WHAT IS SOCIALISM?

by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. The Problems With Socialism

III. The Opposite Of Socialism

IV. The Illegality Of Socialism In The United States

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I. INTRODUCTION

Many people believe that socialism means that everyone is taken care of, and that everyone has about the same amount of money as everyone else.

This is what is taught in schools and in the media today, but it is completely wrong!

Those who promote socialism are always liars or very ignorant. This is most important to know. THIS ARTICLE TEACHES THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT SOCIALISM. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.

DEFINITIONS

1. A strict Marxist definition. Socialism means government ownership of the factories, farms and other means of production of wealth in a nation.

2. Socialism is just a modern word for tyrannical or authoritarian government rule. In the field of politics, either the citizens make most of the decisions about their life themselves, or others make these decisions. Socialism is when a powerful government makes many decisions about one's life.

3. Socialism is the political and economic system of the alien invaders of earth called the thugs, crud, stinks, rogues or satans.

4. The system of the Democratic Party in the United States. This political party has always sought to destroy the principles and fabric of the United States. It is associated with many socialist ideas.

5. An illegal system in the United States punishable by treason. However, this fact has been obscured and violated so often that it is hardly recognizable. We discuss it in detail later in this article.

6. Unlimited government power. Socialism is unlimited government power. It is tyrannical control of the nation and the economy.

7. A command-and-control economy rather than a market economy. There are basically two economic systems. Either the people make most economic decisions (what to buy and sell) or the government makes most of these decisions. Socialism generally refers to a command-and-control system. The opposite is called free market, libertarian, capitalist, The Austrian Economic System or the Chicago School of Economics.

8. A secular philosophy. Socialism is also called leftist or left wing because it is secular or non-religious in nature. In many socialist nations, religion is either banned or discouraged. Religious people are often hunted down and murdered.

9. An elitist system. Socialism requires a ruling class of people who make many decisions and manage the economy. In contrast, a nation of liberty has self-government and market economies are controlled by the citizens.

In a free market nation, the role of government is to protect individual liberty and economic freedom, and not to rule over the people. The United States, for example, was set up as an individual-based, soul-based, society with a small and less powerful central government. The primary role of the government is to protect the rights of each individual, and there is more self-governance rather than governance by a powerful central government.

Today, elitists do not like this type of government so they are trying to change it to an old-style authoritarian, tyrannical government by calling their idea socialism and teaching that it is benign and helpful, when it is not.

10. Other aspects. Socialism is associated with compulsory government-run schooling for all children, government-run daycare and government-run health care. Alternatives such as home-schooling are usually not permitted.

11. Socialist democracies – a mixture. This is a description of most European nations, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel and many other modern democratic nations. These nations do not value or protect individual rights as much as does the United States. In socialist democracies people elect their rulers, but the rulers rule. This is different from self-rule or self-governance and limited government power.

The people elect their rulers. However, once the rulers are elected, they can do pretty much whatever they wish. It is still tyranny. Today, the election system is broken so elections are rigged and don't mean too much. So we are effectively back to tyranny or simply authoritarian rule or dictatorship.

Communist Russia and Nazi Germany are examples of socialist economies. The word Nazi, in fact, is a contraction of the words national socialism. The old name of the Russian dictatorship was the USSR. This stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Other words that are similar in meaning to socialism: Progressivism, communism, and liberalism.

Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried. But power-hungry people keep teaching how wonderful it is.

It does not work well because people have no incentive to work hard. It also fails because it requires a large, expensive bureaucratic government that is not as good at figuring out what people need as the people can do themselves.

THE OPPOSITE OF SOCIALISM

To help understand socialism, it is helpful to understand its opposite. The opposite of socialism is a government of limited power with most power reserved to the people, not the government.

The opposite of socialist economy also includes the free enterprise economic system, also called the free market system, or capitalism. It involves private ownership of land, factories, farms and everything else. It works excellently to foster prosperity. We discuss these in more details later in this article.

II. THE PROBLEMS WITH SOCIALISM

1. Shortages. Socialist nations often develop shortages of various goods and services because no government is smart enough to anticipate the demand for all goods and services in a society.

The planners try to make sure there is enough of basic goods, but because there is little economic freedom to produce what the people want, often shortages occur.

2. Great Inefficiency. This occurs for a number of reasons:

A. The nation must pay for all of the bureaucrats who manage and police the economic system. Socialism requires millions of bureaucrats and technocrats to plan, manage and police the economic system. These are “professional” managers who work for the government, usually in a central location. Supporting them is very costly.

B. Heavy-handed regulation often means less innovation, and therefore old ways of doing things persist.

C. Powerful unions often demand that old and outdated methods of manufacturing, hiring, and other aspects of business remain in force because unions do not want their members to lose their jobs to automation or other updated business practices.

D. Corruption. Socialist economies tend to have a lot more corruption, as described below. This costs plenty of money.

3. Corruption. Corruption is often described as waste, fraud and abuse. Let us consider each of these:

Waste occurs because without prices to evaluate and value all goods and services, money is often invested poorly or inappropriately. Government bureaucrats are often not good at deciding which products and services are needed, so they favor industries and activities and products that are not really needed, and this is very wasteful.

Waste also occurs due to inefficient production, in many cases, and unnecessary regulations and union rules.

Fraud on a big scale occurs because whenever the government controls an industry, it is fairly easy for sharp operators to falsify paperwork and charge the government for products and services were never provided. This is called fraud.

It is a feature of all government programs, and very hard to stop. Reasons for this are that control and policing are from a distance away, so most of the time the government does not have the “police force” necessary to oversee things well. Also, and more importantly, government bureaucrats have little incentive to stop the fraud. If there is not enough money, they just ask their legislators to tax the people more.

Abuse is somewhat similar to the above. However, it is not exactly illegal activity, as is fraud. Abuse includes bribing or otherwise rewarding government officials in return for receiving lucrative business contracts from the government.

Abuse includes playing favorites in other ways, such as when writing regulations, so that one’s friends benefit and one’s enemies are prevented from competing in business. Abuse tends to occur any time a small group of people have tremendous power over the economy.

4. Bad quality products. This is due to over-regulation, an effect of unions that hold back innovation and new manufacturing techniques, lack of robust competition (as occurs in capitalist societies), and a certain lack of caring that often occurs in socialist economies.

This means that people have less incentive to strive for quality in socialist economies. Usually, they will not be paid more for their innovations, and government rules may stop them altogether from implementing better quality.

5. Environmental problems, in most cases. People complain about dumping of toxic waste and other horrors in America. In fact, America is much cleaner than Europe, Russia, Asia and all the socialist nations.

The reasons are that government regulations often prevent technological change that would reduce pollution. Also, some socialist governments such as India, Red China and others just don’t care about the environment. America is now becoming more socialist with all of its illegal government agencies. This is very important to understand. For details, read The Regulatory State.

6. Much less innovation. This is due to strong union influence, over-regulation by the government in some cases, an a kind of couldn’t-care-less attitude that sets in nations with socialist economies.

Another serious problem is the lack of the “hidden hand of the market” in all socialist economies. The “hidden hand” is a term that means that when people are given more freedom, they tend to become more efficient, and they tend to innovate in unusual and unpredictable ways. This simply does not happen as much in socialist economies, and the entire nation suffers as a result.

7. Perverse incentives. This means that the incentives to innovate, produce efficiently, and take pride in one’s work are not present. Instead, the economic incentives in a socialist economy are to slack off, just do what you are told, and work as little as possible.

This occurs because in many socialist nations one cannot be fired easily, so there is no need to work hard. Secondly, due to pay scales and work rules, if one does work hard, there is less reward than in a capitalist or free market economy. Also, powerful unions do not want one worker rewarded more than another, so union rules are another blockage to excellent worker incentives.

8. A discouraged, less caring and more angry population. This occurs in all socialistic nations. One reason is that people like economic freedom. They would like to start their own business, and run it their own way, without interference from the government or the unions. But this is not allowed.

At a deeper level, the intelligence, creativity and know-how of the people is stifled in a socialist economy, in favor of tight controls. This is always depressing and discouraging for people.

9. Less fair and just, although they claim the opposite. Advocates of socialism defend the system, saying that it evens out many of the inequalities that occur in a free market system. For example, no one is allowed to get rich, even if they work hard, because that is unfair, they say.

However, I would suggest socialism is more unfair by restricting the diversity of human creativity and productiveness. People are treated more like caged animals who receive many “government benefits”, but are not allowed to leave the “cage” of heavy government and union regulation.

10. Many fewer product choices. With less freedom, there are many fewer products and services in a socialist economy. The attitude of the bureaucrats is that if people need a car, a few types of cars are often enough, so that is all they allow. The same is true of all other products and services.

This is very different from a market, in which as many companies as possible, often, compete for the business of the people, giving the people many more choices and types of products.

An example from nutritional balancing is that in America, many brands of spring water, distilled water, and other types of water are readily available in even small-town supermarkets. However, when I speak with people in the nations of Europe or Canada, they have many fewer choices.

Their governments do not allow the importation or production of many kinds of water, of they have so many regulations that it discourages many companies from selling their products in these nations.

III. THE OPPOSITE OF SOCIALISM

To understand socialism better, it helps to consider its opposite. This is a government of limited scope and power. It also needs to be coupled with a free market or capitalist or free enterprise economic system.

In this system, much more power and authority rests with the people. This system, which America is the main example though it is not nearly as good as it was 100 years ago, is built on a completely different philosophy.

RIGHTS AND A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM

The American Declaration Of Independence states that “all people are endowed with certain rights by the Creator. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

This is the concept of natural rights. These rights come before any government and the government may not take them away.

LIMITED GOVERNMENT POWER

In American law, the people delegate a little power to the government to perform certain limited functions. This is called government with the consent of the governed.

The purpose of government is mainly to protect the rights of the people, not rule over them. This prevents tyranny or dictatorship.

There are checks and balances and many limitations on government power. For example, in the United States, Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution lists the only powers given to the government. There are only about eight of them.

For example, they do not include setting up welfare programs. The founders of America recognized that welfare (caring for the poor, disabled, elderly and sick) are best left to the private economic sector, not the government, which does them poorly as explained above.

Free market Economics. Individuals can start businesses easily, without a lot of blocks in their way. The goal is to respond to the demand for products and services that exist in every area of the economy. If one does this, one can make money, and taxes are kept low so individuals can keep what they earn.

The key to the market system is prices. If everyone wants a computer, and there are not enough of them, the price of computers will rise. In this way, fewer people will decide to buy computers, so the supply and the demand will even out.

Similarly, if no one wants little cars, and there are millions of these cars available, the price of little cars will go down. In this way, more people will decide to buy little cars and the supply and demand will equal out. This is called the law of supply and demand. It is the basic law of economics.

People want homes, cars, food, television sets, babysitters, and so on. In a market economy, people are allowed and encouraged to start businesses and companies to satisfy these demands. There are few, if any, bureaucrats who tell people what to do, how many televisions to make, what they should look like, and so on.

These are some of the essential differences between socialism and a market economy.

ISN’T AMERICA A FREE ENTERPRISE, NON-SOCIALIST NATION?

America was set up with limited government and a free enterprise economic system. This worked excellently for over 100 years. Then people who opposed America slowly began to destroy the concepts of the founders and this is continuing today. Here is a very brief and simplified timeline of a few of the changes:

1865 – Abolition of the land grant and land patent. When one buys a piece of land, one should receive a land patent. In 1865, this system was done away with. It was replaced with deeds for land.

A deed to a piece of land does not confer true ownership. One knows this because counties and states can tax “your land”, and if you don’t pay their taxes, they take away your land. This would not occur if you truly owned your property.

When one buys an automobile in America, one also does not own the vehicle outright. Few people know this, but upon paying for a car, you do not receive the actual title to your vehicle. This is kept elsewhere.

Instead, the “owner” receives a Certificate of Title. This is not the same. If you received the actual Title to your car, the government could not prevent you from using your car if you do not pay registration and licensing fees. They also could not impound your car, which means to steal it if you do not have a license or proper registration. I am sorry if this sounds blunt, but it is the truth.

1913 – The Federal Reserve. In 1913, a socialist-leaning president, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, signed the Federal Reserve Act. This law illegally turned over control of the money to a branch of the Bank Of England called the Federal Reserve.

Even the name is a complete lie. It is not federal, and there is no reserve. American currency, which used to say “United States Note” was changed to read “Federal Reserve Note”, meaning they own the money.

1934 – Social Security. In 1934, another socialist-leaning president, Franklin Roosevelt, signed into law Social Security. This is the American government retirement program. One of the main effects was to drive out of business the private retirement systems throughout the nation. This occurs whenever government takes over a sector of the economy, in this case the retirement systems.

While there are still some private retirement systems in America, there were formerly many, many more.

1967 – Medicare and Medicaid. In 1967, another socialist-leaning president, Lyndon Johnson, signed into law the American old-age government medical system and the American poor person’s medical care system.

This also put out of business the private medical systems used by the elderly and the poor.

2010 – Obamacare. In 2010, another socialist-leaning president, Barak Obama, signed into law, without any Republican votes at all, the Affordable Care Act of 2010. This greatly increased government control over health care in the United States. It has been a horror that has just raised the price of health insurance and has not improved health care one bit, as was promised.

(NOTE: socialists think all the above are wonderful steps toward socialism).

IV. THE ILLEGALITY OF SOCIALISM IN THE UNITED STATES

This is a very basic and important topic. All elected officers of the United States government and the state and local governments must swear a solemn oath to “uphold and defend the constitution of the United States” and the local constitutions.

The US Constitution and the state constitutions are not socialist documents and set forth the opposite – a government of limited power and authority with delegated powers, separation of powers, self-government, and a free market economic system.

Sadly, our politicians violate their oath all the time and no one holds them accountable and arrests them. This needs to change!

The oath is also sworn with one's right hand on a Bible (old testament). If one does not believe in the Bible, one cannot swear the oath without lying, and lying about the oath is a very serious crime. The United States was set up as a religious nation and only Hebrew and Christian religious people are to be leaders.

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