WHICH FORM OF GOVERNMENT WORKS

And What Doesn’t (Socialism/Communism)

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  

 – George Santayana

Socialism is pretty popular these days.  I find myself wondering if the kids who claim to support it actually know what it is and how it works in practice.  My guess is that they don’t, anymore than they understand what “from the river to the sea” means.  Is it social media that has caused young people to gravitate to the meme of the moment?  Is it boredom?  A need to feel relevant?  Clearly, schools are doing a pathetic job of teaching history.  I’m sure teachers are still warning against the dangers of national socialism or, as they usually dub it, fascism (they aren’t the same), but no one talks about the cost of socialism or communism.  And they should.

One can speculate for hours as to why politicians seem so enamored of socialism, but the only explanation that makes sense is that they believe they will be the ones in power, and the ones with all the money, when that awful day dawns.   

The Cost of Bad Policy

The death toll resulting from a century of communism should stop people desiring it.  Rudolph Rummel, historian, calculates the number at close to 170MM people, and this number doesn’t include death from wars.  In Russia, a place ballyhooed by Bernie Sanders, probably 17MM died from starvation.  (Communism fails utterly at feeding people).  In China, 45MM people died in the Great Famine because of Mao.  Ignore his fat, shiny face.  Of course, he always had food.  In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge killed 25% of their population.  In North Korea in the ‘90’s, perhaps 3.5MM died from hunger. When the government controls the food supply, you don’t have resilience.

These numbers probably underestimate the toll, considering how few records were kept.  But clearly, in countries trying out socialism or communism, huge swaths of the population died.  The rest were poverty-stricken, leading lives of quiet desperation, a far cry from the riches we enjoy now.  Even our poor people sport cell phones, often have cars and lead a better life than the average person under communism. 

The cause is central control. And sadly, as the Executive Branch has grabbed more and more power, the number of government employees has grown and the appetite for “free stuff” has risen, so has the power of our central government.   The result is an impact on our economy and, more importantly, our resilience.  Disasters happen, downturns happen, but a distributed economy can easily weather any storm.  A centrally controlled country cannot.

Why Laissez-Faire Capitalism Works

Due to the distributed nature of capitalism, there are always options.  In the history of America, perhaps millions of companies have gone bankrupt.  And yet, we never had to worry that the shelves of our stores would be completely empty.  We had gas, clothing, cars, shelter.  There were many striving to keep the supply going. Even during Covid lockdowns, when some things were scarce, we never had to rely on a single source for anything we needed.  I remember buying toilet paper that had clearly been produced in Mexico.  We all found new product lines for our needs because capitalism distributes not just the wealth and opportunity.  It also distributes the risk.   A company fails, but there is always someone else to step in.  Remember Blackberrys?  Once thought essential, they were replaced by other options, including the iPhone.

When central government controls the food supply and there’s a problem, everyone starves. Well, except for the political leaders, who somehow always have whatever they need.  Reminds me of our arrogant leaders.  Check out Google Earth and see how many of them have solar panels on their houses and EVs in their driveways.  Right.  They’ll always have the solutions they want, even as they deprive us of choice. 

Let’s look at central control examples.  Mao came up with the idea of the “Four Pests” plan to get rid of sparrows—no idea why.  Plagues of locusts swept in and destroyed all the crops.  Venezuela’s Chavez assumed the price of oil would keep the country prosperous, doubling down on this guess until he bankrupted his country.  I remember a time when the USSR stopped being an exporter of wheat and instead, desperately sought out wheat from the US.

And it’s not just history.  Netherland farmers are protesting against farming cutbacks to save us from global warming.  Starvation will hit faster than any climate change.  We’re hearing some of this garbage from our own politicians.  Central control only works when everything stays the same. But we know it doesn’t.  Ever. 

Solution

When centralization is the problem, the solution is distribution.  Less central power, more independence and the willingness to take on risk.  Individual decision-making spreads the risk and gives us options we need.  Individuals decide to grow or not grow a crop based on its desirability and feasibility.  The Communists insisted potatoes could grow in Siberia, but they allowed no other options. 

There is no such thing as “the smart people in the room.”  When people who know nothing about producing food, running factories, getting transportation to work, etc., are given the chance to make ALL the decisions, they get it wrong, every time.  Instead, let’s let local governments, businesses and all of us have the power to make our own choices.  We’ll do it better.  We’re beginning to reap the positive results from school choice, but that’s just a small part of what we can achieve when we take the power away from people who desire centralization.

Kids need to be educated about the past and how the things they take for granted now could all go away tomorrow, if we choose socialism.

Vote for choice.  Vote for capitalism.  And vote out those who desire the power to run our lives.

If you like this blog, please do me a favor and share it with like-minded friends.  You know people I don’t.  I’ll never charge for it and plan to keep it going until I’m cancelled.