Wednesday, July 14, 2021
The Case Against Socialism, Part III
July 13, 2021 by Dan Mitchell
Part I of this series looked at socialism’s track record of failure, while Part II pointed out that greater levels of socialism lead to greater levels of misery.
For Part III, let’s start with this video on the economics of socialism.
If the world was governed by logic, there would be no need to address this topic for a third time.
After all, the evidence is overwhelming that capitalism (oops, I mean free enterprise) does a better job than socialism.
But it seems that we don’t live in a logical world. We have too many people who have an anti-empirical belief in bigger government.
And, if the polling data is accurate, the problem seems especially acute with young people.
I’ve wondered whether sub-par government schools are part of the problem. Are they mis-educating kids?
I don’t know if that was a problem in the past, but Richard Rahn warns in the Washington Times that it will probably be a problem in the future.
Recent polls have shown rising support for socialism and an increasingly negative view of capitalism, particularly among the young. …Most of those who say they support socialism are probably unaware that it has failed every place and time that it has been tried. …They may also not be aware that socialism relies on coercion to function…
By contrast, capitalism relies on the voluntary exchange of goods and services… Last week at the NEA’s annual meeting, the delegates demanded that the union issue a study criticizing, among many things, “capitalism.” Has anyone thought through the alternatives – a system based on slavery or serfdom…? Under capitalism, investment and productive labor are allocated by individual consumer choice. …Under socialism, there is no good mechanism for meeting consumer demand; the socialist leaders decide what the people should have. There is no mechanism for creating and encouraging innovation – that is why socialist states normally only produce something new after it has already been produced in a capitalist country… So why then are the teachers’ unions advocating that capitalism be attacked, and socialism be applauded? The answer is simple, willful ignorance.
I’ve always supported school choice because I want better educational outcomes, especially for poor and minority students.
In recent months, I’ve wondered we also need school choice because of what teacher unions are doing on issues such as critical race theory and school re-openings.
Now it seems we need choice simply to protect kids from the risk of being propagandized.
P.S. Or protect kids from nonsensical forms of discipline.
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