Socialism sells expectation rather than proven performance. The new workers paradise is always one government regulation away. As sold by Democrats today, that undefined socialism means different things to different people.
- To the government employee, socialism means higher pay, earlier retirement, and a larger pension.
- To the union worker, socialism means less competition from companies in free states.
- To the student who took classes at an expensive university and got an unmarketable major, socialism means someone else pays his student debts.
- To the politically connected religious organization, socialism means spending someone else’s money and the blending of church and state.
- To the Democrat politician and party functionaries, socialism means a new flood of “campaign” contributions.
The socialism we’re sold is never the socialism we get. By definition, socialism means the government regulates the economy. The power to regulate is the power to destroy, and socialist politicians know that people will pay a lot to stay alive. Socialism means we have to ask government for permission for everything.
Under socialism, we ask permission to work for someone or to quit our job. We ask permission to hire someone or to fire them. We need permission to stay in our apartment or to move to a new one. We need permission to speak and permission to stay silent. Socialism demands permission to build a place to live or a place to work. Eventually, socialism means permission to buy food..and the more socialism the less food there is to buy.
Every required government authorization comes with a fee and a chance for government officials to get “voluntary campaign contributions”. Those contributions are really unofficial bribes. That is how socialism works in practice.
Socialism is a disaster for the working man, but not for the millionaire Socialists running for political office today. For them, Socialism is a way to become unimaginably wealthy. That is how politicians and their wives became millionaires today, and how they become multi-millionaires under Socialism. (here and here)
Socialists in the US point at Sweden and say we want that here. Socialist salesmen don’t point at Cuba and North Korea. The Venezuelans wanted Sweden too, but they got Cuba instead. I know Swedes who left Sweden and Spaniards who left Spain because they wanted the freedom we have here in the USA. Under Socialism, only what is permitted is allowed.
Today, we’re promised Sweden, but we get the spreading government-run-shit-show of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Saint Louis, Detroit, Baltimore and Trenton. I wouldn’t trust them to run a cookie sale.
That is the reality of Socialism, but that probably isn’t what the socialist student living in his mom’s basement has in mind.
