Our Encroaching Socialism

 

Our Encroaching Socialism

 Why do succeeding generations of younger people continue to be attracted by the siren song of the altruistic aspects of socialism and/or communism, as is happening right now in America?

 Have they not read, and do they not remember or understand the debilitating experience resulting in massive deaths, of nearly every country that has tried or experimented with these corrosive doctrines clothed in beneficent sounding rhetoric?

 In actual fact, every country that has been ruled by communism, has failed completely, or converted to quasi market-oriented dictatorships.  The most extant examples are the Soviet Union that fragmented into separate independent states in the early 1990’s, and China, a communist dictatorship converted to a market economy by Deng Xiaoping in the 1980’s.

 This is a partial list of people who died under communism during the 20^th century.  The total is over 120 million people, and does not include many other countries with smaller counts.

 China: 82 million,  USSR: more than 21 million,  North Korea: 4.6 million,  Vietnam: 3.8 million,  Cambodia: 2.4 million,  Afghanistan: 1.5 million,  Yugoslavia: 1,172,000,  Germany: 815,000,  Mozambique: 729,000,  Ethiopia: 725,000,  Romania: 435,000,  Czechoslovakia: 262,082,  Venezuela: more than 252,000,  Poland: more than 235,000,  Hungary: 210,000,  Angola: 125,000  Colombia: 105,419,  Albania: 100,000,  Rhodesia / Zimbabwe: more than 50,000,  Laos: 45,000,  Bulgaria: 31,150,  Cuba: 73,000.

 Why do communist/socialist regimes result in death of their citizens? After all, these political movements, as conceived by Marx, Engels and others, are for the benefit of the people, or for the proletariat, by getting the wealthy, or bourgeoisie to “pay their fair share”, and to “provide equity” in society.  Sound familiar?

 Socialism always starts out with dissatisfaction of the status quo, and with idealistic promises for the future.  In our current political environment, this dissatisfaction consists of several elements.  “Racism” is the catch-all used by the Marxist activists in our current government for a variety of imputed social ills.  “Racism” is also synonymous with “capitalism” in the current Marxist dialectic. 

The promise that will assuage this dissatisfaction is “free stuff for everyone”, particularly those that are deemed to have been culturally denied in the past.  This includes free health care, free abortion, free education and a myriad of other free social services, including a guaranteed job and an arbitrarily high minimum wage.  A recent phenomenon, free stealing from California stores, of items totaling less than $950.

How are these all to be paid for?  Why, by increased taxation, of course, coupled with the above mentioned redistribution of wealth.  In other words, socialism proposes to penalize the wealthy innovators to provide “free stuff” to everybody else, including those who are idlers in society.

Obviously, this does not come naturally, so other means are necessary.  It is absolutely essential to take the guns away and disarm everyone.  Speech disagreeing with “politically correct” social justice mundanity must be curtailed and termed as fascist or racist or “white supremist”.  Laws against emigration and movement by wealthy people and companies need to be enacted. Stronger government and erosion/cancellation of individual and civil rights must lead the body politic toward totalitarianism and away from any remnants of democracy.

These drastic measures are necessary because taxation can only go so far.  Confiscation requires a strong, dictatorial government.  Both socialism & communism require a commitment to the use of force.  You cannot decide what to do with the other guy’s money unless you are committed to use force to take that money from him. All socialist programs are mandatory.  This is the reality of socialism — a pseudo-religion grounded in pseudo-science and enforced by political tyranny.

But wait a moment, say our liberal apologists.  Your dissertations are based on perversions of the socialist dream of “equity” and “social justice”, and economic viability for everyone.  Our brand of socialism is truly altruistic, and “for the people”.  One can only respond, “originally, so was Hugo Chavez’ and Maduro’s for Venezuela”, and even Lenin’s for Russia and Mao’s for China.

But, our indomitable liberal will say, “what about the successful ‘cradle to grave’ socialism in the Scandinavian countries?  They are among the richest and best governed in the world.” 

Ask a Dane or a Swede about his “socialist” country, and they will laugh you out of the room.  These countries are among the most successful capitalist countries in the world.  What they have are extremely voluntary high tax rates that pay for their “cradle to grave” care.

I heard the numbers at a lecture in Estonia, (a model for the Scandinavian countries). The tax rate on earnings in Estonia is 55%, with a Value added tax, or VAT of 15%, for a total of 70 % of earnings.  A typical professional salary is about $3000/mo.  Tax is $2100, and take-home pay is $900/mo.  It is cradle to grave care, and it’s paid for by very high taxes.

Ray Gruszecki

July 25, 2021