Socialism

The other day I learned on TV that there was a scientific poll on socialism conducted among American public by one of the mainstream polling companies (I forgot their name but it was one of the major political pollers). According to the results of this poll 53% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans expressed a favorable view of socialism. Needless to say I was totally shocked. In essence these people kind of legitimized in their minds such brutal regimes as Pol Pot in Cambodia, Mao Tse Tung in China, Stalin in Soviet Union, Castro in Cuba, Chavez in Venezuela and most importantly Hitler in Germany. Yes, Hitler was a socialist as the NSDAP or National Socialist German Workers Party was a socialist party as the name tells us.

I lived for the first 23 years of my life under a socialist regime and I do not wish it on anyone. Our family came from blue collar background on all sides as far back as one could see so our family did not have it bad. But there were those who were persecuted just because the grandfather owned a small business. My friend could not get into college because his father owned a furniture workshop where he worked alone. He was labeled as exploiter of the working class and enemy of the people and that was that. Never mind the fact that he exploited himself. On daily basis we had to listen to praises of the Soviet Union, our brother and protector and guarrantor of world peace. We had to listen how our heroic socialist workers are on the path to exceed the Five Year Plan and that we have just overtaken the United States in production of matches per capita or some such non-sense. Never mind the fact that there were no matches in stores. After a while some people got so pissed about the propaganda that they got violent. Of course, everyone was poorer than the proverbial church mouse because wages allowed people to barely survive. This gave rise to underground economy which worked just fine if you had the money. If you did not have the money there were ways how to get some for yourself by stealing from the State or by engaging in underground enterprise if you had marketable skills. To learn more about life under socialism go and read "What if ..." post on this blog . Very educational article on what happened to Austria where people wanted a "change" in 1938.

It is shocking and very alarming that there are those among us who view socialism as a legitimate government system. For years, the crimes of socialist regimes have been publicized, discussed and condemned by all normal people. Yes, there are quasi socialist governments which are supposedly taking care of their people such as Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and Great Britain to mention just few major socialist countries. These countries mix socialism with private enterprise to guarantee a source of income for the State. We all know that pure socialism is a utopian philosophy disregarding a human nature. As such it is doomed to fail. We know for a fact that socialism, or its facsimile, has failed everywhere in the world where it was tried. And it is failing in the listed countries.

Why is it failing? The people of the socialist countries traded some of their important freedoms and pursuit of happiness for government guarantees, handouts, and general control of people's lives from cradle to grave. In Great Britain private gun ownership is illegal. The government seized all private guns. They even outlawed the Fox Hunt. You may think this is a ridiculous argument but today it is the Fox Hunt and tomorrow it may be the tea or rugby or cricket. What are the Brits going to do then?

Germany does not have freedom of speech in my opinion. Try to talk about the Third Reich as Hitler's regime was called. Or try to discuss the Holocaust from the Nazi side. Don't even dare to deny the Holocaust in Germany. All of these topics may land you in prison for a long time. Whether you agree with the topic of discussion or not you cannot even mention these hot historical topics in Germany.

All of the socialist countries enacted to various degrees several socialist/communist measures identified by Karl Marx as a must in his Communist Manifesto. See if you can recognize some of the following socialist/communist measures:

Centralization of means of production in the hands of State.
Heavy and progressive tax.
Abolition of right of inheritance.
Confiscation of all property of rebels.
Centralization of credit in the hands of State
Free education for all children in public schools.

Some of us may think that free education for all children in public schools is a good thing. Not when you learn that the real purpose of this seemingly good measure at that time was to control the children's education and to indoctrinate and brainwash them in conformance with the
socialist guidelines of the State. Sounds familiar?

Maybe I'm nuts but can someone explain to me satisfactorily why 53% of Democrats and 17% of Republicans have a favorable view of socialism? I can undestand that the poor may have a favorable view of socialism as they will be taken care of under the socialist regime. They may not know that they may not be taken care of to the extent they are now. In order to equalize the standard of living for all, the socialist regime does not lift people from the bottom up rather it pushes the top down. I can understand the populist view that our CEO's do not deserve to make the astronomical sums of money they make and which no mortal can even imagine much less to hope for. So people are envious. The socialst regimes depend on the class envy and demonization of America. Socialist regimes frown upon, discourage or directly outlaw success. Success and freedom are the last things a socialist regime can tolerate. Hence the general and global hate of America. Here people are still "allowed" to succeed, we still have freedom although limited in some respects, and we still can pursue hapinness. We can afford to absorb millions of illegal aliens and improve their lives. And all of this drives the rest of the world nuts.

Recently, United Nations issued a list of countries with the best standard of living in the world. The number one country on this list and, therefore, the country with the best standard of living in the world is Luxembourg. It is a nice and scenic small country in Europe to be sure. It is a Duchy ruled by a parliament with the Grand Duke acting as a head of state much like Queen Elisabeth in England. I have only one question about Luxembourg: Why is there no line at the Luxembourg's border? Why is the line at the US border instead?

OK, I'm all ears. Anyone wants to attempt to explain why lot of Americans have favorable view of socialism?

George