Saturday
The spectre of Socialism is again haunting the West. Those old or educated enough to have an awareness of Socialism’s dreadful history view its possible re-emergence as incomprehensible. Yet it is entirely understandable.
Those who advocate Socialism, usually the young, are desperate for change. They are correct in believing that the world must change if they are to have a future worth living. But the nature of the change that they are calling for is predicated on one very large misunderstanding.
They believe that the current system, the problem, is Capitalism. That being the case then, ipso facto, Socialism must be the solution.
And there is the heart of the matter; not so much an ignorance of Socialism, as a complete absence of any understanding of the nature of Capitalism.
If I had been brain-washed into believing that the existing economic system was Capitalism, then I too would be an angry anti-Capitalist.
Reduced to their essential elements…
Capitalism equals freedom
Socialism equals slavery
Very little remains of the mostly free markets of the 19th century. Thus very little remains of widespread prosperity. Such wealth as does remain is concentrated in the hands of a small number of very powerful people. Hoi polloi become ever-more downtrodden and impoverished.
More government oppression (Socialism), with its concentration of wealth into even fewer hands, is not the answer. The solution is freedom – Capitalism.
How on earth did freedom and general prosperity ever get such a bad name?