The Eternal Appeal of Socialism

From an intellectual and historical perspective, socialism is an abject failure.  Yet the economic theory seemingly has mythical, Phoenix-like qualities.  It doesn’t work so a country abandons it to seemingly universal approval.  Yet a few decades later, the concept is promoted as if it holds bountiful prospects for mankind.

Plainly socialism, as an idea, has an appeal which will lie dormant only so long as the memory of its most recent economic disaster is fresh.

Why is that?  Socialism is appealing in the sense that hope springs eternal.  Mankind is an optimistic sort.  Yesterday’s failure does not preordain future results, does it?

Pure socialism calls for the society to control all matters of production and economic activity.  Its operational credo is to place the interests of the group’s welfare over that of individual members.  Egalitarianism is the model, not individualism.  Karl Marx expressed its practical application in the prescription “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”.

Sounds appealing, right?  And so it is to so many.

The problem is that socialism in practice always crashes and burns when it collides with human nature.

People are primarily motivated by what they perceive as their own interests.  Why should a person surrender what he has earned because someone else “needs” it?  And why should someone who has needs provide for himself if others will give it to him without his effort?

Yes, these are simple points which become more complicated in a functioning society which, of course, does need money to operate.  But the truths are elemental.

The less money a worker receives for his efforts, the less effort he will expend.  The more that a recipient of money receives from others, the less is his incentive to expend his own efforts to earn.

Why is this called common sense?  Because it is an accurate statement founded in human nature.

Historically, we know this to be true.  Those denying – or ignoring – this reality are “utopian” for good reasons.  Socialist experiments do indeed prove to be exactly that.

People stop working.  Welfare lines grow.  Entrepreneurs flee or hide their wealth as taxes become confiscatory.  And the economy collapses.

When free enterprise is introduced or reestablished, prosperity arrives. 

 Death and taxes, as the chestnut recites, are always with us and so is mankind’s wishful thinking. 

This naivete is abundantly clear in the pronouncements of young leftists in Congress who are historically ignorant and intellectually facile (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is exhibit #1).  And cynicism is plainly evident in the allegiance pledged to socialist ideas by Democratic presidential candidates seeking support from their party’s left wing.

President Trump insists that America will never become a socialist country.

TSC is less sanguine.  Considering the disintegration of public education and other traditional disseminators of American values (including appreciation of the free enterprise system), Conservatives may be engaging in wishful thinking of their own.

The Socialist Phoenix is rising.