Rated
Oct 19
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1 review
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economics, socialism, ayn rand, big government
• humanevents.com
From the page: "In the Obama administration, greed is considered the sin that must be opposed. But greed, whatever its deficiencies, is, as Adam Smith pointed out, an incentive for the promotion of capitalism which in the aggregate has a salutary influence on the economy. To combat greed, the socialists emphasize envy. Since equality is the goal, even trivial differences in income are exaggerated and the progressivity in the tax system is employed as blunt instrument to impose equality.
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Just as greed has its excesses, envy manifests excess in schadenfreude, a desire to destroy rivals, or, in this instance, penalize the alleged wages of sin. If you assume wealth is bad, invariably a function of illicit or inappropriate acts, it must be penalized, i.e. a surtax to pay for universal health care or a 40 percent income tax. Even though one percent of the population pays for close to forty percent of government revenue, it is still not enough for the masters of egalitarianism.
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That socialism cannot work is the inevitable conclusion of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and the historical experience of the twentieth century. If excellence isn't the goal of personal achievement, conformity or mediocrity reigns. If wealth isn't a reward for success, poverty reigns. And if success is a sin, failure is a virtue.
Yet, despite this reality, socialism is a persistent idea. My suspicion is that socialism is related to the belief that most people think they can be free-riders; they can get something for nothing by taking from the rich. But this Robin Hood psychology is, in fact, a form of theft. It subtracts from the fruits of one's labor and, without apologies, contends arbitrarily that some people simply have too much.
Alas, socialism condemns "too much" and ends up giving too little. What it offers is an ideal, an abstraction of equality that is intoxicating. But its destructive influence inexorably becomes apparent. Why be productive, if others produce for you? And why would you oppose high taxes, if these revenues offer "free assistance?" As Hayak noted, the Road To Surfdom is littered with promises of the golden age, a time when the government provides all that you need."
And as commenter Rana Tavallo notes: "Those pushing for socialism intend to be "more equal than the rest of us."
