American Socialism: The Promise, The Dream, The Reality

The Dream of the Left

Whenever I get the urge to engage a Leftist in a discussion of their political and economic views, I’m astounded what they think Socialism is. Most, if not all, put forth the notion that America is already a Socialist nation; that combining the public’s resources to pay for roads, education, law enforcement, fire departments, and the military are examples of socialism. It comes down to definitions, so I thought I'd flesh some out.

We’ve moved away from the dated Marxist model to something ever more insidious. Random House Dictionary:

“…a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.”

The ‘insidious’ part is that our government doesn’t need to claim ownership anymore, it can just control. Obama and the Dems tried outright ownership of GM, Chrysler and some financial institutions by using printed money and taxes not yet collected to purchase them, and it has been rejected by a majority of the American people. Through regulation though, control had become key. The private sector can’t breathe because the python of government has so constricted it.

Here’s the breakdown; public provision of non-public goods and central planning. According to economists, public and non-public goods have what’s known as rivalry and excludability. Rivalry is if one person uses something, another person is denied that thing. A road doesn’t fit this, because someone using that road doesn’t deny usage by another. Something that’s excludable has access limited to who wants to pay for that good or service.

Those things mentioned before, law enforcement, roads, etc., are public goods, they’re non-rivalry and not exclusive. The other things that my Leftist friends identify as public goods like welfare and Obamacare are excludable. This may be well intended, but everyone is forced to pay for them regardless of whether they use them or not.

Central control, or using the Marxist phrase, central planning, the Soviets and Chinese Communists implemented, and our government is implementing the same. This is where the ‘socialism’ part comes in. We keep getting legislation passed that regulates the private sector, in fact controlling it, plus legislation creating ‘public goods’ that only a small sector of the population uses. That’s the control part. We are, as a nation, moving closer to having all goods and services controlled by the government. The stated goal by Democrats and other Leftists (and yes, some Republicans) is to ensure a leveling of incomes through redistribution (mostly through progressive taxation).

This provides control of goods and services usually provided by the private sector. That it’s successful as a method of redistribution was brought in to question by an overt Communist, the Left’s much admired Mikhail Gorbachev.

“Wage leveling has a destructive impact not only on the economy but also on people’s morality, and their entire way of thinking and acting. It diminishes the prestige of conscientious, creative labor, weakens discipline, destroys interest in improving skills, and is detrimental to the competitive spirit in work. We must say bluntly that wage-leveling is a reflection of petty bourgeois view which have nothing in common with Marxism-Leninism or scientific socialism.”

Since the inception of the Democrats “War on Poverty”, we have the same amount of poverty in this country.

Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, a vital part of the private sector real estate market have lost billions of dollars, is controlled by the government. The government doesn’t have to own Fanny and Freddie; it just needs to control them. Traditional socialism was about ownership of production; now the insidious part is the Socialists just need to control, not own it. It runs in the background, so not many pay attention to it. They're busy working and raising families. That’s why we hear the Democrats always saying we need more regulation, it’s how they control, quietly.

Leftists control education, the auto industry, the banking industry, the agricultural industry, the real estate industry, the financial and insurance industries, and have done so putting forth the idea this control is for the purpose of redistributing the wealth. It’s in fact about redistributing power from the people to themselves.