historical example of this process would be John D. Rockefeller, whose successful marketing drove kerosene prices down from 58 cents a gallon in 1865 to 7 cents in 1900.
Henry Ford became rich by producing cars for the common man. Both Ford’s and Rockefeller’s personal benefits pale in comparison to the benefits received by the common man who had cheaper kerosene and cheaper and more convenient transportation. There are literally thousands of examples of how mankind’s life ha been made better by those in the pursuit of profits. Here’s my question to you: Are the people who, by their actions, created unprecedented convenience, longer life expectancy and a more pleasant life for the ordinary person — and became wealthy in the process — deserving of all the scorn and ridicule heaped upon them by intellectuals and political hustlers today?
In many intellectual and political circles, the pursuit of profits is seen as evil. However, this pursuit forces entrepreneurs to find ways to either please people efficiently or go bankrupt. Of course, they could mess up and avoid bankruptcy if they can get government to bail them out or give them protection against competition.
Nonprofit organizations have an easier time of it. As a matter of fact, people tend to be the most displeased with services received from public schools, motor vehicle departments and other government agencies. Nonprofits can operate whether they please people or not. That’s because they derive their compensation through taxes. I’m sure that we’d be less satisfied with supermarkets if they had the power to take our money through taxes, as opposed to being forced to find ways to get us to voluntarily give them our money.
By the way, I’m not making an outright condemnation of socialism. I run my household on the Marxist principle, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” That system works when you can remember the names of all involved.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
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Capitalism works great as long as government keeps its hands off and doesn’t fuck with it (no bailouts, no QE, etc…)
I guess we’re screwed either way.
It is astounding how many people can buy into the “free” anything from govt. Govt produces no wealth and is a wealth transfer machine with gross frictional costs attached (the property, people and pensions provided to implement the transfers). I know I’m preaching to the choir here but maybe, just maybe some dolt will stumble onto this website, read this and all the other perspectives presented and actually think for a minute about “free” stuff from govt.
Just thinking about millions and millions of people voting expressly for “free” stuff without having the most elemental insight on where “free” stuff comes from makes my head explode. Sorry, I needed to vent.
Isn’t this the same asshat who was so nasty to DJT and his “lies”…..like so many self-righteous morons Mr. Wiliams lets the perfect be the enemy of the good enough. Really a bad strategy/luxury that we simply cannot afford. Sure I wish Orange Man Bad was perfect, I wish the Swamp didn’t exist, especially the RINO’s undermining Trump at every turn (Ryan, McConnel et. al) in the first two years. I wish a lot of things were different….but ain’t the real world Walter. In the real world, we support Trump to slow down and maybe do a few good things until somebody better and more effective comes along. I don’t care about any politician except to the extent they implement the standard limited government, personal freedom, free-market platform that is so obviously the best way to optimize for the largest number of people.
Call it battlefield morality as Dan Bongino does, the concept is very simple…..are we better off with Trump or an alternative? Simple answer, yes…..will we get everything we want, nope but at least we slow down the obvious tyrannical intentions of the left and maybe delay the slaughter that seems to be coming…..The left is being more open about calling for violent revolution…..Let’s try and not go there for a while longer.
Taken from an article: “Teacher Fails Entire Class and explains why Socialism won’t work, and always fails.”
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had
never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an
entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that
no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class
on this plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive
the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A….
(substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more
readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied
little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who
studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard
decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame
and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study
for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED
and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail
because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but
when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to
succeed.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all
applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the
wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must
work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government
does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work
because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the
other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody
else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the
end of any nation.
Walt said:
“Are the people who, by their actions, created unprecedented convenience, longer life expectancy and a more pleasant life for the ordinary person — and became wealthy in the process — deserving of all the scorn and ridicule heaped upon them by intellectuals and political hustlers today?”…
In general, of course not.
But, successful businessmen who found a niche-need and filled it, become wealthy, and are viewed as greedy, when they reap the harvest of their efforts and investment capital seeds they’ve sown. Pure envy has infected those unsuccessful souls with a gripe. Unfair, they shout.
However, viewing the likes of Bezos, Gates, and even Rockefeller with admiration is a flaw, just naming a few of the many.
Some powerful men crush their competition with a greedy power lust for not just market domination, but with the goal of controlling a monopoly,
-to eliminate all potential competitors.
If they use government as a means, or influence legislation to achieve that goal, then they are evil.
With capitalism, the destruction of the small business owner in their wake does not become acceptable, even if their products and services are beneficial to a much larger group of consumers.
Having a level playing field, with multiple choices of providers able to compete is vital.
Under socialism, and monopolies, those choices dwindle to few options.
The incentive to work harder, provide quality, to reap a greater reward, is eliminated, first for small business owners, and then for State sponsored suppliers.
The mass of individuals not eligible to collect free things soon go bankrupt, when efficiency, productivity and quality all slow down, or die.
The small producers stop, when incentives cease, and the 95% suffer as a result.
In that scenario, the State sponsored behemoth providers deserve the wrath they feel.
Just an opinion.
Lager,
There should not be any monopolies, state sponsored or not.
“Prior to capitalism, the way individuals amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man.” And then came 1913 and the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Income Tax, and certain “well-connected” individuals went back to amassing wealth by looting, plundering, and enslaving their fellow man.