For the first time, Americans face the prospect of an openly socialist candidate potentially ascending to the Presidency.
Voter angst has given rise to interest in Bernie Sanders’ platform of a socialist system, in which production is controlled by the government. The U.S. economy faces a dearth of middle income employment. Students are deeply indebted due to sky-high college tuition. There is a strong belief that substantial, perhaps radical, change is needed.
The feeling is understandable, but the solution is a proven failure. The “most pure” socialist nations, the Soviet Union and the nations it held in captivity, all suffered inferior economies and ill-served citizenry. Others are exceptionally impoverished. Most feature dictatorial governments. Some semi-socialist nations have weakened economies that, ironically, could not survive without help from, or access to, the markets of capitalist economies. China’s vaunted (but now faltering) economy would collapse if access to U.S. consumers vanished.
Some will point to the economies of European nations as an example of socialist or semi-socialist economies that have not collapsed. Once again, however, the support of the capitalist American economy proves indispensable. Both as a market, and as the major financier of the enormous cost of providing defense for the Continent, the capitalist U.S. essentially underwrites its semi-socialist allies.
Not surprisingly, Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has opposed the rising acceptance of socialism, noting:
“Socialism is a wrong and dangerous path for America. It’s failed everywhere it’s ever been tried, bringing shared misery instead of shared prosperity. It undermines personal initiative and responsibility, stunts innovation and growth, makes people serve government—not vice-versa—and robs individuals of the dignity of earning their own success and charting their own course.”
The Foundation for Economic Freedom delivered a similar message:
Curt’s first point was that change is difficult, because it involves a great deal of sacrifice viagra fast respitecaresa.org and struggle. However, they know little about how to manage the stress in their lives, how to decompress, and ultimately viagra online how to ‘de-stress.’ It is not just a goal, for many it has become a necessity, a matter of survival. These new versions of the Kamagra tablets endeavors to manage the cause of ED symptoms and deliver a stiffer penile pfizer viagra achat erection. They have years of experience in the same compositions/dosages as the original medication, with the same benefits – but at a cheaper price. cialis stores also comes in the convenient jelly form as already mentioned. “Socialism is the Big Lie of the twentieth century. While it promised prosperity, equality, and security, it delivered poverty, misery, and tyranny. Equality was achieved only in the sense that everyone was equal in his or her misery.
“In the same way that a Ponzi scheme or chain letter initially succeeds but eventually collapses, socialism may show early signs of success. But any accomplishments quickly fade as the fundamental deficiencies of central planning emerge. It is the initial illusion of success that gives government intervention its pernicious, seductive appeal. In the long run, socialism has always proven to be a formula for tyranny and misery. A pyramid scheme is ultimately unsustainable because it is based on faulty principles. Likewise, collectivism is unsustainable in the long run because it is a flawed theory. Socialism does not work because it is not consistent with fundamental principles of human behavior. The failure of socialism in countries around the world can be traced to one critical defect: it is a system that ignores incentives.
“In a capitalist economy, incentives are of the utmost importance. Market prices, the profit-and-loss system of accounting, and private property rights provide an efficient, interrelated system of incentives to guide and direct economic behavior. Capitalism is based on the theory that incentives matter! Under socialism, incentives either play a minimal role or are ignored totally. A centrally planned economy without market prices or profits, where property is owned by the state, is a system without an effective incentive mechanism to direct economic activity. By failing to emphasize incentives, socialism is a theory inconsistent with human nature and is therefore doomed to fail. Socialism is based on the theory that incentives don’t matter!”
Even socialist nations endowed with exceptional inherent wealth cannot long remain prosperous. CATO describes how Venezuela, which possesses the world’s largest oil reserves, has become impoverished under socialist leadership.
“Despite receiving over $1 trillion in oil revenues since 1999, the government has run out of cash and now relies heavily on printing money to finance itself. The result is the highest inflation rate in the world: officially 56 per cent last year, although according to calculations by Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University, the implied annual inflation rate is actually 330 per cent.”
The economic failures of socialism are matched by its detrimental effect on individual freedom. Ronald Reagan noted the inherent socialist tendency to attack personal liberty: “A government can’t control the economy without controlling people.” In its raw essence, socialism depends on force.
Ironically, the very problems socialists describe as a justification for their philosophy are caused by socialist-like federal programs. The Great Recession was the result of federal mandates to financial institutions to provide loans to borrowers that were poor risks for repayment. The heavy taxes and regulations imposed on U.S. corporations have led them to be uncompetitive with their international rivals, resulting in sharply diminished employment.