What is socialism anyway? Basically, socialism is communism lite. In a communist society “the state” owns everything and is responsible for everything. The state allocates everything as they see fit (i.e. “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need). In theory, whether you’re a floor sweeper or a factory manager, or are the head-of-state, the size of the house the state allocates to you is based on the size of your family. The state allocates food based on what the state thinks you and your family needs. You only get a car if the state deems one is required for your circumstances. Communists think their system can only be implemented by a violent overthrow of the existing regime.
In a socialist society, some free market principles still apply: property ownership by individuals, income based on performance, among other – more minor – free market principles. Socialist also believe they can peacefully coexist with a democratic form of government; no violent overthrow, just vote socialists in to office.
And let’s not confuse a socialist government with what’s going on in some European countries: there are no socialist countries in Europe. There are some with large social programs and some that have universal healthcare, but they are not socialist. They are just highly taxed countries that have large safety-net programs. But even these countries are backing away from these programs as too costly and unwieldy as their populations expand due to uncontrolled immigration.
There are key areas where communism and socialism do align perfectly. One is that the state owns all means of generating wealth. The state owns all the businesses, farms, ranches, hospitals, universities, mines, etc. There’s no individual ownership of anything but your house, car, personal items, etc. They also match in that, almost by default, they eventually devolve to totalitarian forms of government. Why? Because when the power resides in the state, the state must eventually control all the power or risk losing it. What if the citizenry decide to vote socialists out of office? Socialists can’t let that happen – it would utterly destroy the workers paradise they worked so hard to achieve.
And that last paragraph is where the wheels come off the socialist bandwagon.
Government workers – by definition – are bad business people: they’re bureaucrats and politicians, neither of which is capable of running a business. What they are capable of is obtaining and abusing power.
To contrast the socialist system with the free market, let’s look at auto manufacturing. How do car companies decide on models? First, they have to determine if there’s a market for the model at all. Then they decide: how those models function; what features are included or cost extra; how many are going to be produced; what are they going to charge? Company R&D departments do extensive market research: they interview potential buyers; they look at how much it will cost to build versus how much buyers are willing to pay. There’s a lot of research time, effort, and money spent to make these determinations. There are times when even this approach gets it wrong. Eventually, the car buying public determines whether the model is viable or not. The history of the auto industry is strewn with defunct makers and unsuccessful models.
In a socialist society it would be bureaucrats deciding on all these things – with no skills to do so. The bureaucrats will simply look at a factory, see how many workers and production lines they have, and tell the factory manager to produce the number of cars that fit that production capacity. So there’s either a bunch of cars rotting somewhere or a shortage of cars because they didn’t make enough. There will rarely be a time when cars produced and market demand are on the same plane of existence. No one, from the bureaucrat, to the factory manager, to the floor sweeper, cares if the needs of the market are being met. They only care that production quotas are fulfilled.
If you don’t think the above scenario is accurate, just look at the countries that are, or were, a pure socialist form of government (whether communist or pure socialist – in this case, it amounts to the same thing).
Also gone are the truly revolutionary ideas and startups. Would companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Tesla have ever come into existence? I highly doubt it as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc. would have not had any incentive to do so. They probably worked 80 and 100 hour weeks to achieve their dream – and make their money. What incentive would anyone have to do that when the state would take all profit? And, more importantly, they’d have to get the idea past multiple budget-conscious and unimaginative bureaucrats in multiple departments to get a new product from a new company off the ground.
Some socialists point to China or Vietnam as success stories. They are if you think receiving slave wages, dealing with uncontrolled pollution, total censorship, secret police able to arrest anyone for any reason, an all-powerful and unaccountable government, and no independent thoughts equal success. Also, if you dig deeper, you’ll find almost nothing gets invented in China or Vietnam; everything is stolen or copied from free market entities. China and Vietnam can just do it cheaper because they pay slave wages and don’t have the bother – or cost – of research and development.
What socialism does is redistribute wealth and equalize pay for those not in power. Those in power replace the millionaires and billionaires we have today: instead of Bill Gates you get Bernie Sanders. The wealth merely transfers to the state – and those running it – from individuals.
In a socialist system the floor sweeper and the state representative may make the same annual income, but there the similarities end. The floor sweeper gets their annual salary and has to pay for lodging, food, etc. The socialist “leader” gets their lodging paid for by the state. They also get their food, transportation, vacation home, and support staff paid by the state. The socialist leader may also have access to “illegal” news feeds and be allowed to travel to places the floor sweeper is forbidden to go. The pay may be roughly equal, but the benefits doled out to those in power make them the rich people of society.
A socialist system sounds good in theory but both history and modern times have proven that wherever it has been tried it has failed miserably. You’ll wind up in a totalitarian dictatorship (China, Cuba, Vietnam) where you’ll be reasonably well fed, or a totalitarian dictatorship where you’re starving and destitute (North Korea, Venezuela). But in any of these places you work for slave wages, get government controlled news, and could wind up in jail, tortured or beheaded, on the whim of the state.
For all its faults and problems, give me our US system every time.