One of the most disturbing trends in polling I’ve seen lately is that a growing number of Americans (especially “millenials”) are in favor of Socialism.
Now while I believe that some fraction of these lunatics sincerely believe that a strong central government will be able to properly manage one of the largest economies in human history, I can’t help but think the rest of them simply don’t know what they are in favor of.
Perhaps they confuse Socialism with “social programs” or “social safety net” or even “social media.” The word “social” leads them to think of something positive instead of something negative. After all, it’s good to be social isn’t it?
But these same people who know so little about economics are then so easily swayed by ridiculous arguments.
“What about Scandinavia? They’re Socialist and they have some of the highest quality of life in the world.”
Except they aren’t Socialist. They have market economies (aka Capitalism) with large social programs.
If they looked at lessons as recent as Venezuela, or if they looked further back at Cuba, and Eastern Europe, then they may begin to understand that what they seek leads to poverty and despair.
“Those are dictatorships. We’re talking about ‘Democratic’ Socialism.'”
I’ve written in the past there’s no such thing as “Democratic” Socialism. You can’t just put a governing model in front of an economic model and change the model. Here’s an example — “Dictatorial Capitalism.” It’s nonsensical.
And that’s part of the problem with Socialism. It requires direct government involvement in the economy. And thus the governing model becomes the economic model. Socialism can only be operated with a strong government. It’s foolish to think that diluting government strength by sprinkling in a little “democracy” will lead to a safer product. Decaffinated coffee is still coffee and it still has caffeine in it.
“You’re just being negative. Why can’t we just try it and see?”
And there we have it. I like to tell stories of my childhood often. One I love to tell is how when I was very young my grandmother would get nervous any time I got near the stove. She didn’t want me to burn myself. But there was good food on that stovetop and I wanted it. My grandfather would hear her scream at me “David! Be careful!” and he would reply to her “let him touch it. He’ll never do it again.”
I have this same experience with modern progressives. They absolutely refuse to believe that they can learn anything from history. Or that there’s any value in the lessons of their parents. They have to do everything themselves and they have to touch the stove to understand that it’s hot.
The problem is, when they touch this particular stove, we all get burned.
rantism 