President Trump declared in his latest State of the Union that, “America will never be a socialist country.” This is a positive declaration by a president who has often flirted with too much intervention in the economy. It’s also especially important in a time when socialism is becoming popular. I guess it’s time to address socialism and its problems in light of current events.
“The goal of socialism is communism.”
-Vladimir Lenin
The issue with socialism that’s often missed is that it degrades the individual. It makes the collective more important than the individual, which is backwards. Not to mention, socialism’s real effects are softened by unclear language around what it truly is to make it digestible.
Individual: Socialism degrades the integrity of the individual. It discounts your inherent value. When you’re not forced to rely on yourself, you lose the ability to define your path in life. Capitalism allows you to build a life and enter into mutually beneficial situations. You have to help other people and provide value to other people to receive value in return.
Community: What you find at the community level is the same. In a socialist society, everyone expects others to take care of problems because they weren’t raised to take responsibility. Capitalism creates a society that forces people to create value before receiving it. If that system focuses on creating virtuous people, then it can sustain people who can’t help themselves at that time or for their whole life.
Society: Politics that are supported by a socialist system expand government and force out the individual. It creates a society that is angry and envious, or vice versa. It’s like a chicken and egg situation. Capitalism does the same thing in reverse. It makes people content and congratulatory, when it’s truly a free market, because people recognize that they make their own success and what others achieve is their own.
