Although the word “socialism” did not enter the lexicon until the first quarter of the 19th century, it was practiced long before that even on this continent. In 1607 an early English settlement was Jamestown in Virginia. No private property was allowed and as a consequence there soon appeared to be two kinds of men, those who could not work and those who would not so that Captain John Smith wrote, “In Virginia a plaine Souldier that can use a Pick-axe and spade, is better that five Knights.” The preceding is from The Oxford History of the American People by Samuel Eliot Morison, published by The Oxford University Press in 1965 on page 50.
Socialism didn’t work then, it does not work now. You only need to look around at the miserable conditions of people in the failed states of the USSR, or Cuba and much of Europe, Asia and even South America. One must realize that simple socialism, communism, fascism, and Nazism are all variations on the same political theme that tend toward absolute state control or tyranny.
That the people of this nation should return it to the place where the founding fathers placed it is long overdue, for as Thomas Jefferson said, “Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”
The nation was pretty well off until the beginning of the twentieth century when Teddy Roosevelt vowed to take all the power he could and it has been a downhill slide ever since. Just examine some recent history such as the Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, CT in 2005 involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another to further economic development. It outraged very many people regardless of political stripe. Or consider the more recent situation where the Supreme Court did not hear the case involving the takeover of the automobile companies when the Obama administration placed the interests of the labor unions above the rightful and lawful interests of the bond holders who would normally have first call upon any company assets in liquidation. The ownership of property is a fundamental tenet of capitalism and if such ownership is denied by the state, social chaos will ensue and we will be less well off as a result.
Some of the elements of socialism that have come to be accepted so that we don’t even consider them socialism:
· Social Security – the return you get is less than you would have from a bank and many other nations have already privatized their public pension systems, the first being Chile some thirty years ago where the workers now retire relatively well off.
· Medicare and Medicaid – Ponzi schemes that are bankrupting us and selling our children into a life of slavery to the tax collector.
· Public schools – are often ineffective and costly. Statistics indicate that generally our children lag those in other nations after about the sixth grade with the gap becoming wider each year the child is in the public school. There are exceptions, especially in the more affluent areas where the folks agree to tax themselves more and pay more attention their child’s education.
· Price controls and minimum wages – these distort the economy and lead to violent corrections as we are now experiencing in 2009. While not technically socialism, they are primary ways the state interferes with laissez-faire capitalism. If a man agrees to work for another for $5 an hour why should the government insist it be $6 an hour when they are not the employer or the employee? Doesn’t make sense to me.
In the words of Earl Pitts: “WAKE UP AMERICA.” You are on a fast sled going downhill, jump off now before you crash!
