Socialist: What To Expect

Before purchasing a car, it is wise to check the performance of other cars like the one you are considering. You can expect the same performance as they.

Before choosing the form of government to support, it is wise to check the performance of other countries that have used that model. Currently many Americans are favorably considering socialism. Examples of how it has worked abound, all with the same result.

Venezuela is a current example of socialism having ruined a once proud country. It was oil-rich when the socialist Nicolas Manduro came to power. Today it is in free fall. Everything is scarce, even the country’s electric system is failing. Children are fed from garbage dumps. Persons are eating their pets. That is Exhibit A of socialism.

Argentina was once one of the 10 richest counties in the world. Enter Juan Peron advocating what he called “national socialism.” He transformed the government. Presently Argentina ranks 25th among nations in GDP. Are we sure we want that to happen here?

Parallel columns are a good way to make comparisons and there are two good models to consider.

After World War II Germany was divided into two sectors. East Germany had imposed on it a socialist form of government. West Germany adopted a capitalistic form of government. Socialist East Germany built a double wall to keep its people from exiting into West Germany. They shot people who tried to cross over. Conditions were so bad people did try to cross from the East to the West. Finally socialism proved to be such a failure the walls fell.

Another example is Korea. The North being socialist and the South having a much more capitalistic form of government. The GDP in the South is $23,838. That of the North is 3.6 percent of that of the South. Food scarcity is such that there are reports of guards being stationed in cemeteries to prevent bodies being dug up for food.

America currently enjoys a free market system which allows for private ownership and individual productivity. It is far superior to socialism. How then is that system being threatened by a destructive inferior form of government? Simply by offering what it can’t produce, “free stuff.” It is a means of buying votes.

Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is reputed to have said, “We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have communism.”

Dangling an example of a successful socialist state is also an enticement. Denmark is heralded as an illustration. That, according to Prime Minister Lars Lekke Rasmussen of Denmark, is a misrepresentation stating: “I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a Socialist planned economy.”

Without Denmark as a model of successful socialism there is no good example. Every model is a demonstration of a failed government. If America were to venture into socialism no better result can be expected. The models are consistent. To expect a different result is foolish.

“Free” is the cheese in the trap, and to some that is so enticing they don’t see the trap.

Learning can be achieved academically or by personal experience. Let’s pray we learn academically, not experientially to our detriment.