Socialism In America 1

Joseph Clarkson

There was a professor who believed in the powers of the free market but one year his

entire class believed that socialism was the answer. To show them this was not the case he

said that he would average the class grade out. The next week the students who had

studied hard became angry when they saw that they had gotten a B because other

student’s hadn’t put as much into it. So they decided that wouldn’t work as hard because

the score was averaged and so it wouldn’t really matter. Well that week the class average

fell to an F! (Made To Stick) This is just like socialism, socialist take from everyone and

spread the products out evenly. As this story demonstrates, socialism fails, however the

United States is currently implementing more and more socialist policies. We will look at

3 main socialistic policies that are happening right now in the US, but before we go any

farther we need to define socialism. Socialism is defined as, “any of various economic

and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and

administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”

( http://www.merriam-webster.com/) Now that we know what socialism is… Actually lets

rephrase the definition so that it is easier to understand. Socialism is basically Robin

Hood, socialist rob the rich to give to the poor. In an ideal world this would make

everyone middle class but because it creates an incentive for the rich and the poor not to

work it actually makes everyone poor. Not only that but for around a decade our

government has started and continued to implement socialistic policies. So now that we

know what socialism is let’s take a look at the socialist policies that the US is

implementing, the first one we will look at is Government healthcare.

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Joseph Clarkson

Government healthcare is probably the most socialist move our government has made

yet. One of the worst parts of this policy is the “Individual Mandate.” “For the purposes

of the law, "individuals who can afford health-care insurance" is defined as people

for whom the minimum policy will not cost more than 8 percent of their monthly

income, and who make more than the poverty line.”

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/) So if you make more than the poverty line then you

are forced to get insurance. So logically if the people have to have insurance the

companies no longer have to try and keep their prices low and their customer satisfaction

high because the people are forced to get insurance even if they don’t want to. Also in

forcing people to get insurance they take away your freedom to choose not to get it.

“Let us not forget that Lenin called medicine the “keystone in the arch of

socialism.”” (http://fee.org /.) The next big socialistic move the government took was that

of Government buying of the private sector (the bailouts).

“The federal government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday

in a bid to keep the two mortgage giants from failing, catastrophes that would have

made home loans harder to get and taken the nation's housing collapse to a new

level of crisis.”( http://articles.sfgate.com/) Now because the government “saved” Fannie

Mae and Freddie Mac you have to spend you money giving loans to home owners. If the

government would have let those companies die the home owners would have gone to

other companies thus resulting in big growth for other companies. But instead they are

getting money from the government. Also the government is doing everything in its
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Joseph Clarkson

power to create jobs. Let me point out that in the depression the government paid people

to dig holes then fill them back in, in order to create jobs. You may say “Well at least they

had a job”…yes but it didn’t produce anything. The whole reason people work is to get

stuff. The way they get that stuff is by producing goods, whether it is raising chickens,

building cars or designing websites you are creating something. If you raise chickens but

a guy in China can do it cheaper so you lose your job that is fine. The consumers benefit

from this, they get cheaper food and overall it helps the economy. However you still

would be pretty unhappy with that guy in China. But what this means is that you have to

find something else to produce. Something you can produce cheaper than or as cheap as

the rest of the other producers. Right now your probably thing, “did he really just say

that?” And yes I did say that. Through this process of eliminating useless of expensive

jobs the economy makes sure you get cheap products. The problem arises when there are

not enough jobs being created to take the people who go out of business. This can be

caused by many things. When a nation gets a rich as America is, its workers will demand

such a high wage that their products can be too expensive to sell. This is one of the main

problems with capitalism. It allows for the cheapest products but sometimes people get

hurt in the process. However this is indeed better than the alternative in which the US has

turned to. Socialism makes everyone poor and takes away everyone’s freedom, except for

possible a few ruling elites. So we do have a choice to make. All systems have their faults

and we will have to choose which system has the least faults. So back to the chicken

growing analogy, if you wish to have a job you must find something you can produce

cheaper than or as cheap as the other produces. However if the government steps in and
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Joseph Clarkson

gives you a bailout you will then keep raising chickens....problem is that then the

consumers will have to pay a higher price for chicken. So really letting people go out of

business and find a new job helps the economy. Now lets move on to the third socialistic

policy of the US. This policy is older than the other policies I have talked about. This

policy is Public education.

Public education gives cheap education to just about anyone who wants it. However the

government uses taxpayer money to send people to school. This means that you don’t

have the freedom to not pay for your neighbor’s education. And because there is no

competition between schools the schools have no incentive to be the best…Or for that

matter good at all. If all schools were privately owned then the schools would be working

as hard as they could to be the best because if they aren’t then they don’t get paid because

people won’t be willing to pay for their kids to go do nothing. If there was motivation to

be the best our school system would be much better. But because the government

provides “free” education there is no incentive, no motivation for schools to be good. You

as a parent want your kids to get a good education. You may be thinking, “Yes, but I can’t

pay the extra thousands of dollars to private school my kids.” Well you may think your

kids are going to school for free but actually you are paying. You are paying for your

kid’s education through taxes. You would get that money back if there was no public

school system. So you actually could pay for it using the money you save in taxes.

I have shown some reasons why socialism is bad but why do I think it is so terrible?
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Joseph Clarkson

Well for example in the book The Law, by Frederic Bastiat, a French philosopher, he

states that, “Socialist look upon the people as raw material to be formed into social

combinations. This is so true that, if by chance, the socialist have any doubt about

the success of these combinations, they will demand that a small portion of mankind

be set aside to experiment upon.” (http://www.fee.org/) Later on in his book he states

that, “But what difference there is between the gardener and his trees, between the

inventor and his machine, between the chemist and his elements, between farmer

and his seeds! And in all sincerity, the socialist thinks that there is the same

difference between himself and mankind!” (http://www.fee.org/) This is so true,

socialist think they may use government to guide and direct the people and markets. This

idea flawed because in guiding the people the socialist takes away their Individuality,

Liberty and Prosperity. Which according to Bastiat these are God given rights. Socialist

must play God in order to think they have the rights to take away another mans rights, to

deprive him of liberty and his property. This is why Bastiat said “Socialist want to play

God”.( http://www.fee.org/)

As history has proven socialism destroys the economy and causes depression. Mark

Perry, Ph.D. - Professor of Finance and Business Economics states, “Socialism is the Big

Lie of the twentieth century. While it promised prosperity, equality, and security, it

delivered poverty, misery, and tyranny. Equality was achieved only in the sense that

everyone was equal in his or her misery.” (http://www.thefreemanonline.org/) See,

socialist take from everyone and spread the products out evenly. So the farmers who
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Joseph Clarkson

work hard get just as much as the bum who didn’t work a day in his life. This decreases

productivity which, in turn, hurts the economy. Mark Perry, said later on in his article

that, “A pyramid scheme is ultimately unsustainable because it is based on faulty

principles. Likewise, collectivism is unsustainable in the long run because it is a

flawed theory. Socialism does not work because it is not consistent with fundamental

principles of human behavior. The failure of socialism in countries around the world

can be traced to one critical defect: it is a system that ignores incentives.”

(http://www.thefreemanonline.org/) Right now you may be wondering, “why does it

matter that socialism ignores incentives?” I will illustrate this with an analogy. Say you

were at a restaurant with a friend. You and your friend both order salads. You hate onions

but your friend loves them. Not only that but you love tomatoes and your friend hates

them. The thing is the onions in your salad are worth 25 cents and the tomatoes are only

worth 10 cents. But you are still going to trade even though you are from a monetary

standpoint losing out on this deal. The reason is because you value tomatoes higher than

onions. This is an example of how personal taste creates incentives. However socialist

won’t know that you want tomatoes not onions so you will be given an equal amount of

tomatoes as your friend who hates tomatoes. Under a capitalist system you could then

trade or sell your onions to your friend who loves them. But socialism ignores the the fact

that people may not want a certain product.

So what can we do to stop socialism in America?

Well first off you can pray. Pray that our leaders will have wisdom and that the voters will
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Joseph Clarkson

vote for the right person.

Secondly, you can vote. Go and research what each candidate has done in the past and

what their position is then make a decision on who to vote for.

Thirdly, you can educate others about socialism in the US. Tell them what is happening

and why it matters.

And just remember America is the land of the free because of the brave. Be brave, take

and stand for freedom. Thank you.

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Joseph Clarkson

Works Cited

Klein, Ezra. "Ezra Klein - How Does the Individual Mandate Work?" Blog Directory

(washingtonpost.com). 25 Mar. 2010. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.

<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-

klein/2010/03/how_does_the_individual_mandat.html>.

"Healing America: The Free Market Instead of Government Health Care | Foundation for

Economic Education." Foundation for Economic Education | Home to Freedom

and Prosperity, and Free-market Education for over 50 Years. Web. 06 Jan. 2011.

<http://fee.org/nff/healing-america-the-free-market-instead-of-government-health-

care/>.

Perry, Mark J. "Why Socialism Failed." The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty. Web. 06 Jan.

2011. <http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/why-socialism-failed/>.

Sebelius, Kathleen. Home | HealthCare.gov. Web. 06 Jan. 2011.

<http://www.healthcare.gov/>.

"Socialism - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary."

Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 06 Jan. 2011.

<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism>.

Zuckerman, Sam. "Feds Take Control of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac - SFGate." Featured

Articles From The SFGate. 08 Sept. 2008. Web. 06 Jan. 2011.

<http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-09-08/news/17156613_1_freddie-mac-fannie-

mae-two-mortgage-giants>.
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Joseph Clarkson

Bastiat, Frederic. “The Law” August 1998. Web. 10 Jan. 2011.

<http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/The_Law.pdf>