The Politics of Socialism

Quick. Name a socialist country that’s thriving right now. Can you do it? You may have said “Cuba” because they are one closest to the US who seems to be doing ok, but they still don’t have our standard of living.

Actually there are 35 countries listed by Wikipedia as being “socialist”. That would include the Marxist-Leninist countries, and those that are run by dictators, as well as those with multi-party socialistic governments, like Mexico, and most of Central America.

Out of all of those 35 countries though, there is one that would be considered a “world power” of sorts, and that’s China. I doubt anyone reading this would like to turn in your standard of living for the average Chinese citizen though.

If I said which country illustrates the impossibility of socialism to survive long-term, which country of the 35 would you choose? I think most people at this point would say Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro is teetering on the brink of destruction, both for himself, and for the nation. There have been riots in the streets, and the opposition party has recently sworn in their own president.

And yet, in this country we have politicians like Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are deemed the darlings of the left because of their socialistic views. They see nothing wrong with taxing you and me 70% on income, giving cradle to grave benefits such as lifetime free education, a universal wage for everyone whether you are working or not, free healthcare for all, and a myriad of other benefits that would bankrupt this country in ten years or less (and we’re close now!)

So, why are these guys so popular with Millennials? In my mind it’s because they are offering something for free, and that particular age group has yet to learn, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. At the beginning everybody loves the promises of socialism. The problem is, it doesn’t work. It can’t work because you eventually run out of money. The rich decide to go elsewhere, or stop working altogether (think Atlas Shrugged), and the rest of society then collapses.

And the experiment goes badly awry…there are riots in the streets, and the politicians who proclaimed this to be the end all, be all of political activism end up slithering away, just as Maduro is getting ready to do in Venezuela. Long-term, socialism has never worked. There have been another 35 countries in the world that had been socialist, but had to change their political structure because it didn’t work. And there were another 52 countries that started to try socialism but failed before it really became implemented.

So, let Sanders, and Warrent, and AOC carp about how bad we are here. At least we don’t fall into the likes of Laos, Bangladesh, Guyana, North Korea, or Sri Lanka!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!