Socialism’s popularity is on the rise in the US. Would socialism bring freedom and prosperity? Or oppression and poverty?
There is a growing resurgence in socialism. In 2016, self-declared “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders narrowly missed the Democratic nomination. More recently, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has risen to prominence with a socialist agenda, and earlier this year defeated Joe Crowley the Democratic Rep. for New York in the Democratic primary.
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According to The New York Times, the membership of the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the US, has skyrocketed in the last two years, from 7,000 to 37,000 members.
2018 also marks the 200th birthday of Karl Marx, and that has led to a flurry of articles celebrating his birth and his ideas. The once pro-capitalist Economist magazine published an article titled “Rulers of the world: read Karl Marx,” claiming, “Marx’s diagnosis of capitalism’s flaws is surprisingly relevant.” The New York Times has also joined the chorus of voices trumpeting the socialist agenda. Just a couple of weeks ago The New York Times published a gushing op ed by Professor Corey Robin on socialism and the evil of capitalism.
There is no doubt that there is a growing resurgence in socialism, especially among the young. Political candidates once shamed into dropping the “socialist” label are now proudly embracing it.
So what is it exactly?
What Is Socialism?
In his article “The New Socialists”, Professor Corey Robin discusses the supposed benefits of socialism and decries capitalism, but he defines neither. Instead he gives us what he calls the “true vision” of socialism in contrast to capitalism:
Socialism means different things to different people. For some, it conjures the Soviet Union and the gulag; for others, Scandinavia and guaranteed income. But neither is the true vision of socialism. What the socialist seeks is freedom.
Under capitalism, we’re forced to enter the market just to live. The libertarian sees the market as synonymous with freedom.
The socialist argument against capitalism isn’t that it makes us poor. It’s that it makes us unfree. ….
When my well-being depends upon your whim, when the basic needs of life compel submission to the market and subjugation at work, we live not in freedom but in domination. Socialists want to end that domination: to establish freedom from rule by the boss, from the need to smile for the sake of a sale, from the obligation to sell for the sake of survival.
Thus, according to Prof. Robin, socialism really means freedom, while capitalism “subjugates” and “dominates”.
It’s important to look at the facts, not at the fantasies intellectuals and politicians try to seduce us with.
The facts are not hard to find.
Wherever you look, to the extent socialism has been implemented, is the extent to which it has destroyed freedom, prosperity and lives. Mild forms of socialism, incomplete and tolerating a certain degree of freedom, yield merely stagnant economies. The more consistent the implementation, the more obvious the political and economic decline. You need only look to the collapse of resource-rich Venezuela for proof. The country is rich in coal, diamonds, gold, iron ore, nickel, aluminum, natural gas, and petroleum.
Yet under the late President Hugo Chavez and current President Maduro’s socialist policies, inflation has skyrocketed, GDP has shrunk dramatically, and shortages and blackouts are common. Human Rights Watch notes the deteriorating situation in Venezuela:
The government has been repressing dissent through often-violent crackdowns on street protests, jailing opponents, and prosecuting civilians in military courts. It has also stripped power from the opposition-led legislature.
Due to severe shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and food, many Venezuelans cannot adequately feed their families or access the most basic healthcare. In response to the human rights and humanitarian crisis, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans are fleeing the country.
Venezuela is a fairly mild form of socialism, yet it the damage has been significant.
During the twentieth century, socialism was tried extensively and in purer form. The results were even more devastating: oppression, starvation and death. The death toll alone is staggering:
- Soviet Union: 20 million deaths
- China: 65 million deaths
- Cambodia: 2 million deaths
- Eastern Europe: 1 million
- Africa: 1.7 million deaths
(The Black Book of Communism, Harvard University Press, 1999)
Worldwide in the twentieth century alone, socialism was directly responsible for 100 million deaths.
That is the undeniable and bloody reality that lies behind socialists claims to be for freedom.
This is not accidental. Violence is inherent in socialism’s theory, goal and method.
Socialism Destroys Lives Because Its Theory is an Assault on the Right to Life
Socialism is the social system in which all property, including land and the means of production, is collectively owned. Thus, there are no individually owned houses, cars, schools, hospitals, farms businesses. Marx succinctly summed up the socialist principle of production and consumption: “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
Socialism’s key tenet is the abolition of property rights, so let’s be clear about what that means.
Property rights mean you have the right to use, consume and dispose of the things you own. It’s the right to use as you see fit, all the things that you own, including the right to consume the food on your plate.
The right to property is critical. In the words of Ayn Rand:
“Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.” (Ayn Ran, “Man’s Right,” The Virtue of Selfishness, 125)
In a socialist system the state or “collective” owns all property, and therefore controls everything. You must work for the collective, who then distribute the fruits of your labor. You are at the mercy of the collective for the resources that your life requires.
There is no other word for this but “slavery”.
The history of socialism demonstrates that slavery is what actual life is like for those who must live under it in its most consistent form. It has stifled the ability of people to think, act and produce. It has brought poverty and misery upon them. It has demanded absolute obedience and imposed it with an iron fist. It has murdered millions, and devastated the lives of millions more.
What Is Capitalism?
Professor Robin doesn’t define capitalism, he merely attacks what we have today as capitalism. Ayn Rand, who lived under both socialism and capitalism had a profound understanding of both. She defined capitalism as:
“….a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.” (Ayn Rand, “What is Capitalism” in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p19)
It is in essence the system that founded the United States, based on the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Unlike the history of socialism which is soaked in blood, capitalism has elevated humans from misery where ever it has been implemented. In the United States it created a nation of unprecedented freedom, opportunity, and wealth.
Before capitalism, poverty and misery were the norm. The average life span had remained virtually unchanged for millennia. If you lived past your mid-thirties you were lucky. As recently as the eighteenth century the average life span was only 33.3 years old. By the early twentieth century it had risen to 50. (Our World in Data)
“Life expectancy has increased rapidly since the Enlightenment. Estimates suggest that in a pre-modern, poor world, life expectancy was around 30 years in all regions of the world. In the early 19th century, life expectancy started to increase in the early industrialized countries while it stayed low in the rest of the world.”
– “Life Expectancy,” OurWorldInData.org
Today we live two entire lives of our ancestors. Imagine that. Our 70 to 80 years on this earth are also far richer, more comfortable and much healthier than what our ancestors had to endure. The poorest people in even the semi-free countries of today, have better clothes, better homes, enjoy better health, and have life-enhancing gadgets that the richest people in history couldn’t even imagine.
That is the power of a social system that protects the individual’s right to freedom. It liberates the mind and the body, and motivates individuals to think and produce incredible products and services that enrich our lives.
In sum, capitalism is freedom, and only capitalism is freedom. Every other social system, from socialism, feudalism, theocracy, monarchy and democracy, place some other consideration above the individual’s freedom, whether it be state, “the collective,” the King, a Priest or Mullah, or the “will of the people,” individual rights are sacrificed and oppression to some degree is guaranteed.
Unfortunately, what we have today is not capitalism, it’s a mixed economy, a measure of capitalism with a hefty dose of socialism. In fact, many of the problems socialists bemoan are the result not of capitalism but of socialism.
Healthcare is a prime example. The government intruded into healthcare over fifty years ago, and has continued to compound the problem, year on year, decade on decade, with ever increasing regulations and controls on the healthcare sector. Today’s healthcare system cannot be called capitalism by any stretch of the imagination. Whatever remnants of freedom that still exist, are suffocating under layers of bureaucracy, mandates, regulation and tax laws.
But the most ridiculous charge that socialists level at capitalism is that it is coercive.
“Capitalism forces us to…”
Professor Robin writes that under capitalism “we’re forced to enter the market just to live.”
That is nonsense on every level. The idea that capitalism “forces” one to do anything doesn’t even make logical sense. The truth is that it is socialism that is based on coercion, while capitalism enshrines liberty, the abolition of force.
Under capitalism, as long as you respect the freedom of others, you can do whatever you want to.
Yes, you can enter the market, the free market that is. But no one can force you to buy or sell anything that you don’t want to. Capitalism doesn’t force, it banishes force. The market doesn’t compel, it only offers options and incentives, and you have the absolute freedom to accept or reject those offers.
And if you choose not to “enter the market,” no police will break down your door and drag you to prison because you didn’t “enter the market.”
You can live off the land on a self-sufficient farm. Yes, you will have to own a farm or buy one, but then no one can force you off it. Your property rights guarantee you that. Or, you can form a kibbutz with like-minded socialists and live “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
The choice is yours. Of course, there are consequences to your actions and those are yours too.
Socialism Here and Now
This being the case, that capitalism does not deny anyone the right to practice socialism, one might ask: why haven’t socialists formed a voluntary socialist communities?
There is nothing stopping socialists from living their ideal life right now in a capitalist country. No one is stopping Bernie Sanders and like-minded individuals from establishing a commune and living according to Marx’s philosophy (provided it is purely voluntary). Socialists think that such a system would create unprecedented freedom, prosperity, and harmony. If so, it would surely be attractive to the poor “oppressed” workers of America, and be a huge success. It would demonstrate the superiority of socialism, and grow organically as others saw the utopian ideal in reality and were drawn to it.
So why don’t the socialists create their own socialist utopia now under capitalism? They certainly have the liberty to pursue that dream. It’s guaranteed by our capitalist constitution.
You can be a socialist in a capitalist country.
But clearly, that is not what the socialists really want.
Socialists do not want to be free to practice socialism. They want to force you to live it.
It is the socialists that want to force you, they want the power to impose their socialist “dream” on you. Socialism has nothing to do with freedom. It is about subduing others to serve the collective.
So you can be a socialist in a capitalist country.
Can you be a capitalist in a socialist country?
The answer is clearly no. 100 million bodies attest that it can’t be done.
