Immigration Forum / Canada / April 2006

Avoiding the Socialist Temptation
http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/04-24-06.asp
by Gary DeMar
April 26th, 2006

With the high price of gasoline, the temptation to fix the problem through
government will be strong. It won't work; it hasn't ever worked. If all
governments have to do to make us prosperous is to pass laws, why not get
them to make us all rich? Socialism, as a political and economic system,
continues to attract adherents around the world. America has its large share
of operational socialists. Many of them are Christians. Avoid the
temptation. Fixing the price of gasoline is only a first step to larger
issues.

In the former Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, governmental control of the
individual is nearly absolute. There is almost no freedom of movement.
Chinese government officials inspect the wombs of woman to insure they are
not carrying a child beyond the one-child policy instituted by the State.
The former socialistic government of Germany built a wall around the city of
Berlin to keep freedom loving East Germans from fleeing to the freedom
offered in the West. Under full-blown socialism, the State interferes in the
everyday affairs of the people, even in the transactions they make. The
State determines what will be produced, how much of it will be produced, how
it will be produced, where it will be produced, by whom it will be produced,
what it will sell for, how people will get the product, and how it will be
used. Under extreme forms of socialism, the individual is given little
incentive to invent, produce a better product, or to be more efficient so a
product can be sold at a lower price and thus benefit all of society. The
State determines everything, since only the State is to benefit. There can
be no individuality.

Milder forms of socialism allow for individual freedoms, but over time these
freedoms are gradually taken away. Property rights are never absolute. The
taxing power of the State increases in order to fund increased government
programs always with the promise of creating a better society. Socialists
claim that it is the duty of the State to implement laws to break down
economic and social "inequities," a form of class warfare, pitting the
"rich" over against the "poor." While some socialists have had good
intentions, the effect of socialist policies has been disastrous. Rich and
poor do reach parity under a socialist system-everybody becomes poor, except
those implementing the laws.

One of the first attempts at a socialistic economy took place in colonial
America at Jamestown (1607), hundreds of years before Karl Marx wrote the
definitive work on socialistic economics, Das Kapital. For the first four
years, all property was held in common. There were no individual property
rights. The work was communal. All of what was harvested was put in a
centralized storehouse. Since everybody got an equal share no matter how
much work any individual performed, there was no incentive to work any
harder than the next person.

Historians record that after four years, no crops were planted, houses were
falling apart, and the prime occupation of the men was bowling in the streets.
The Jamestown Colony ultimately failed because the necessary incentives to work
were taken away. Socialism begins with "interventionism," the gradual
manipulation of the economy through governmental decree. Again, it's always
with the promise that things will be better if the State steps in to "fix"
things.

[ed. And the thing is, governments will be extremely happy to take the
burden of thinking and taking responsibility for yourself off your
shoulders....]

The history of the Plymouth Colony (1620) is a study in contrasts. Early
attempts at a common storehouse were quickly abandoned. Every member of the
colony was given his own plot of land to cultivate as he pleased. In just
one year, even after losing half their members to death, the Pilgrims of
Plymouth were so prosperous that they were able to celebrate a bountiful
thanksgiving feast. In 1621, Edward Winslow wrote the following to those
back in England: "I never in my life remember a more seasonable year than we
have here enjoyed. We are so far from want that we often wish you partakers
of our plenty. You might, on our behalf, give God thanks, who hath dealt so
favorably with us."

--
Jim
http://www.geocities.com/anti_multiculture/index.html
Unite Against Multiculturalism!

"Abolish Multi-Culty and String Up the Traitors!"