What is Socialism?

It is a system where the government controls the means of production. It is basically Communism-Lite.  Socialism wants to be Communism when it grows up. The popular myth is that Socialism is a more caring system than Capitalism, and there’s still plenty of personal freedom. Not true. I’ve spent time in Socialist countries, like Venezuela, and I’ve done extensive travel recently in Communist China.

The first thing you notice there is that everyone is under surveillance. No matter where you go, nor what you do, the government is listening, watching…and paying attention. Even when driving with a friend in a car. Any comments made about the government are made in a quiet voice and, even then, not much is said. There are many ways your words could come back later to arrest you.

Bureaucracy 

Under Socialism approvals are everything. Approval is the new wealth. If you have a certificate or permission slip, you are rich. You need a stamp, a document, a form, a voucher, a passport, a letter of approval. You must show your papers if you want to do anything valuable. And the people in charge of giving those approvals are unelected bureaucrats who don’t really care whether you get approved or not. Locals learn which queue to line up in, and on which days of the week they should apply in order to be most likely to get approved. People say, “But healthcare, education and public services are free.” Nice joke, what good is free medical care if the provider isn’t available or doesn’t care about assisting you?

From an article by Bret Stephens in the Washington Post:

“Greece has a public health care system that, in theory, guarantees its citizens access to necessary medical care. Practice, however, is another matter. Patients in Greek public hospitals, Tsipras explained, would first have to slip a doctor “an envelope with a certain amount of money” before they could expect to get treatment. The government, he added, underpaid its doctors and then looked the other way as they topped up their income with bribes.

Take a close look at any country or locality in which the government offers allegedly free or highly subsidized goods and you’ll usually discover that there’s a catch.

France’s subsidized day care is, by all accounts, fantastic for working parents who get their children into it. Except there’s a perpetual shortage of slots. In Sweden, a raft of laws protects tenants from excessively high rent. Except wait times for apartments can be as long as 20 years. In Britain, the National Health Service is a source of pride. Except that, even before the pandemic, 1 in 6 patients faced wait times of more than 18 weeks for routine treatment.”

In Capitalism the business owner cares about the customer because they have to, otherwise they lose your business to a competitor who cares more. And others are free to open a competitive business when opportunities are evident. When demand is great you put on more capacity to serve.

Distrust is Socialism’s starting point 

In Urumqi, China in the Uyghur Autonomous Region, I went with my host to the Grand Bazaar to do some shopping. There were military guards at every entrance and a passport was required just to go buy souvenirs or food. I was patted down and put up against the wall by a soldier who spoke no English. Luckily my agent/host came to my rescue and we were allowed in for an otherwise delightful shopping experience. I still suspect that I might have been carried away in one of the many armored vehicles as we were surrounded by heavily armed guards. Whew, that was close. And this is the state that Socialism aspires to achieve.

Rip Offs from Officials

While going through customs in Caracas during the Hugo Chavez era in Venezuela, the customs agent tried repeatedly to make me exchange all of my US dollars for “Bolivares” (the worthless currency of that country.) This happened both as I entered and days later as I departed. In China I applied at a bank to open a checking account so that I could use AliPay on my phone instead of always carrying Yuan currency “renminbi”. The bank, after an associate and I had stood in line for hours, informed me that I could not open an account because my Visa was only approved for ten years. Ten years! There’s not a quicker way either. There was no answer source to help you determine which line to get in or even whether it was worth it. You get in the queue or you go home. Wait your turn, no matter how long it takes. And, if their workday ends before you get to the front…come again to start over another day.

The next thing you notice is bars on windows and barbed wire or broken glass atop walls and fences. Even in Communist China’s zillions of high rise apartment buildings there are often bars on the windows going up as many as nine stories! Who is so desperate to break in that they would climb nine stories to do it? In Socialist countries there is less trust between people, more corruption and “off the books” dealing, and a thriving black market for basic human needs items. Most dealings begin with a payment under the table. There is also rampant crime, though you don’t see it openly.

In Venezuela I was horrified by the aggressive driving practices. Our driver, in a Mercedes sedan, actually nudged other cars out of the way! Intentional collisions!!! He drove on sidewalks when traffic stopped. No policemen even noticed. And poverty is overwhelming. Entire swaths of the city were complete squalor. Tens of thousands living without running water, reliable electricity, or sanitary conditions.

At the “luxury” hotel where I stayed for my speaking engagement I had two encounters that tell you a lot about the culture. First, my hostess on the concierge floor made it clear to me that she was available for extra services. I declined. Then, when I went downstairs to the salon for a simple haircut, my “stylist” fell asleep DURING the cut! He was on drugs and could barely get through the task of cutting my hair. I asked for another stylist but was refused. Thankfully the damage to my hair was minimal. These were not exceptional situations. This was pretty common wherever I went in Caracas. I understand that things have gotten much worse under the Maduro regime.

In other South American countries I’ve been told, “Under no circumstances are you to get into a car where you do not know the driver!” They say, “This is the car, a Dark Grey Honda Civic four door. The license plate is XXX1234. The driver’s name is Juan Saucedo. Don’t get into another car.” Sheesh! OK then. Later I learned that kidnapping of US visitors was very high in that country. Duly warned. That, my friends, is Socialism. Don’t try this at home!!!

Socialism also loves Racism 

Socialism requires “Systemic Racism” in order to work. To sustain control over a large population the government needs multiple ways to divide and isolate smaller groups. Get them to hate, fight, fear each other, then pick them off one at a time. They establish specific rules for each subgroup. The discrimination is built into the structure of the bureaucracy and reinforced daily through the media. Not just races but any identifiable subgroup.

Why do I say “racism” when clearly some of these are not racial categories? Because the treatment is the same as it would be if skin color were the issue. Look at how black conservatives like Candace Owens and Ben Carson are treated in the USA. It is all about seeing people as being “less than” and judging and restricting them accordingly.

In Socialist countries Americans are singled out first, no race required, the US passport proves that you are unworthy. Christianity gets one set of rules. Buddhism gets a different set. Whites are treated differently from Blacks or Latinos. Tourists, Business Travelers and Immigrants are tightly controlled and monitored. Accommodation of non-native speakers is often non-existent. Good luck speaking English in the Xinjiang district of China, or the customs processing facility in a Venezuelan airport, or at any government agency in Central or South America.

What is Racism?  If we are accusing people of it, then we ought to agree on what it is.

Racism is when one asserts that one race is superior to another race. But it doesn’t depend on physical “race” in order to be practiced. Caucasian, Negro, Asian, Latino, Aleutian, Indian, Aboriginal, Samoan, Jewish, Scandinavian, Native American, Arabic, Egyptian, etc. These were the races we heard most about during the past few generations in America. But Racism has morphed into a new context. Now there are “races” that have nothing whatsoever to do with one’s heritage or DNA.

Today there is virtually no distinction between the practice of Racism, Sexism, Leftism, Anything-Phobia, Climate Denial, Ageism (“OK Boomer”), Socialism, Communism, Religious Persecution or any other “ism.” The Leftists in America have recently invented new groups to hate in order to generate fear, disapproval and agreement to allow the isolation of them. “White Nationalist” is a big favorite, so is “White Supremacist” and “Male Domination”. There is no White Nationalist movement, nor are there enough people who desire White Supremacy to generate much concern.

If only whites were in charge of perpetuating racism we would see an end to it within one generation. 

Male Domination is also an easy one for them to perpetuate as an adversary; nature itself is male-dominant, so there’s no escaping that pattern. But these are fabricated judgments. It is the same as racism in practice. It’s all about diminishing the power of one group while advancing the power of your team.

Black Lives Matter is founded on racism.

Not other people’s racism, but their own. Of course lives matter regardless of skin color. But BLM clearly believes that Black is superior to other races, especially Whites. They elevate the needs of Blacks above all others and rationalize it by saying they are repaying past wrongs, even those that have no living victims anymore. They promote lies about police and make accusations that cannot be proven. “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” was a slogan manufactured by BLM to win sympathy for their violence. The Trayvon Martin trial is another where the popular myth was a lie. He was guilty of unprovoked assault and George Zimmerman was the victim who acted in self defense. But that’s not the way the BLM media campaign reported it. They also take isolated instances of police misbehavior and criminal action then they amplify it to seem like a wave of hatred and corruption sweeping the nation! Of course, some police are corrupt or are racists. But so are BLM leaders, church pastors, community organizers, hairstylists, kindergarten teachers and dog sitters. That doesn’t make it an epidemic! Every group has its miscreants but police corruption is not systemic nor highly common.

Accuse others of your sins

A central premise of racism is that, in order for it to work, you must ignore the misbehavior of your own group. The biggest source of black crime in America is at the hands of other blacks. In Chicago alone, gun violence, gang violence, and murders by blacks is epidemic. But the Leftist media and the BLM leaders ignore or minimize that. They rationalize it as evidence of how oppressed their group has been. Then they blame the crimes on the guns. Mostly illegal guns, but they ignore that and want to confiscate the guns owned by law abiding citizens.

Maxine Waters clearly believes that her Leftist racist cult, not her skin color, but rather, her worldview, is superior to others, especially Whites and Conservatives. She incites violence and hatred toward them daily. “Get in their faces wherever they go and tell them You’re Not Welcome Here!” The radical politicians known as “The Squad” quickly take on the same outrageous positions. They can’t afford to have you lose your sense of outrage and desire for “justice.”

One of the most openly racist groups on earth is “Antifa.”

Yet they will tell you that they are fighting Fascism. (Ask them to define it.) Antifa understands that using the same actions as Fascists is the best way to resist what they like to call Fascism. Yet what they do is exactly what the WWII Fascists did; they riot, burn, attack, kill, beat, damage, destroy, loot, intimidate and scream at both innocents and defenders. They are like Mussolini’s Brown Shirts and yet, they accuse others of being the offenders. They seem to have very little concern over who they target. Mostly they are committed to doing harm. They treat conservatives as if they were a lower form of life and it would be OK to abuse them.

Yet, even prestigious law schools keep the small mindedness alive. In early May 2021, at Rutgers law school, a student quoted a legal document that included the N-word and suddenly there was a public outcry to censure the student and heal the school of this awful experience.

“Lopez and his co-dean, Kimberly Mutcherson, said in a statement that the discussion underway had nothing to do with “stifling academic freedom, ignoring the First Amendment, or banning words.” Rather, they said, it was about “how best to create classroom environments in which all of our students feel seen, heard, valued and respected.”

Note: They did not say ‘where all students learn and excel in their subjects,’ but rather, where they feel comfortable. Rutgers is a damned expensive place to go to get good feelings, especially when you could have been getting an education instead of worrying about your feelings, if they just changed their focus.

Capitalism hates Racism

A Capitalist society is rooted in freedom and accountability. If you open a new business and it doesn’t meet a large enough public need to generate profits then it fails and you pay for your error through losses. If you mistreat or deceive your customers then competitors will get the business. America is a melting pot of many races and businesses cannot expect to treat them differently then still win their business loyalty.

Through apps like NextDoor.com and Yelp! among others we have found ways to communicate our happiness or unhappiness when dealing with local providers. This freedom of speech allows us to eliminate the bad apples in a non violent way. We simply stop doing business with them. No race identity is required.

The next time someone says Socialism isn’t a threat to America, or when they hurl “Racist” accusations at others, give them a copy of this article and say, “Make your point with logic and evidence.” That will likely be a very short conversation. Have a profitable day.

 

 

 

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