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LMV: Thanks for joining us for another edition of Liberty Watch. I am your host Liberty Man Van.
LMV: Today’s show is called Socialism vs. Communism. We will look at a definition of each of these ideologies and talk about their differences and similarities. Why an episode on socialism and communism? We have recently passed the 100 year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia that ushered in a multi-decade period of communism in that country. We begin with a definition of socialism according to the Webster online dictionary:
Socialism:
LMV: In other words, let’s just all share and share alike a live in total peace and harmony. Right? Not so fast. What may sound good in theory does not always work out so well in practice. There are many flaws in socialism or communism. For a detailed look I recommend “Socialism” by Ludwig von Mises. One major flaw is that when you deny private property, you put the individual in the vulnerable position of having to get his bread from the state. This means an individual cannot control his own destiny. Two other major flaws are the calculation problem and the incentive problem. How do you calculate the value of goods when there is not free market? And what incentive does a person have to work hard and maximize their personal production when they have to turn around and hand the fruits of their labor over to the state? This leads to economic stagnation for the individual and thus for the citizenry as a whole.
Because the state owns and controls the means of production the individual has become totally dependent on the state for his existence. This state of affairs is antithetical to liberty; freedom is the opposite of dependence.
Our first article on the subject of socialism is entitled “Disaster in Red: The Hundredth Anniversary of the Russian Socialist Revolution” and was published on the mises.org website. From the article:
…November 7, 2017, marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Russian (or Bolshevik) Revolution in Russia that happened on that date in November 1917, which lead to the communist “dictatorship of the proletariat” and ushered in an epoch of totalitarian tyranny and mass murder both in Russia and in every other country where socialism was put into practice.
Historians estimate that as many as 150 million people, if not more — innocent men, women and children — were killed in the name of building the collectivist utopia. They were shot, tortured, worked or starved to death in prison cells, in interrogation rooms, in labor camps, or just in the places where they lived. “Socialism-in-practice” created a chamber of horrors in which the individual was reduced to a mere expendable “cog in the wheel” to serve the collective good, or made into “enemies of the people” to be eliminated as the prelude to building the “bright, beautiful communist future.”
…In the name of a “classless society,” communism created the most minute and granulated system of privilege, favor, and power, depending upon where the individual stood in the hierarchies of the Communist Party and the management of the vast central planning bureaucracy.
…The Communist Party did all in their power to control and confine the minds of those over whom they ruled into narrow corridors of knowledge and belief so little or no doubt could arise that theirs was the best of all worlds, and far more “socially just” and materially better than anything existing in the reactionary and corrupted capitalist parts of the globe.
…The nineteenth century French classical liberal economist, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu (1843-1916), gave warning in his important work, Collectivism (1885):
How can liberty exist in a society in which everyone would be an employee of the state brigaded in squadrons from which there would be no escape, dependent upon a system of official classification for promotion, and for all the amenities of life! . . . The employee (and all would be employees) would be the slave, not of the state, which is merely an abstraction, but of the politicians who possessed themselves of power.
LMV: Don’t take my word about the evils of socialism. In the following video clips you will hear from a lady who once lived under the Soviet regime.
Video clips of former U.S.S.R. resident
LMV: A current example of the ill-effects of socialism comes from the country of Venezuela. These excerpts come from a fee.org article entitled “Venezuela Proves there is no Political Freedom without Economic Freedom.”
…The impact that the field of economics has on our daily lives is not easily recognized by the majority of people. Preoccupied with our immediate needs and daily tasks, the state of the economy not only seems disconnected from our lives, it feels almost completely irrelevant.
…But economics is intrinsically connected to almost every single aspect of our lives. From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, to our jobs and our education: economics is in all things. And without economic freedom, there can be no liberty. Period.
Anyone having any doubts that economic control will necessarily lead to tyranny and oppression, need only look to Venezuela.
…It has always been peculiar to me that socialists believe so fervently in social freedom and yet detest economic liberty. This is why many proponents of socialism and other forms of state control will advocate for economic restrictions, without a concern for civil liberties.
…But once economic control has been seized by the government, the stripping of our individual rights will soon follow.
…The situation in Venezuela has become so dire, it would fit perfectly into the plot of any dystopian novel. What started as an economic crisis has now escalated to a humanitarian nightmare of which there appears to be no end in sight.
…At its height, the country was capable of producing 3.5 million barrels of oil per day. But after Chavez came to power and an oil worker strike ensued, the leader decided to fire those on strike and instead, bring in workers who were loyal to his government.
…And after years of continued mismanagement and poor decision-making at the hand of the state, the oil output began declining significantly.
As Austrian economist Frederick Hayek once warned: “And whoever controls all economic activity controls the means for all our ends and must therefore decide which are to be satisfied and which not. This is really the crux of the matter.”
And continuing with the fee.org article:
…Food and necessities, like toilet paper, are not only in short supply; they are also completely under state control. Those wanting to acquire these items must wake up long before the sun has risen and stand in long lines. While waiting in these lines, these “consumers,” if you can even still call them that, are sitting ducks for thieves.
It has become common for thugs and others with malicious intent to hold people at gunpoint and rob them of whatever wealth they have left. Last year, one man was killed in line in an attempt to guard his cellphone.
Meanwhile, as he lay dying, the line did not break, because to lose your place in line, even to attend to the wounded, meant that you may not get to feed your family.
LMV: Despite the astronomical body count and economic failures socialism continues to be espoused in Western countries; it continues to enjoy admirers and apologists from the media, academia, and Hollywood.
Witness this example from MIT press, a children’s book entitled “Communism for Kids.” That’s right, one of our beloved institutions of higher learning is promoting communism. So what is communism? The book tells us the following:
…Communism names the society that gets rid of all the evils people suffer today in our society under capitalism. There are lots of different ideas about what communism should look like. But if communism means getting rid of all the evils people suffer under capitalism, then the best kind of communism is the one that can get rid of the most evils.
LMV: And what is capitalism? According to this book…
…Capitalism exists today all over the world, and it’s called capitalism because capital rules…In capitalism, there are certainly people who have more power than others, but there isn’t a queen who sits on a throne high above society and commands everybody. So if people no longer rule over society, who does? The answer may sound a little strange. Things do…They’re just the things that people create to make life easier, to serve them. Strangely, over time, people forget that they made those things, and soon enough, people begin to serve the things!
LMV: And now an article from Zero Hedge “Millennials Prefer Socialism to Capitalism.” The article is based on data from the victimsofcommunism.org website.
Graphic: Annual report on U.S. attitudes towards socialism.
Graphic: 44% of millennials prefer socialism over capitalism. Do they know what it means?
LMV: The previous graphic asked if millennials know what socialism is, but as you can see from the next graphic, 70% of Americans as a whole are confused about what socialism is.
Graphic: 7 in 10 Americans either don’t know the definition of communism or misidentify it.
LMV: I am going to give Americans a pass on being confused about the definitions of socialism and communism. Let’s take the definition of communism given by this website and compare it to the one given by the online Webster definition earlier. Here is the victimsofcommunism.org definition:
Graphic with definition of communism: Socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social
classes, money and the state.
LMV: Wow! You mean Marx was an anarchist? I didn’t know that. Absence of a state is the definition of anarchy. Now contrast that with one of the definitions of communism we look at earlier- a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production.
And britannica.com can understand the confusion. It makes the following comments:
…Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.
…Like most writers of the 19th century, Marx tended to use the terms communism and socialism interchangeably…Marx identified two phases of communism that would follow the predicted overthrow of capitalism: the first would be a transitional system in which the working class would control the government and economy yet still find it necessary to pay people according to how long, hard, or well they worked; the second would be fully realized communism—a society without class divisions or government, in which the production and distribution of goods would be based upon the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
LMV: In this next graphic we juxtapose the definitions of communism, socialism, and fascism. Notice how the definitions of communism and socialism do not include any mention of force while fascism includes dictatorial power and forceful suppression of opposition as characteristics? Yet we see in practice that socialist regimes are all about the use of force. Remember Mao’s cultural revolution and Stalin’s gulags?
This is not surprising when we consider Marx’s phrase “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” We could phrase this in another way “Take from those who produce the most and give to those who produce less.” Did Marx really think that could be achieved without force? Did he really think people would willfully work their tails off so they could give the fruits of their labor to strangers? This flies against human nature. And, contrary to socialist sophists such as Bernie Sanders, it does not make you greedy to want to keep what you have earned. Despite being taxed heavily for social welfare programs, Americans remain the most giving people on the face of the earth.
LMV: Now to the punch line of the “Annual Report on US
Attitudes towards Socialism” survey. More millennials would prefer to live under socialism than capitalism.
Graphic: Millennials prefer socialism.
LMV: And another alarming finding of the survey is that millennials are the least unfavorable towards communism.
Graphic: Millennials least hostile towards communism.
LMV: How can this be? Is our educational system soft peddling the horrors of communist regimes. Everyone should know the approximate body count of this evil ideology- 150 million dead and counting.
Graphic: shows percent in each age bracket that correctly said communism had killed 100 million or more.
LMV: And finally, there is another form of “socialism” that is practiced by the so-called social democracies such as in Western Europe. It does not strictly meet the definition of socialism because there is private property and capitalism; the state does not own the means of production. Although it does not meet the strict definition of socialism it still has many of the same damaging effects because it is based on coercion rather than voluntarism. In the United States these are programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Aid for Families with Dependent Children and so on. In Western Europe many countries such as the U.K. have “free” universal health care.
In the United States the so-called “Affordable Health Care Act” or Obamacare is a movement in the direction of socialized medicine. If you are like me and believe in liberty and free markets, these types of programs should be fought tooth and nail; they are socialistic in nature and result in a loss of individual sovereignty.
LMV: And because socialism is all about central planning, I will close with this humorous video with a message.
Video: Serfdom USA.
LMV: And that’s our show for today. Join us next time for another exciting episode of Liberty Watch.