I learned many of these facts about the old USSR from the first hand experience of a Russian that had came here in the early nineties. He received political asylum during the fall of the old communist regime because he was in fear of his life for demonstrating. He would say come here let me tell you a Russian story. When he first arrived his family was being shown around. They went into a super market and it freaked him out, he whispered to his wife I don’t know what is going on but they are trying to brain wash us. He thought the store was a set-up because they had never seen anything like all the products we have in just one store. We have this luxury without giving it a second thought. He said he used to stand in line for hours to just get a loaf of bread or gallon of milk and many times after many hours they would say sorry all out try again tomorrow. He and his brothers decided to fix his dads house for his birthday back in Russia and they were hauled in for questioning, the government wanted to know what was going on. He said they never worked hard in the factories because if you did they would just pile more on you. Nobody at work did anything but try to avoid work because it didn’t bring you any more than those that were lazy. People would disappear out of the neighborhoods and nobody dared say a word about it, only in whispers. Yes he would say many times that we Americans don’t know how good we have it.
Socialism always seems to end up oppressive because a ruling class ends up totally controlling all aspects of society. This beauracracy becomes disconnected from the people. Central Planning is not American, we are supposed to rule from the outside in. In the USA “We the people” tell the government what we want and think is best. Elitists who can’t even run their own lives, our government, or even the public schools are teaching that Socialism is best. They think they will be running the show. “Government for the people but not by the people” is a socialistic tenet. Puffed up intellectuals would like to think of themselves as Plato’s “Philosopher Kings” another historical disaster. They believe as Gramsci posited that Wisdom comes from education, a misguided idea to say the least.
In the end, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics aka the USSR could not even provide bread and milk to its people and disintegrated. Many would say the USSR was not really socialism. I disagree the USSR was socialism instituted with the iron hand of Stalin. They even outlawed any form of speculation (getting a better price because of demand on an open market) that includes finding a higher paying job. The central government and central planners controlled everything, even how you would live, and what to think and believe. You did not disagree with anything or you were dead or in a brutal work camp called a gulag. This idea that the majority has the right to brutality over dissenters goes back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Bloody Terror of the Secular French Revolution. Our revolution was about individual rights advocated by our Founders who were influenced by John Locke the Father of Classic Western Liberalism. Christian restraint was another attribute of the American Revolution.
Why does Socialism fail? For starters people are not equal, they come in all shapes, forms and sizes, and success is relative, but socialism tries to package everybody in a cookie cutter equidy. A gardener may see success in a beautiful flower where another’s success may be in being able to dunk a basketball; success is a totally relative. The same with happiness, what makes one happy may not have the same effect on another’s emotions. Ones entertainment like sports could be another’s torture like the ballet. A bureaucrat that has no experience can’t step in an run a company. In communism a good idea gets you in trouble for going against the statis que in a free market it makes you more efficient.
The work and dedication involved in getting rich and holding onto it is not for everyone, let them have it in my opinion. Wealth really can be a ball and chain with a lot of worries, don’t be so quick to be envious of it. I’ll take the burning Spirit of God over worldly riches any day. Socialist try to brand the successful in a negative light to promote class warfare and hate is a powerful emotion, they should know the hatred and envy they foment could turn on them at any moment as it has done many times in the past on those that promote it. Now days they are also using race to divide by people.
Socialists really don’t care about the poor, they are just pawns in their power trip. Why aren’t the devotes of socialism giving up their wealth to help the poor if they really cared that much? They want to confiscate your money to help the poor while they skim off the top to enrich themselves. Elitist want higher taxes because there wealth is shielded and more tax money means more money in their pockets from big government contracts. Socialism just transfers the wealth from the private sector to a ruling class leaving everybody else poor and oppressed. Look at the billionaire party bosses in the People’s Republic of China for example, they live like kings while many of their people live like slaves. Then these elites idolize the murderous Mao, unbelievable. Free people decide what success is for themselves and go out and get it.
Then there is economics. Working for the common good sounds good, forcing people to help others is slavery. If you are working for the common good and being paid for it, it is really just a job and not that rewarding like volunteerism. If you work hard and see others slacking off and your hard work has no reward you will soon be slothful too, that is human nature and exactly what happened in the USSR. Think of that hard work to get an A on an exam, should the teacher give you a B or C and give part of your grade to a person who partied all night before the test and got an F to bring them to an equal status? Do lazy people or foolish decisions deserve an equal share. Equality with out responsibility definitely does not motivate a person to grow up, work harder or learn to make better decisions.
Most of the time a central planner has no real world experience in the occupation they are appointed to. They are just a political appointment. Even with a lot of education, it takes on the job experience to understand a company and product. Most of the time political appointments just become favors and the person’s ability does not even matter. Central planning involves layers of bureaucracies that are very inefficient you end up spending more on the bureaucracy than the project you want to accomplish. Only 33 cents of every dollar allocated to help the poor in welfare programs is actually being spent on them here in the USA and it has the negative effect of creating dependency. My idea of help would be aid to working poor and a safety net but not hand-outs.
Bureaucracies always seem to become lazy, inefficient and corrupt whether its government, corporate or union. Central planners don’t have to worry about being efficient either, they just keep rolling in the doe, our tax dollars. A business has to at least stay efficient or they will go bankrupt. With no ownership their is no stability to produce anything like food. Look at Venezuela another recent Socialist failure, they let people start setting up camps and co-ops anywhere they wanted and hampered the ranchers and farmers and now they are starving.
Socialism isn’t just economics either. The elitist foisting Socialism upon us also believe in these fringe intellectual movements of the past that have become mainstream: Critical Theory, Neo-Marxism, Post Modernism, Deconstruction and Reductionism. These tenets, doctrines and philosophies associated with these ideas are totally anti-American traditions, creeds, values, history, religions and especially anti Christian and Christian history and even anti-science judging science to having done more harm than good. They do want a state religion though, it’s called Socialism.
One of the biggest problems with Socialism is that it concentrates power and concentrated power is rife for despots and tyrants to take advantage of, that is why our wise founders separated powers. They knew human nature and were not so presumptuous as our Post Modern Intellectuals as thinking they could change human nature itself by controlling language. Our founders were wise they put checks and balances on power. One tidbit many forget about American History is under the Articles of the Confederation before they formed our constitutional government they had thirteen separate self governing experiments going on. The experience from the thirteen separate state governments helped them smooth the rough edges of our national plan of self governance. The founders were also great students of history and investigated many forms of government and theories when creating ours.
Read the book that says the elitist intellectuals are wrong about everything they believe, that is why they hate it. The book I am talking about is the first book ever printed on the world changing moveable type printing press, the best seller year after year, through-out history, endorsed though out history and today by millions, the Bible. Start in the Gospel of John and then read the book of Romans this will help you understand what the whole Bible is about. the love of God and humanities redemption. God’s unmerited favor freed me from a life of alcoholism, drugs and selfish desires. The act of believing God’s message to man is called faith. Faith in God’s simple plan of redemption found in a condensed form in 1st Corinthians 15 1-4 will open your heart to his Spirit of love and you will become one of his children. For a troubled soul read Romans chapter 8 multiple times a day.