SOCIALISM’S COST AND APPEAL

A Letter to a Socialistic Friend:

“I am also pragmatic in this area of economics as you are. There is no absolutely right economic policy. Instead, I think that wisdom should always require us to examine the impact of our policies, recognizing that there are dangerous extremes and abuses of power on both sides of the economic divide.

However, I tend to lean away from Marxist socialism for a number of reasons:

1.    I don't think it represents the Biblical ideal. Instead, people need to be able to reap what they sow and to give voluntarily and discerningly. I had spent more than two years with perhaps the most successful Marxist communities - the Israeli kibbutzim. However, these were voluntary. Members could come and go as they pleased. However, even these proved to be unsustainable, and their businesses ceased to be competitive. Eventually, after the idealism waned, these communities tended to breed laziness and slothfulness. Most of these communities still exist, but they had to shed most of their Marxist features.

2.    I think it tends to undermine Christian values, family, and community making people dependent upon the State, the God-substitute, instead of learning how to depend and to be accountable to one another. It also breaks down families, making the husband unnecessary.

3.    Top-down control is wasteful and unsustainable. It also exercises more control and conformity over our lives.

4.    Instead of empowering, it robs people of their initiative.

5.    Socialism involves greater measures of control over individuals and families heightening the potential of the abuse of the few over the many.

6.    Those who are more gifted will tend to escape the socialist system making it even less competitive.

7.    Marxism has a consistent track record of repression and genocide.

Admittedly, unbridled capitalism also embodies many dangers. However, with laws in place to control the abuses, capitalism unleashes human initiative and is the greatest engine for economic progress and general well-being. In comparison to socialism, it only requires minimal governmental oversight and interference into our lives.

Why then its popularity in view of its many costly failures and human rights abuses? Here are several probable culprits:

1.    As the West has moved in a leftist direction, capitalism has been routinely vilified by the universities and the media.

2.    Socialism promises the world, while it denies the costs.

3.    Socialists claim that the rich steal wealth rather than create wealth.

4.    We want immediate benefits and have little inclination to think about the future costs.

5.    Socialism is wrongly associated with compassion and empathy. We want to think of ourselves as compassionate, and Socialism provides the outlet.”

6.    By equalizing everyone, it is assumed that the causes of division will be removed. Instead, it seems to breed more resentments, when some work hard and other don’t.