Capitalism vs. socialism has become a trendy issue for far-left Democrats (are there any other kind?). Many of them, including various newly elected U.S. House members, as well as the virtual-signaling social justice movement generally, seem to be fascinated by socialism, despite the collapse of Venezuela and many failed states that preceded it. Obviously capitalism is hardly devoid of corruption, but it has created the most prosperous and freest society in world history. Businesses large and small have engaged in wrongdoing, however. And let’s stipulate that on a day-to-day consumer basis in a capitalistic economy, one time or another virtually everyone has been ripped off in connection with a misrepresented product or service. (Are there any “as seen on TV” products that aren’t junk?). Moreover, corporate America has capitulated time and again to the SJW mob. In the private sector workplace, many employees have been treated unfairly and arbitrarily in terms of hiring, firing, pay, and/or promotions. Some workers with legitimate employment-related grievances have even been unable to achieve legal redress in those instances where the unfairness rises to potential illegality. But is socialism, i.e., where a centralized government controls the economy, ever the answer?
As a slight digression, it also gets tedious when some of those on the right keep complaining that the top-tier income earners already pay most of the taxes. Give it a rest.
Socialism’s End Game
No one has any sympathy or wants to hold a bake sale for the ultra rich — many of whom are Democrats who fund progressive causes — who sometimes flaunt their wealth or otherwise behave in an egregious manner. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that a government should forcibly confiscate wealth from the one-percenters; in that kind of scenario, the middle class is next on the chopping block for what many consider government-sanctioned theft.
As the New York Post aptly observes:
“Not a billionaire, so you have nothing to worry about? Don’t believe it. As Margaret Thatcher famously said, ‘The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.’ They’ll be coming for all of us, soon enough. True, not all billionaires get this treatment from Dems. No one is tracking what Oprah Winfrey buys. Dem mega-donor Tom Steyer isn’t scrutinized. But they best be on notice: The love affair depends entirely on their politics. Until he announced his run for president, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz was one of the good guys, too.”
None of that massive tax-hike saber rattling really matters, however, because socialism creates its own elite class made up of connected government insiders who will be gifted with loopholes from a 90 percent tax rate or whatever the socialist overlords might implement. Thinking that they’ll stay on top no matter what, maybe that’s why so many “journalists” in the fake news media, who owe their fortunes to the free market, cheerlead for a more intrusive government sector.
In the U.S., celebrities and other elitists who have insulated themselves — including with walls around their homes — from the effects of the policies they espouse for everyone else are called limousine liberals (champagne socialists in the U.K.). This is the same cohort that take private jets to global warming conferences.
Socialism Isn’t Cool in Real Life
Writes law professor Glenn Reynolds about Venezuela and Cuba in USA Today:
“Under capitalism, the rich grow powerful. Under socialism, the powerful grow rich — and everyone else grows poor…Oh, [Fidel Castro] said things about equality and justice, but those were lies. In his country, as in socialist dictatorships everywhere, there were two sets of rules: Those for the connected elite, and those for the subjects. They talk about equality, but what they set up turns out to be an awful lot like a monarchy. Both Venezuela and Cuba have suffered under leaders who enriched themselves and their families. Chavez’s daughter is the richest person in Venezuela, with a net worth in the billions, while in true ‘socialist equality’ fashion, Cuba is now run by Castro’s brother, Raul.”
Adds Jenipher Camino Gonzalez in Reason about the American left’s stubborn opposition to Venezuela’s democracy movement which is backed by the Trump administration:
“To be clear, supporting [current President Nicolas] Maduro or downplaying the catastrophe he and [former President Hugo] Chavez have overseen in Venezuela is a fringe position. The leadership there is responsible for human rights abuses, rampant corruption, and a full-blown humanitarian crisis in the region, with the United Nations putting the number of Venezuelan refugees abroad at a staggering 3 million, or almost 10 percent of the country’s total population…Leftists in the U.S. won’t disavow Maduro because they cannot accept that they were wrong about Venezuela, that the socialist experiment they pinned their hopes on not only failed but led to a humanitarian crisis…
“The new crop of Democrats cry foul when right-wing media labels them radicals. But they risk proving their critics right when they refuse to acknowledge Maduro’s destruction of Venezuela’s democracy and Chavez’s failed socialist experiment. The young guns of the left are not even in line with Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, who publicly said last week that Maduro’s presidency was illegitimate.”
On his Instapundit blog, Reynolds included this footnote:
“[Socialism] didn’t fail. It enriched and empowered the people at the top. That’s what socialism always does. It’s a giant con, and its lefty supporters are either grifters, shills, or marks. When Churchill said ‘the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries,’ he was wrong. Misery in socialist countries is never equally shared. The people at the top live large; misery accrues further down the ladder, though it creeps up rung by rung over time, as Venezuela demonstrates.”
Unbridled Capitalism Isn’t the Answer Either
While the Democrats advocate globalism despite all their chatter about working families, many GOP head-in the-sand types also support so-called free trade under the capitalism umbrella even when it destroys the jobs of untold numbers of American workers and creates a massive trade imbalance. To their discredit, they have opposed President Trump’s efforts to reform trade agreements and instead establish fair trade. Under the Trump administration, these efforts have prompted manufacturing facilities to reopen, and companies have decided to expand operations in the U.S. rather than offshore.
Democrats Are Slow Learners
Some Democrats who obviously never had a real job in the private sector are floating the idea of eliminating private health insurance entirely.
Dealing with an insurance company is a hassle. As a practical matter, though, imagine what would happen when a government bureaucracy gets into routinely handling your medical claims. Moreover, we already know what a disaster the joint venture between Big Government and Big Insurance known as Obamacare turned out to be. Passed in Congress by Democrats on a straight party-line vote, the ridiculously called Affordable Care Act an example of what is alternatively called crony capitalism, corporatism, or corporate socialism.
Moreover, countries that have adopted the socialized medicine model have seen costs skyrocket while care gets reduced and patients wind up on long waiting lists. (Yet another reason why consumers should consider looking into alternative health practices, when or if feasible.)
The VA, which was a total mess until Trump implemented reforms, is an example of a wholly government-run system. Parenthetically, the 2003 drama The Barbarian Invasions — which in politically correct Hollywood amazingly won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film — in part depicted the corruption and disorganization in Canada’s socialized healthcare system.
A final note: Capitalism has obviously created the technology that has revolutionized our lives for the better. However, the Big Tech platforms — which have been allowed to evolve into monopolies — stand accused of rampant privacy violations, censorship of mainstream (not fringe) conservative-leaning websites, exaggerating traffic statistics, and other misconduct. Because of Silicon Valley overreach, calls are increasing on both the left and the right for government regulation of these influential platforms.
[Featured image by Andra Mihali/Flicker (CC BY-SA 2.0)