Apparently,
according to news reports, a majority of Millennials believe that
Socialism is superior to Capitalism. Part of this belief stems from
the fact that many Millennials had difficulty entering the job market
during the 2008 Recession. Also, Millennials did not live through the
so called “Cold War” that matched Communist/Socialism ideology
against Capitalism from the end of World War 2 in 1945 until the
collapse of Communist Soviet Union in 1989. So let's review the
history of Socialism.
It started to
1917 when the Bolshevik, followers of Marxist leader Lenin, the
inventor of Communism, forcibly took over Russia and instituted
Communism. Communism was supposed to create a “workers paradise”.
Did it? Emphatically No. Without the profit/loss incentive that
private companies have to produce what customers really want at
prices and quality that they are willing to buy, the Russian
government took over industries and operated on “production goals”.
For example, if
told to produce 5 million coats, factories would produce the 5
million coats even if people only bought 3 million. So instead of
creating wealth, they wasted material and labor resources that could
have instead been utilized to produce products and services that
people actually wanted. Also, with no ability for people to create
their own companies, there was also no incentive to invent new
technologies and new industries as there is under Capitalism. The
best Communists could do would be to steal these technologies from
the Capitalist nations that invented them, but their products, such
as cars, were far inferior to Capitalist nations. The Russian people
became poorer but could not create political parties to vote out the
Communist dictators.
After World War
2 in 1945, the nations that Russia “freed” from Nazi Germany
were not given their freedom, and instead were forcibly incorporated
into new Russian “States” and Russia renamed their country the
Soviet Union. A few years later, when China became Communist after
the rebel Communists won a Civil war, China also adopted the policy
of taking over industries and dictating production. North Korea,
North Vietnam, and Cuba did the same thing with the same dismal
results. Their citizens were much poorer than Capitalist nations.
So military
force and sometimes walls were utilized to keep these dictators in
power and very importantly to keep their citizens from fleeing to
neighbor Capitalist nations. Many of those citizens fled anyway, and
some lost their lives trying. Citizens from Capitalist nations did
not try to flee to Communist nations. That should tell you something
important.
In 1989, the
Communist model of the Soviet Union collapsed. The Eastern European
nations, a population of almost half a billion people, who were much
poorer than their Western Capitalist European neighbors, were freed
from Communism and became capitalists. Today, they are much wealthier
than they had been under Communism.
In 1970, with a
very stagnant, poor economy, China allowed limited capitalism. They
have improved dramatically though their Communist run industries are
losing lots of money and are propped up by China subsidizing them
with lots of printed money (a recipe for eventual financial
disaster). The average wealth of an American is $69,000 compared to
$21,000 for the average Chinese.
An excellent
example of the failure of Communism/Socialism is Korea. Same people,
same culture, same language. Capitalist South Korea averages $72,000
wealth per adult, while Communist North Korea averages less than
$2,000. Millions of North Koreans eat grass in order to survive.
The only thing
that Socialism accomplishes is to make everyone equally poor and
miserable. So yes, you attain equality of income with Socialism, but
at the cost of everyone being poor. Who really wants that?
