The Criminal Rip-Off Called Socialism

[Ronin Truth]

The Criminal Rip-Off Called Socialism

Thomas DiLorenzo has the handbook of freedom.

The Problem With Socialism

By Thomas DiLorenzo

July 18, 2016

A quarter of a century after the spectacular collapse of socialism in the Soviet empire, a large segment of the “millennial” generation (those born between 1982 and 2004) thinks socialism should be the wave of their future. A 2016 Pew Foundation poll found that 69 percent of voters under the age of 30 expressed “a willingness to vote for a socialist president,” and a 2015 “YouGov.com” poll revealed that 43 percent of young Americans between 18 had 29 had a “favorable” opinion of socialism” and prefer it to capitalism. Who says the public schools aren’t teaching the kids anything these days?

A very large segment of the younger generation obviously finds promises of “free” education, health care, and groceries promised by socialist political demagogues like Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to be quite appealing. Just as obvious is that they are oblivious to the fact that socialism would destroy their economic future, and their children’s future, and strip them of their freedom, just as it has done wherever else it has been imposed.

This is why I have written my latest book, released today, entitled The Problem with Socialism. My hope is that it will be viewed as a companion to Henry Hazlitt’s classic Economics in One Lesson, and I have tried my best to write it in a similar style (although no one can really match the great Hazlitt).

Following Mises and Hayek, I define “socialism” not just as “government ownership of the means of production.” As Hayek wrote in the 1976 edition of The Road to Serfdom, “socialism” evolved by that time to also mean government-enforced redistribution of income through the welfare state and the progressive income tax, primarily. The ostensible end of socialism – income equality – remains the same, but the means have evolved.

In addition, as Mises wrote in his own classic on Socialism, socialists have always employed a dual strategy: 1) nationalize as much private property as possible; and 2) “destruction” or the destruction of as much of the private property/free enterprise society as possible with taxes, regulation, inflation — whatever will work. Consequently, my sixteen-chapter book covers a lot more topics than just the economic arguments against socialism as pioneered by Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and others, as seen in the following list of chapters:

1.The Problem with Socialism

2. Why Socialism is Always and Everywhere an Economic Disaster

3. Egalitarianism versus Human Reality

4. Islands of Socialism: The Follies of Government Enterprise

5. Why “The Worst” Rise to the Top Under Socialism

6. The Socialist Roots of Fascism

7. The Myth of Successful Scandinavian Socialism

8. How Welfare Harms the Poor

9. How Socialized Medicine Kills the Patient and Robs the Taxpayer

10. How Socialism Causes Pollution

11. Karl Marx’s “Progressive” Income Tax

12. Minimum Wage, Maximum Folly

13. How Socialist Regulation Makes Monopolies

14. Destroying Capitalism by Socializing Capital

15. Is Socialism Really the Best Way to Organize Schools?

16. Socialist Myths and Superstitions about Capitalism.

Parents with college-age children who are concerned about the pervasive, politically correct brainwashing that their children are about to be exposed to should consider having them read The Problem with Socialism along with Economics in One Lesson. At that point, they will be prepared to become daily readers of mises.org and LewRockwell.com and will at least have a chance of becoming economically-educated citizens and not another generation of dupes and pawns of the state.

The Best of Thomas DiLorenzo

Thomas J. DiLorenzo [send him mail] is professor of economics at Loyola University Maryland and the author of The Real Lincoln; How Capitalism Saved America; Lincoln Unmasked; Hamilton’s Curse; Organized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About Government; and most recently, The Problem With Socialism.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/07/...led-socialism/

Copyright © 2016 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are provided.

[Republicanguy]

Just how does socialism harm the poor? I live in social housing, discounted rent. Hell there is even a government employee who lives on the Council block I live on, and the benefit office is only down the road, a bit cushy, nobody can criticise somebody on welfare if they live in a social home.

[Ronin Truth]

Just how does socialism harm the poor? I live in social housing, discounted rent. Hell there is even a government employee who lives on the Council block I live on, and the benefit office is only down the road, a bit cushy, nobody can criticise somebody on welfare if they live in a social home.

Read the book.

[Son_of_Liberty90]

Just how does socialism harm the poor? I live in social housing, discounted rent. Hell there is even a government employee who lives on the Council block I live on, and the benefit office is only down the road, a bit cushy, nobody can criticise somebody on welfare if they live in a social home.

Well, technically, it does not HARM the poor. It just increases the number of poor.

[Occam's Banana]

Just how does socialism harm the poor? I live in social housing, discounted rent. Hell there is even a government employee who lives on the Council block I live on, and the benefit office is only down the road, a bit cushy, nobody can criticise somebody on welfare if they live in a social home.

It doesn't. "Proles and animals are free."

Just take your dole and don't worry yourself about it.

[Republicanguy]

No in America there has been some attempts at subsidised apartments.

If I was governor of an American state, I'd try a similar setup to welfare in the UK. And a big commitment to science.

If we all lived in an ideal world, we could all own a home, even the postal worker could or even a cleaning operative. But this isn't.

I think a balance of political beliefs are the only clear way, security welfare or extreme liberty isn't the answer. Yeah right like that is going to happen for long.

[Ronin Truth]

No in America there has been some attempts at subsidised apartments.

If I was governor of an American state, I'd try a similar setup to welfare in the UK. And a big commitment to science.

If we all lived in an ideal world, we could all own a home, even the postal worker could or even a cleaning operative. But this isn't.

I think a balance of political beliefs are the only clear way, security welfare or extreme liberty isn't the answer. Yeah right like that is going to happen for long.

Which republic, North Korea?

[Republicanguy]

I said an American state.

Heh, notsure which one would even except a character like mine.

A non conformist politician. Fortunately or unfortunately I'm not an outspoken character so I couldn't be in a public office.

As my neighbour said to me who tends to only be self employed time to time, I see him walking the dog here and there, he said the only reason poor people end up living in social housing, is that they have nowhere else to go. I think he's lived on the estate for a good several years, he was never specific about it.

The council sent over a private company to change our boiler, so there wasn't any hot water for two days. That boiler has been in the flat since around 2008. The lady who lived in the flat she left due to being on her own and she couldn't afford to pay the bedroom tax that was implemented by the previous government.

Hell, there was even a charity group knocking on doors here, on a social housing estate, seriously. Most people are poor here, even the employed ones.

Nobody really knows anyone here, I'm sure some do, but most keep to themselves.

I tend to avoid a guy who is always standing around trying to talk to people, he was in construction ten years back, had an injury from brick laying, and was then claiming health benefit, and had an operation. And since then has been on that. He should probably of changed his employment to avoid that. But did he really know or could he even of changed what he was doing.

That is sometimes a lesson in reality, that people continue on a path, that is all they know.

Like when I spoke to a postal worker months ago in nearby streets, he said what will my grandchildren do twenty years from now. You see that man had the mentality of a worker, an old fashioned unskilled or low skill view of employment. There wasn't any mention of college or university.

He said people who don't want to sweep the streets or collect the trash were snobs. It is sad that he didn't want more for his grandchildren.But that is the way some people are. He never claimed welfare, he had always managed to be employed. He said it was easier to get employed in the past.