SOCIALISM?

What are some of the political reforms and public policies advocated by socialists and their allies on the road to full socialism?

Consider what a top socialist leader advocated in 1922:

    WE DEMAND THAT THE GOVERNMENT UNDERTAKE THE OBLIGATION ABOVE ALL OF PROVIDING CITIZENS WITH ADEQUATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT AND EARNING A LIVING.

    THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO CLASH WITH THE INTERESTS OF THE COMMUNITY, BUT MUST TAKE PLACE WITHIN ITS CONFINES AND BE FOR THE GOOD OF ALL ...

    WE DEMAND THE NATIONALIZATION OF ALL BUSINESSES WHICH HAVE BEEN AMALGAMATED (INTO TRUSTS).

    WE DEMAND THAT THE STATE SHALL SHARE IN THE PROFITS OF LARGE INDUSTRIES.

    WE DEMAND THAT PROVISION FOR THE AGED SHALL BE MADE ON A VERY GREATLY INCREASED SCALE.

    WE DEMAND A LAND-REFORM SUITABLE TO OUR NATIONAL REQUIREMENTS, THE PASSING OF A LAW FOR THE CONFISCATION OF LAND FOR COMMUNAL PURPOSES; THE ABOLITION OF INTEREST ON MORTGAGES, AND PROHIBITION OF ALL SPECULATION IN LAND.

    WE DEMAND AN AGRARIAN REFORM SUITABLE TO OUR NATIONAL REQUIREMENTS; THE ENACTMENT OF A LAW TO EXPROPRIATE WITHOUT COMPENSATION THE OWNERS OF ANY LAND THAT MAY BE NEEDED FOR NATIONAL PURPOSES; THE ABOLITION OF GROUND RENTS; AND THE PROHIBITION OF ALL SPECULATION IN LAND.

    ...THE STATE SHALL ORGANIZE THOROUGHLY THE WHOLE CULTURAL SYSTEM OF THE NATION . . . THE CONCEPTION OF THE STATE IDEA (THE SCIENCE OF CITIZENSHIP) SHALL BE TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.  WE DEMAND THAT SPECIALLY TALENTED CHILDREN OF POOR PARENTS, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR STATION OR OCCUPATION, SHALL BE EDUCATED AT THE COST OF THE STATE.

    IT IS THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO HELP RAISE THE STANDARD OF THE NATION'S HEALTH BY PROVIDING MATERNITY WELFARE CENTRES, BY PROHIBITING JUVENILE LABOUR, BY INCREASING PHYSICAL FITNESS THROUGH THE INTRODUCTION OF COMPULSORY GAMES AND GYMNASTICS. . . .

    (WE) COMBAT THE MATERIALISTIC SPIRIT WITHIN AND OUTSIDE US, AND ARE CONVINCED THAT A PERMANENT RECOVERY OF OUR PEOPLE CAN ONLY PROCEED WITHIN ON THE FOUNDATION OF "THE COMMON GOOD BEFORE THE INDIVIDUAL GOOD."

                          -- From the "Twenty-Five Point" Programme of the German National Socialist Workers Party, authored by Adolf Hitler and others on February 24, 1920. (Konrad Heiden's translation in A History of National Socialism)


Politicians such as Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, the Clintons, and Al Gore were not the first  to push for socialistic national health care schemes, political controls on wages and prices, and land grabs in the name of the "national good" or a phony "environmentalism"; far too many want to solve real or imagined problems by using government meddling (up to and including totalitarian tyranny) in peoples' lives and in their businesses. The consequences have been tragic.

Socialism -- the Ultimate Coercive Monopoly
(in the name of "the people" of course)
Anytime you give to government the responsibility and authority to provide government-made jobs, old-age financial security, "free" health care, and "free" education and indoctrination of children, it will control the lives of the people who live under its jurisdiction, and individual liberty and freedom of choice are sacrificed.

Sure, security is important -- but anyone can find security from a prison warden.  But, despite socialist promises, bureaucratic programs of the political state cannot guarantee security anyway.  Instead the socialist state uses its coercive powers to seize the wealth and properties of those who have earned financial security by their own hands.  Socialism does not help poor people; rather, socialism makes people poor so that they have to become dependent on the socialist state and therefore beholden to those in charge of the government.

 Socialism is the ultimate exploitative monopoly.  No competitors (peaceful market alternatives) are allowed.  All major industries, including food, banking, transportation, communication, health care, education, and insurance are owned and operated as state monopolies.

Socialism is the ultimate system of government intervention in the peaceful business affairs and other voluntary relationships of the people -- and the socialist state tends to become the legal tool for running interference on behalf of the most corrupt interests in society at the expense of peaceful businessmen and workers.  After all, what could be more monopolistic than a system in which the political state owns or controls the major industries -- while the privileged monopolistic clique owns or controls the state and uses it as a sort of legal holding company for its own interests?  When the government "nationalizes" a business or entire industry, the monopolistic elite is just using government intervention to take over and control what would otherwise be its competitors.  And the alternatives and choices available to consumers for obtaining what they need and want are greatly diminished.

Socialism is a system of authoritarian political control over the individual by bureaucratic central planners -- very similar to fascism or communism.  Socialism promises to use the power of the political state to forcibly redistribute resources (peoples' earnings) so that the basic needs of all will be met.  To do this, power must be centralized in the hands of the political state.  When government has power over the lives and properties of its citizens, the citizens have no freedom -- only the meager privileges the state programs may dole out to them.  In practice, socialism's redistribution of wealth ends up with bureaucrats doling out poverty and dependency on the state.

If government could give you everything you want, it must have the power to take everything you've got.  This is the real agenda of socialism.  It is the confiscation of property in the name of a "fairer" distribution of it.  It is the total political institutionalization of violence and exploitation in the name of abolishing exploitation.  And the dirty little secret is that socialism is a tool of big, monopolistic interests behind the scenes while their front men act in the name of "the people" (or in the name of "the race" or the "working class" or the "New World Order" or the global environment)!

Sure, there are several different brands of socialism -- at least as many types as there are would-be people-planners who wish to impose their schemes to control the personal and economic lives of other people.  But are you willing to surrender your precious liberties to a Socialist State which promises "security" for everyone or government-enforced equality?  Isn't this what Hitler and other socialists promised the German people in his Nazi (national socialist) platform -- a country in which government guarantees security and "equality" in exchange for giving up individual freedom?  Will Americans fall for the same scam?

Socialism is an old dream.  Some dreams are nightmares when put into practice.


Other Links

Contrasting Paranoias:  Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories and Left-Wing Conspiracy Theories Compared

The Essence of Leftism

OLIGOPOLY AND POLITICAL PULL (Or, Beware the Regulatory-Industrial Complex) -- The Ultimate Antidote to the Politics of Exploitative Monopoly

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