Socialism: A clear and present danger

"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." Roman historian Plutarch (c.45-125 A.D.)

Socialism is incompatible with America's Constitutional Republic and Biblical-based heritage of freedom and liberty. Socialism is the enemy of economic freedom and opportunity as it undermines responsibility, stifles ambition and entrepreneurship. Innovation of new ideas and products would cease because the drive and desire to create will be stymied by a dependence on the Socialist government that promises, yet fails, to provide all our needs, accommodations, and comforts. The cost of Socialism both economically and the self-esteem of every America would result in the proven history of all nations that tried Socialism, resulting in poverty and despair, while the ruling class of the Socialist government will live lavishly at the expense and misery of the people, and becoming tyrannical, in order to retain their elite status, while destroying the prosperity of the people. In order to repress freedom and liberty, religious liberty of all faiths will become illegal.

Socialism vs. Capitalism : Peter Berkowitz discusses the differences between two economic systems: socialism and capitalism. - Socialism, Capitalism and Liberty: Socialism and capitalism provide two distinct answers as to who controls decisions in the economy. The historical criticism of socialism is that it is a root source of totalitarianism. In contrast, the recent criticisms of capitalism range from disagreement with its principles to critiques of some of its outcomes. Does capitalism result in inequality?

Here's What Americans Need to Know About Socialism With socialism's popularity rising in the United States, it's more important than ever that Americans know the facts about Karl Marx's inherently flawed ideology. That is why Heritage's Lee Edwards, distinguished fellow in conservative thought, has been working hard to explain the true nature of socialism. In his article, "What Americans Must Know About Socialism," he explains, "This is the reality of socialism, a pseudo-religion grounded in pseudo-science and enforced by political tyranny." In his most recent article, he refutes the often-used claim by leftists that socialism has never failed because it has never been tried, citing three modern countries that tried and ultimately rejected socialism. You can read about those countries, and why they rejected socialism. - Key Takeaways: Socialism is no longer a parlor game for academics but a political alternative taken seriously by millennials. "They don't recognize that much of what they enjoy in life is a result of capitalism and would disappear if socialism were to be implemented." This is the reality of socialism, a pseudo-religion grounded in pseudo-science and enforced by political tyranny.  

Socialism Always Fails - By William L. Anderson - ...Socialists do not create goods and services; they commandeer them for political purposes, and such things are useful only as a means of putting and keeping socialist politicians in power. ...We have been hearing this kind of thing for more than a century. Socialists tell us that if the rest of us will give them total power over our lives, this time they will provide prosperity, and unlike previous socialist regimes, they won't strip us of our liberties.

Rand Paul's Fact-Filled Case Against Socialism - By John Stossel - ..."Hitler's socialism, Stalin's socialism, Mao's socialism. You would think people would have recognized it by now," says Paul in my latest video. ..."You would think that when your economy gets to the point where people are eating their pets," says Paul, contemplating the quick descent of once-rich Venezuela, "people might have second thoughts about what system they've chosen."

   ...Naturally, American socialists say our socialism will be different. "When I talk about democratic socialism," says Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., "I'm not looking at Venezuela. I'm not looking at Cuba. I'm looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden." Paul responds: "It's not true that the Scandinavian countries are socialist." Scandinavia did try socialist policies years ago but then turned away from socialism. It privatized industries and repealed regulations. Denmark's prime minister even came to America and refuted Sanders, claims, pointing out that "Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy." In fact, in rankings of economic freedom, Scandinavian countries are near the top.

   ...In fact, Swedes have 50% higher living standards in the U.S. than when they stay in Sweden. Danish Americans, too. Socialism can't take the credit. ...But the most important argument against socialism is that it crushes freedom. Socialists get elected by promising fairness and equality... 

Can Young Adults Learn to Love the Free Market? Podcast and transcript. - By Rachel del Guidice - ...The free market, Cargill explains, "destroys all the things that we hate, that especially younger generations hate, like climate change, high rents, hunger, disease, boredom, all the things that we as a society despise and want to improve upon. If you want to change those things and do it in the quickest way possible, you look toward the free market to do that. It's not going to be government solutions. It's not going to be socialism that makes it successful. It's going to be the marketplace. It is the most revolutionary force for change that the world has ever seen."
  

 

Democratic candidates calling for policies to "fix" the so-called injustices of capitalism - By Alyssa Ahlgren - ...We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we've become completely blind to it. Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose. These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don't give them a second thought. We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty. One. Times.

   ...My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. ...Let me lay down some truths. The United States of America has lifted more people out of abject poverty, spread more freedom and democracy, and has created more innovation in technology and medicine than any other nation in human history. Not only that but our citizenry continually breaks world records with charitable donations, the rags to riches story is not only possible in America but not uncommon, we have the strongest purchasing power on earth, and we encompass 25% of the world's GDP. The list goes on.

   However, these truths don't matter. We are told that income inequality is an existential crisis (even though this is not an indicator of prosperity, some of the poorest countries in the world have low-income inequality), we are told that we are oppressed by capitalism (even though it's brought about more freedom and wealth to the most people than any other system in world history), we are told that the only way we will acquire the benefits of true prosperity is through socialism and centralization of federal power (even though history has proven time and again this only brings tyranny and suffering).

   ...Why? The answer is this: My generation has ONLY seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn't live in the Great Depression, or live through two world wars, or see the rise and fall of socialism and communism. We don't know what it's like to live without the internet and smartphones. We don't have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it's spreading like a plague. With the current political climate giving rise to the misguided idea of a socialist utopia, will we see the light? Or will we have to lose it all to realize that what we have now is true prosperity? Destroying the free market will undo what millions of people have died to achieve.

   My generation is becoming the largest voting bloc in the country. We have an opportunity to continue to propel us forward with the gifts capitalism and democracy have given us. The other option is that we can fall into the [Bernie Sanders] trap of entitlement and [lapse] into restrictive socialist destitution. The choice doesn't seem too hard, does it?

Addressing naive students, who thought socialism and communism would redistribute wealth, President Franklin Roosevelt told the American Youth Congress, February 10, 1940: "The Soviet Union ... is run by a dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world."

Under the Soviet dictatorship:
o privacy was nonexistent;
o press was censored;
o free speech disappeared;
o healthcare was rationed;
o economy was regulated;
o private industry was collectivized;
o political dissent was punished;
o media and entertainment was propagandized;
o children's education became indoctrination;
o marriage and families were subject to social engineering;
o religion was suppressed; and
o human life was valued only by its usefulness to the soviet society.

   ...President Harry S Truman stated January 20, 1949: "Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters. Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice ..." Truman continued: "Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labor as a chattel of the state. It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think. Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom ...

Democratic Socialism By Mark Alexander - Democratic Socialism, like Nationalist Socialism, is nothing more than Marxist Socialism repackaged. Likewise, it seeks a centrally planned economy directed by a single-party state that controls economic production by way of regulation and income redistribution. The success of Democrat Socialism depends upon supplanting Essential Liberty -- the rights "endowed by our Creator" -- primarily by refuting such endowment. So what do these observations have to do with the current state of economic and political affairs in our great nation? Unfortunately, more than most Americans currently realize. However discomforting this fact might be, there is abundant and irrefutable evidence that Barack Hussein Obama and his socialist cadre are endeavoring to "fundamentally transform the United States of America" by planting a debt bomb, the future shockwave of which, they surmise, will break the back of free enterprise. From the ashes of that cataclysm, Obama and his ilk envision restructuring our nation as the USSA.

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Challenges for Socialists

"The preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing governmental power. But there is also a constructive reason. The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or in literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government." --Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

 

Capitalism vs. Socialism - By Andy Puzder - ...But what about Western European countries? Don't they have socialist economies? People seem pretty happy there. Why can't we have what they have--free health care, free college, stronger unions? Good question. And the answer may surprise you. There are no socialist countries in Western Europe. Most are just as capitalist as the United States. The only difference--and it's a big one--is that they offer more government benefits than the U.S. does.

   We can argue about the costs of these benefits and the point at which they reduce individual initiative, thus doing more harm than good. Scandinavians have been debating those questions for years. But only a free-market capitalist economy can produce the wealth necessary to sustain all of the supposedly "free stuff" Europeans enjoy. To get the "free stuff," after all, you have to create enough wealth to generate enough tax revenue to pay for everything the government gives away. Without capitalism, you're Venezuela.

   In a 2015 speech at Harvard, Denmark's prime minister took great pains to make this point: "I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with... socialism, therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy." So when you point to Denmark as a paragon of socialism, you're really singing the praises of capitalism.

   ...None of this requires a degree in economics. Common sense is all you need. That's why it's so frustrating to see young people praising socialism and criticizing capitalism. It's bad enough that they're working against their own interest--better job prospects, better wages, personal freedom--but they are also working against the interest of the less fortunate. Capitalism leads to economic democracy. Socialism leads to the economic dictatorship of the elite. Always. And everywhere. So beware what you ask for. You just might get it. 

Stossel: Sweden is Not a Socialist Success John Stossel - Many people think Sweden is socialist, but its success comes from free markets. ...John Stossel asks Norberg why so many Americans think Sweden is socialist. Norberg answers, "We did have a period in the 1970s and 1980s when we had something that resembled socialism: a big government that taxed and spent heavily." But big government led to problems. "Our economy was in crisis, inflation reached 10 percent, and for a brief period interest rates soared to 500 percent. At that point the Swedish population just said, 'Enough, we can't do this,'" Norberg says. Sweden cut public spending, privatized the national rail network, abolished certain government monopolies, eliminated inheritance taxes, sold state-owned businesses, and switched to a school voucher system. It also "lowered taxes and reformed the pension system," adds Norberg.

Why is Scandinavia so expensive? | CNBC Explains - Across Scandinavia, the average price of everything from a knitted roll neck to pastries from the local bakery are some of the highest in the world. So what makes the region so expensive? CNBC's Tom Chitty reports.

Is Denmark Socialist? - By Otto Br'ns-Petersen - Socialism has failed across the world, from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to China, Vietnam, North Korea and, most recently, Venezuela. So now the left references countries like Denmark as "proof" that socialism works. Otto Brons-Petersen explains why they're wrong: Denmark is just as capitalist as the United States.

Sorry Bernie Bros But Nordic Countries Are Not Socialist - By Jeffrey Dorfman - It is certainly true that Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark are notable economic successes. What is false is that these countries are particularly socialist. Perhaps a better name for what the Nordic countries practice would be compassionate capitalism.

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Was Jesus a Socialist or did He promote Socialism?

Was Jesus a Socialist? (Video - PragerU) - By Lawrence Reed ...Did Jesus support socialism? Do the teachings of Jesus Christ condemn the accumulation of wealth while pushing for the equal distribution of resources? Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education, explains the misconceptions surrounding one of history’s greatest figures.

   ...Socialism is the concentration of power into the hands of government elites to achieve the following purposes: central planning of the economy and the radical redistribution of wealth. Jesus never called for any of that. ...Nowhere in the New Testament does he advocate for the government to punish the rich – or even to use tax money to help the poor. Nor does he promote the ideas of state ownership of businesses or central planning of the economy.

   ...In Luke 12, Jesus is confronted by a man who wants him to redistribute wealth. "Master," the man says to Jesus, "tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replies, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?" and then he rebukes the man for being envious of his sibling. ...Sounds a lot more like an endorsement for capitalism than socialism, doesn't it? ...He never drove a "moneychanger" from a marketplace or from a bank. ...Jesus advises us to be of "generous spirit" – to show kindness, to assist the widow and the orphan. But he clearly means this to be our responsibility, not the government's.

   Jesus never endorsed the forced redistribution of wealth. That idea is rooted in envy, something that he, and the Tenth of the Ten Commandments, railed against. Most importantly, Jesus cared about helping the less fortunate. He never would have approved anything that undermines wealth creation. And the only thing that has ever created wealth and lifted masses of people out of poverty is free market capitalism.  

 

Why Acts 2 Does Not Support Socialism - By Bryan Fischer - ...Acts 2-5. "They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need." They were driven by faith, not force. ...Their land was not seized by force; no, it was sold through love and generosity. 

   The voluntary nature of all this becomes abundantly clear in Acts 5, where God puts Ananias to death as divine judgment for lying about how much he gave to God. ...Ananias saw how the members of the fellowship admired Barnabas' example, and decided to snag a little admiration for himself on the cheap by selling a piece of property, pretending to give all the proceeds but keeping back a chunk for himself. But Peter busts him down. "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds?" (Acts 5:3) As soon as Peter uttered these words, Ananias keeled over on the spot and breathed his last. His wife Sapphira told the same lie and met the same fate.  Ananias' problem was not that he took a slice off the top. The problem was he lied about it. For man's praise, he pretended to be more generous than he really was. "You have not lied to man but to God" (Acts 5:4). 

 

5 Reasons Socialism Is Not Christian - By Julie Roys - ...Though it may sound compassionate and Christian, it's actually antithetical to everything Christianity teaches. Here's why:

...1. Socialism is Based on a Materialistic Worldview...To socialists, all that really exists is the material world. In fact, Karl Marx, the father of socialism/communism, invented the notion of dialectical materialism, the belief that matter contains a creative power within itself. This enabled Marx to eliminate the need for a creator, essentially erasing the existence of anything non-material. To socialists, suffering is caused by the unequal distribution of stuff, and salvation is achieved by the re-distribution of stuff. There's no acknowledgment of spiritual issues. There's just an assumption that if everyone is given equal stuff, all the problems in society will somehow dissolve.

...2. Socialism Punishes Virtue...Socialists want to distribute wealth to individuals according to their need, regardless of virtue. ...The Bible teaches that aid should be tied to responsibility. First, anyone who refuses to work should be refused aid. As 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says, "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." Next, no one should be given aid whose family can provide for him. In fact, the Apostle Paul said that a man who fails to provide for his family is "worse than an unbeliever." (1 Tim. 5:8) The church also required widows receiving aid to have "a reputation of good works." (1 Tim. 5:10) So, even in dispensing aid, the church rewarded virtue and discouraged vice. Unfortunately, socialism does just the opposite.

...3. Socialism Endorses Stealing...What Christian wouldn't endorse sharing your abundance with someone who has nothing? However, Obama wasn't endorsing people voluntarily sharing their wealth with others; he was endorsing the government forcibly taking a piece of the pie from one person and giving it to someone else.

...4. Socialism Encourages Envy and Class Warfare...Socialists demonize the rich, blaming all of society's problems on them.

...5. Socialism Seeks to Destroy Marriage & Family...Friedrich Engels, co-author with Marx of the "The Communist Manifesto," once wrote that the society he envisioned would be one where "the single family ceases to be the economic unit of society. Private housekeeping is transformed into a social industry. The care and education of the children becomes a public affair."  

 

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The false Utopia of Socialism

  Dear Bernie Sanders: I survived socialism. It's the worst political system ever invented -  - By Małgorzata Wołczyk - 'As a survivor of socialism, I can tell from my own experience, that socialism is in fact the worst political system ever invented.'  ...Have you ever wondered why the "socialist utopias" of the world always cause a mass exodus of the best workers and the most enterprising of men? Have you ever heard of a similar mass exodus from capitalist countries? Would anyone wish to live in a country that promises an island of full happiness but always ends up as a prison where there is neither bread nor toilet paper, and instead puts up a fence with barbed wire so you don't even think of choosing another "paradise"?  It is no joke, toilet paper was a thing of dreams for the Poles of my youth, not to mention ham or chocolate! Of course, such poverty requires free and frequent access to the doctor and the dentist.  But how is this to be done? The doctors in socialist utopias inevitably flee to the capitalist countries where their work is compensated.  And as for hospitals, in the socialist utopia of Poland, as must be the case in Venezuela, Cuba and most others, there are always a limited number of hospitals, to match the few qualified doctors; and so, being patient number 340 in the queue, most people in these utopias prefer to take care of themselves.

Confessions of an Environmentalist - Imagine you dedicated your life to environmentalism and all of its assumptions. Then imagine you realize those assumptions are all wrong. What would you do? Entrepreneur Brian Gitt tells his personal story and where it led him.  

The ultimate goal under the guise of "environmentalism" is to dictate the way you live your life. Progressives want to impose their values on the lifestyle of everyone else, including in the kitchen. If subsidies don't work, coercion follows. When they can't win the political debate, they resort to brute government force.

The Real Climate Crisis - By Alex Epstein (5-Minute Video) We’re supposed to be in a climate crisis. And we are. But not in the way you think. Alex Epstein, author of Fossil Future, explains the real crisis and what we can do to get out of it. The world faces a serious crisis, one that will ruin whole economies and lead to needless suffering and death. The crisis is related to climate change, but not in the way you’re probably thinking. It’s the global energy crisis—a man-made crisis created by climate change policies. These policies have led to a shortage of fossil fuels—oil, coal, and natural gas, the fuels that provide over 80% of the world’s energy.
       ...Fossil fuel shortages have led to higher energy prices. And because the energy industry powers every other industry, this has led to higher prices of almost everything, everywhere. We are already seeing the consequences. (Inflation, Deadly Winters, Widespread Job Losses, Starvation, Lack of fertilizer, Civil Unrest.)
       ...Not enough fertilizer means not enough food. ...Modern agriculture depends on fossil fuels: natural gas is a prime component of fertilizer and farming equipment is largely powered by diesel fuel. When natural gas and oil prices go up, food becomes more expensive around the world.  According to the President of the World Farmers’ Organization: “Prices are…78 percent higher than… in 2021…In many regions [in the developing world] farmers simply can’t afford… fertilizers… or even if they could, the fertilizers are not available to them.”         ...While the whole world suffers from an energy crisis, the worst affected are poor nations that are getting outbid for scarce energy supplies. ...We saw this in Sri Lanka in 2022. Violent riots wracked the country following massive crop failures. A leading reason for the crop failures: a lack of fertilizer due to anti-natural gas, anti-fertilizer policies. The root cause of all these problems and the very real suffering that results is the same. Not enough fossil fuel. But there is no need for shortages of fossil fuel. We have all the fossil fuels we need and then some. We are literally standing on it. We just can’t get to it. We can’t get to it because governments have decided we shouldn’t use fossil fuels. They say we’re in a climate crisis.
       ...Fossil fuels actually make us far safer from the climate by providing low-cost energy for the amazing machines that protect us against storms, protect us against extreme temperatures, and alleviate drought. Climate disaster deaths have decreased 98% over the last century.
      ...Unfortunately, instead of taking this rational approach, governments declared a “climate crisis” and started immediately restricting fossil fuels—with no viable replacement. They pretended that solar and wind could somehow replace fossil fuels.But since these fuels are inherently unreliable—they can go to near-zero at any given time—there was never any reason to believe this. Now we’re suffering the consequences of their folly.
       ...And, outrageously, instead of apologizing for the disastrous anti-fossil-fuel policies that caused today’s energy crisis, our so-called experts are confidently doubling down, advocating for even more aggressive elimination of fossil fuel production. Every nation will suffer from the global energy crisis, but those with the least will suffer the most. Many will die, sacrificed on the altar of a climate crisis that doesn’t exist. How long will we let this injustice continue?

‘The Democrats Are Living in a Green Hallucination’ (Video 3:16) - Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) blasts Democrats and the Biden administration over their hard-left, energy-damaging climate polices.