By Tom Velk
„Socialism, despite its current failures in Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba and elsewhere, despite its past rejection by the people of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and its slow fade in Asia, has new adherents among US Democrats who seek nomination as their party’s candidate for the job of president of the United States. So it seems worthwhile to review the reasons for socialism’s failure lest the enthusiasm for the disastrous system spreads.
Socialism is defined as a national policy program in political economy in which the government “owns” the “means of production”: government commands and controls all employment of land, labor and capital, thereby planning the output of final goods and services, is the way an economist would phrase it. A socialist government’s commands, controls and plans have the force of law, and if disobeyed, are punished accordingly, up to and including imprisonment, confiscation of goods and denial of the right to undertake what would be, in the absence of commands to the contrary, market exchanges which benefit both buyer and seller.
This classic definition of socialism still captures, in today’s world, a core reality descriptive of current practice. “Modern” socialism places government’s choices for the employment of factors “ahead” of those of the market. Autos are forced to be smaller, more “efficient,” and more “climate friendly” than they would be in the absence of regulations. Then-vice-president Al Gore caused all US toilets to use less water than would homeowners who prefer a vigorous flush.“ (…)
Socialism is defined as a national policy program in political economy in which the government “owns” the “means of production”: government commands and controls all employment of land, labor and capital, thereby planning the output of final goods and services, is the way an economist would phrase it. A socialist government’s commands, controls and plans have the force of law, and if disobeyed, are punished accordingly, up to and including imprisonment, confiscation of goods and denial of the right to undertake what would be, in the absence of commands to the contrary, market exchanges which benefit both buyer and seller.
This classic definition of socialism still captures, in today’s world, a core reality descriptive of current practice. “Modern” socialism places government’s choices for the employment of factors “ahead” of those of the market. Autos are forced to be smaller, more “efficient,” and more “climate friendly” than they would be in the absence of regulations. Then-vice-president Al Gore caused all US toilets to use less water than would homeowners who prefer a vigorous flush.“ (…)
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/02/opinion/a-warning-on-the-failures-of-socialism/
