Socialism Gaining Popularity
Socialism may appear to succeed briefly, but it always ends the same
GEORGE NOGA
MAY 26, 2024
In recent polls, 41% of US adults have a favorable view of socialism. Among Gen Z support for socialism is 49%, while among Millennials 50% had a positive view of socialism. A majority of Americans age 18-29 believe socialism is the ideal economic system. Socialism is gaining in popularity among women and Black Americans.¹
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In this post I address (1) how socialism can appear to succeed briefly; (2) how it always ends; (3) what young Americans believe about socialism; (4) the truth about socialism in Sweden and Scandinavian countries; and (5) the good, the bad and the ugly.
Socialism and the Illusion of Progress
When collectivists first take over a nation, there often is a period of time – perhaps a few years – when socialism appears to work. That is because socialists plunder the wealth of the nation to pay unsustainable benefits using the following artifices.
- Socialists confiscate assets of foreign businesses and the wealthy. However, this is a one-off thing; assets can be seized only once before they are gone forever.
- They loot businesses and replace competent managers with political hacks who run the business into the ground. Case in point: Venezuelan oil industry.
- They strip and plunder natural resources – despoiling the environment.
- Progressives run huge budget deficits and borrow to the hilt before defaulting.
- They tax the upper and middle classes into oblivion.
- They hyperinflate and print worthless currency, as in $100 trillion banknotes.
- They pillage banks and make phony (unrepayable) loans to acolytes.
- Price controls and rent controls are imposed and evictions forbidden.
- Currency and exchange controls are imposed to prevent anyone fleeing.
- Corruption and bribery run amok as officials steal billions.
Socialism Always Ends the Same
All the above actions are used to finance the appearance of progress for a time. However, all socialism ever accomplishes is ransaking a nation’s patrimony to achieve an unsustainable and short-lived illusion that things are getting better. Socialism never creates sustainable prosperity. There is not one example in human history where collectivism has produced sustained economic gains.
Socialism always ends the same, it runs out of other peoples’ money and things to plunder. In the end, socialism has nothing to offer except starvation amidst plenty.
Brutality or Indoctrination?
Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) and George Orwell (1984) carried on a lively correspondence about the best way for collectivists to cow citizens into obedience. Huxley argued technology and drugs were were more effective than brutality.
“The world’s rulers will discover that (youth) conditioning and drugs are more effective as instruments of government than clubs and prisons. . . . Suggesting people into loving their servitude will satisfy the lust for power better than flogging them into obedience.”
Young Americans Fail to Understand Socialism
The support young Americans have for socialism is based on ignorance. They harbor warm and fuzzy notions of some abstract egalitarian utopia that does not exist and cannot exist in the real world. Simultaneously, they embrace a dark vision of capitalism, which they see as a dog-eat-dog system with great wealth disparities. They conveniently ignore socialist hellholes like Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. . . . those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis
When pressed, young Americans do not see socialism as state control of industry and of the entire economy. What they really want is more government social welfare programs, i.e. a classic European-style social welfare state. When Millennials are asked how they would fund their version of socialism, their support for it plummets. They favor taxing the wealthy into oblivion, but oppose (by large margins) across-the-board tax increases and higher sales taxes. In short, they are clueless.
Socialism and Sweden
Progressives and the young who favor socialism, invariably trot out Sweden² as the poster child. Many adult Americans and most young Americans harbor some fantastical, glorified, unrealistic and unattainable vision of Sweden and, to a lesser extent, other Scandinavian countries as socialist utopias. However, Nordic nations impose much higher taxes on the middle class than the US. Furthermore, the top 10% of Americans pay a greater share of taxes than in the Nordic nations.
All Scandinavian countries have had free market capitalist economies for many decades. Sweden briefly flirted with socialism in the 1970s and 1980s. It failed abjectly and the Swedes rejected it in favor of a return to capitalism. Moreover, Sweden is nowhere near as prosperous as young Americans believe. If Sweden were a US state, it would be poorer³ than our poorest state (Mississippi) by 30%. The GDP of Houston, Texas is higher than that of all of Sweden.
The Good – The Bad – And The Ugly
If there is any good news, it’s that younger Americans really don’t want socialism per se; they just want more government programs – but they don’t want to pay for them. The bad news is they want a European-style social welfare state. The ugly news is that they are woefully ignorant about socialism, capitalism, history and economics.
- There are numerous polls and surveys available; I have used an average number.
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I have written extensively about Sweden and socialism. My most recent post is October 7, 2018 entitled “Nordic Nations and Socialism”. You can read it on my website: www.mllg.us.
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When adjusted for the cost of living.
© 2024 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com