Tag: Socialism

MLLG

Why Liberals Hate Capitalism

George Noga

Why Liberals Hate Capitalism

Capitalism is to each according to his accomplishments

America is engaged in a great culture war for the preservation of capitalism along with liberty – which is symbiotically linked to capitalism. As economist Joseph Schumpeter predicted a century ago, capitalism has sown the seeds of its own destruction.1 Schumpeter laid the blame at the feet of liberal professors who, freed from the need to work, would promote anti-capitalist dogma which eventually would result in people voting for a social welfare state, i.e. socialism.

College professors indoctrinating socialism

“Capitalism will not survive. Its demise will not be due to economic failure; instead its very success . . . creates conditions in which it cannot survive.” Schumpeter

Just how bad is the anti-capitalist mentality? In recent polls, a majority of Americans ages 18-29 believe socialism is the ideal economic system2 They embrace feel-good notions about some abstract socialist utopia3 that never has existed and never can exist. They simultaneously harbor a dark vision of capitalism as a dog-eat-dog system. Clearly, the vituperation of capitalism by professors has infected college students and wafted into the general population. It appears Schumpeter was prescient.

Why Liberals Favor Socialism Over Capitalism

There are many reasons progressives hate capitalism and embrace socialism.

  • Capitalism evolved organically. No intellectual wrote a capitalist manifesto. Adam Smith did not invent capitalism; he merely explained what people did naturally. Capitalism just happens; it doesn’t require academics to theorize.
  • No one is needed to control capitalism. Socialism however requires controllers, i.e. socialist intellectuals who deign to know what is best for everyone.
  • Capitalism is egalitarian. Some uneducated bloke can make a fortune stripping junked autos for parts because he provides a valuable service to consumers. In contrast, the intellectual feels unrecognized and unrewarded.
  • Professors are rewarded by bureaucrats, not markets. They succeed by pleasing statist employers, not by providing value to consumers.
  • Capitalism is to each according to his accomplishments, not his intentions.
  • Liberals believe their advanced degrees, pet theories and pristine intentions should be rewarded and override the free decisions of consumers, if necessary by using the police power of the state. Capitalists believe in laissez faire.
  • Collectivists prefer government regulation to the chaos of the marketplace.
  • Consumers are sovereign. Intellectuals enjoy no special status and the common man holds all the power via his decisions to buy or not to buy. The most powerful economic force on earth is a consumer armed with a free choice. Wealth can be achieved only by serving sovereign consumers – with every penny a vote.
  • Capitalism brooks no excuses for failure. Those who fail are found wanting by their fellow man. Both the carrot and stick are real. The economic landscape is littered with failed businesses and crushed dreams of wannabe entrepreneurs. Under socialism, there are no consequences for failure.
  • Socialists desire control over others because they know what is best for the poor ignorant rubes in flyover land. Capitalists just want to be left alone.
  • Intellectuals see themselves as heroic figures reining in greedy capitalists, saving helpless victims and basking in the approbation of mankind. Capitalists simply want to provide a product or service consumers value more than its cost.
  • Liberals focus on the perceived inequalities and social injustices of capitalism rather than on its astounding success in ending extreme poverty on our planet.
  • Progressives ignore the total failure of all collectivist systems ever imposed by man. They ignore Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and the former USSR and believe they will get it right the next time. Capitalists know better.

Schumpeter’s Prediction: True or False?

Over 100 years ago Schumpeter predicted the success of capitalism would lead to its destruction. He feared the demise of capitalism, along with its corollaries of wealth and liberty, would usher in a new dark age resulting in a lengthy and unspeakable Orwellian torpor where men lead lives of quiet desperation. We are now in the end stage of a great cultural war to decide if our children and grandchildren inherit a world of free men and free markets or one of a never-ending socialist miasma.

I fear Americans have lost the critical connection between capitalism and the wealth and liberty it produces. By most objective metrics, it appears socialism is on the ascendancy. Even in America, that great bastion of capitalism and the richest country on earth, its youth favor socialism. Hopefully, this post will help explain why America’s liberal intelligentsia hate capitalism and love socialism.

Liberty is like a beautiful but fragile garden in the middle of the jungle; it requires constant vigilance to survive. It is not a natural state, but must be protected constantly against forces trying to destroy it. We Americans are not doing a good enough job tending the garden. Nowhere is it written that the garden will survive.

  1. Please see my posts of March 4, 2018 and March, 11, 2018 for a comprehensive analysis of Schumpeter’s prediction. All my posts are available on my website: www.mllg.us.

  2. See my post of May 26, 2024. It is available in the Substack archives and on my website.

  3. Most college students who favor socialism trot out Sweden as an example of a socialist nirvana. They are blissfully ignorant that Sweden is a capitalist state with sky-high taxes on its middle class. If Sweden were a US state, it would be 30% poorer than the USA’s poorest state, Mississippi.

    © 2024 George Noga
    More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
    Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

MLLG

The Morality of Capitalism

George Noga

The Morality of Capitalism

Capitalism vs. Socialism: Results, Theory and Morality

George Noga
Oct 27, 2024

Socialists always compare an idealized version of socialism to the practice of capitalism. This is as convoluted as comparing ideal capitalism to real-world socialism. This post presents a comparison between socialism and capitalism: results to results, theory to theory and morality to morality.
Food Lines in Socialist Venezuela

Results of Socialism Compared to Results of Capitalism

This is no contest; no one seriously argues socialism produces better results. Socialism never has created sustained prosperity; it can only achieve a brief illusion of prosperity by plundering a nation’s wealth. See my post of May 26, 2024 for more details; it is available on my website www.mllg.us and in Substack archives.

Although socialism may achieve transient benefits, it always ends the same, i.e. starvation amidst plenty. Socialism’s failures are legion: the USSR, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, much of Latin and South America and Africa. There is not one example in history where socialism has worked. But they will get it right next time.

In sharp contrast, capitalism’s successes also are legion; they include, but are not limited to, the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. In the past 30 years (per the World Bank) capitalism has cut extreme poverty by 90%. Each day 100,000 more people escape poverty thanks to capitalism, the greatest economic and humanitarian success since men lived in trees.

Theory of Socialism Compared to Theory of Capitalism

Under ideal socialism, the governing values are community and equality. Socialists view economic well-being as a common enterprise. People share work according to their abilities and no one demands extra benefits due to greater talent or work. All inequalities due to undeserved advantages or disadvantages are eliminated. In socialists’ utopia all people are economically equal, i.e. equality of outcome.

Ideal capitalism means self-interest and free markets. Some people are more talented, exert more effort or take greater risks; hence, some are wealthier than others. Just as in the socialist utopia however, people care about each other and value community. When someone is in need, neighbors help. All of the good parts of the socialist utopia are present in ideal capitalism, but so are additional benefits such as innovation, job creation and more and better goods and services.

Everyone is better off with capitalism and there is no envy because everyone is unselfish. If one assumes people under socialism are altruistic, then it is only fair to make the same assumption for capitalism. Moreover, markets are not dependent on altruism and function quite well even when comity is in short supply.

Morality of Socialism Compared to Morality of Capitalism

Capitalism is non-coercive cooperation in free markets. People succeed only by providing goods and services valued by their fellow man more than their cost. No transaction ever takes place unless both parties benefit. There is no more potent force on earth than a consumer armed with a free choice. The consumer is sovereign, and even the largest corporation cannot force anyone to buy its products. Capitalism is economic democracy and every penny is a vote.

Following are some of the moral underpinnings of capitalism – an economic system that respects individual rights, promotes liberty and lifts the world out of poverty.

  • Individual rights: Capitalism is predicated on the belief that it is a fundamental human right for everyone to be free to pursue their own economic interest. Under socialism, big brother decides everything.
  • Liberty: The freedom provided by capitalism is necessary for humans, both individually and as a society, to flourish. The political corollary of capitalism is liberty, while under socialism it is tyranny.
  • Meritocracy: Under capitalism, rewards are aligned with ability, work effort and risk. Capitalism is based on the correct understanding of human nature, while socialism is diametrically opposed to human nature.
  • Voluntary Exchange: All transactions in a capitalist system are based on mutual benefit. Socialism is based on central planning without regard to markets.
  • Innovation and Efficiency: The incentives of capitalism result in an economy that innovates, creates new jobs and responds to peoples’ needs and wants. This process benefits society as a whole. Compare the socialist (East Germany) Trabant to the capitalist (West Germany) Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW or Audi.
  • Morality: Individuals under capitalism are responsible for their own success or failure; under socialism individuals are subordinate to the state.

Capitalism isn’t good because it works; it works because it’s good.

Capitalism is morally superior to socialism and is better in both theory and practice. Capitalism isn’t good because it works; it works because it is good. Socialism always fails because it is based on a deeply flawed understanding of human nature; hence, it never has succeeded and never will. The great mystery is why anyone in 2024 still believes in socialism. Maybe they will get it right the next time.

© 2024 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

MLLG

Summers for Snowflakes

George Noga

Summers for Snowflakes

College students need to acquire grit

GEORGE NOGA
June 2, 2024

College students are indoctrinated in progressive dogma from the moment they set foot on campus. They are unaware they are inside an outre plastic bubble and come to believe their PC world is authentic. They have no clue just how opposed it is to the real world. Upon leaving their ivory towers, they are gobsmacked by reality.

man in black and yellow jacket wearing red helmet holding black and white stick

With summer rapidly approaching, snowflakes would benefit from summer jobs or activities that expose them to the real world. They may even acquire some grit along the way, which would be of inestimable value in their future lives. All the summer activities listed infra are far more valuable than some woke internship.

Gritty Jobs

While earning some walking-around money, snowflakes would benefit incalculably from summer jobs such as those in plumbing, surveying, house painting or construction. These jobs would expose them to a swath of humanity well outside their normal society. They would learn valuable lessons about job demands as well as human nature from their coworkers. They may also acquire some grit.

The life lessons learned during a summer on a construction site would far exceed those from some PC internship. Surprise: snowflakes may even come to like and to respect their coworkers and learn to appreciate different points of view.

Experience the Authentic America

Students could visit America’s flyover land. There would be mandatory stops in Appalachia, the Rust Belt, the Great Plains, the mountain west and the desert southwest. They would be required to mostly stay in small towns – often for days at a time. While there, they must engage the locals and attend events such as fairs and rodeos. It may also be a good idea to include stays in progressive snake pits such as Seattle, Portland and San Francisco to experience firsthand the result of failed progressive policies.

The trip across America could be financed by parents or grandparents¹ and would come with some requirements. Students must spend at least 30 minutes a day keeping a contemporaneous diary including what they did and who they talked with. At the end of the trip they must write a comprehensive report about what they learned.

Military and ROTC

All the armed services have summer ROTC programs for college students.² These programs – including paratroop and ranger training – push cadets to their limits physically and mentally. Cadets learn achievement, wellness, character and leadership. Military experience offers valuable life lessons and immersion in a non-PC subculture. Your drill sergeant will not offer you warm milk and playdough. Participants in these summer ROTC programs can acquire grit on steroids.

Summer in Socialist Countries

Snowflakes are taught, and most believe, socialism is superior to capitalism. In their ignorance, they harbor fantastical, glorified, utopian and unattainable visions of socialism where everyone joins hands to sing Kumbaya. They conflate socialism with Nordic nations, ignorant that all Scandinavian countries have free market capitalism. Moreover, Sweden, the wealthiest Nordic country, is much poorer than the USA.

When hard pressed, snowflakes say they don’t really want socialism; they just want bigger government, i.e. a European-style social welfare state. However, when informed of the middle class tax burden that would be required to fund such a leviathan state, they say they don’t want to pay for it. But I digress.

Students should summer in an authentic socialist country such as nearby Cuba or Venezuela; but they must remember to bring their own medicine and toilet paper. Those demonstrating on behalf of Hamas should spend their summer in Gaza.

True Grit

Snowflakes can benefit from a summer experiencing the authentic America, doing construction, joining an ROTC program or living in a socialist country. They would learn a great deal about America, human nature, tolerance and respect for other viewpoints. Snowflakes might even discover they really like America after all, and, to cap off their summer, they just might acquire some true grit.

  1. Yale has a “Summer Odyssey” program which finances such trips for their insulated students.
  2. There also is summer Junior ROTC for high school students.

© 2024 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

MLLG

Socialism Gaining Popularity

George Noga

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

a statue with a star on top of it

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.

  1. There are numerous polls and surveys available; I have used an average number.

  2. 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.

  3. 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

MLLG

Dreaming of a Woke Christmas

George Noga

Dreaming of a Woke Christmas

Warning: candy canes resemble a shepherd’s crook

GEORGE NOGA

NOV 26, 2023

Santa Claus (please, no fat shaming) has been cancelled because he (preferred pronoun) is a phallocentric, cisgender, heteronormative, oppressive white male existing solely within an ageist authoritarian hierarchy. He is misogynistic and fraught with mansplaining, bropriation, toxic masculinity and white fragility.

Only unwoke children adhering to bourgeois capitalistic values and to moral absolutism (by not being naughty) receive gifts during the Celebration of Winter (formerly known as Christmas). Such children are brainwashed and seduced into a lifelong exploitative and metastasizing addiction to conspicuous consumption.

santa claus with red background
What? Me cancelled!

Santa’s bribes to gift-addled children are made by degendered, height-challenged, marginalized elves at the North Pole, a hostile post-colonial, non-union, right-to-work setting. The oppressed elves and reindeer must avoid stepping off the shrinking polar ice cap. At least ze (preferred plural pronoun for elves) no longer need to watch out for polar bears on passing ice floes due to their rapidly shrinking population.

Woke Christmas Shopping and Decorating

Scrooge-like robber barons such as Wal-Mart lure unsuspecting shoppers with elaborate decorations, holiday music and even (horrors) low prices. Some stores stoop so low as to provide ersatz Santas to lure, confuse and coax young children into an anti-proletarian lifestyle. If you should feel overwhelmed by microaggressions while shopping, seek a safe room with elevator music, teddy bears, images of frolickingly puppies, Play-Doh, warm milk and cookies. Should you need a rest room, make sure there is one available that comports with your gender identity at that moment.

Décor for the Celebration of Winter must exclude trees and anything intended to hang on trees. Also offensive are images of Santa, reindeer and anything red or green. Most offensive are nativity scenes. Avoid snowflakes and snow globes; however, making snow people is acceptable. Avoid holiday lights unless the power comes from solar or windmills as the energy wasted will lead to more fracking and pipelines. Be on high alert to avoid candy canes which resemble a shepherd’s crook – bummer.

Gift Guidelines for a Woke Christmas

Eschew toys made in China with slave labor; however, it is just fine to buy EVs that use child labor in Africa. Buy locally to avoid leaving a humongous carbon footprint. Take care to avoid cultural appropriation and non-intersectionality. Don’t use wrapping paper or cards as the environmental impact of paper products requires clear cutting of old growth forests and sacrificing spotted owls on the altar of unbridled consumerism. Moreover, disposing of all the waste requires countless new landfills. Lengthy after Christmas lines to return gifts attest to their utter depravity; obviously, people neither needed nor wanted the gifts. This is not gaslighting.

Avoid gender specific gifts; above all, this means NRA-inspired toy guns for the deplorable and irredeemably racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic and xenophobic boys in flyover land. They will cling to their new guns along with their religion. Avoid gifts from companies guilty of greenwashing.

Certain woke gifts are acceptable, such as birth control pills for birthing people on rape-infested college campuses. Personalized N-95 masks are a good choice. If all else fails, a Che Guevara sweatshirt always is sure to please your woke friends.

Vacations to socialist utopias such as North Korea, Gaza, and nearby Venezuela are popular with progressives; however, remind your recipient to bring zer (preferred pronoun) own toilet paper. If you can’t afford foreign travel, California, New York or Illinois are good substitutes. If you want to impress your favorite liberal, give zem (preferred pronoun) a U-Haul to Florida. For a really big splurge, you could provide private security to your blue state BFF in a sanctuary state where crime and looting are rampant, guns are banned, police have been defunded and cash bail eliminated.

Woke Christmas Dinner

Once all the unwanted gifts and materials are properly recycled with zero waste, avoid binge eating f/k/a Christmas dinner – an affront to those with food insecurities. Avoid grace or even a moment of silence as this is but a veiled attempt at prayer. Eat only organic, non-GMO, sustainable, local and fair-traded foods. Consider a vegan, PETA approved menu; tofu is a great alternative. Avoid turkey which is not free range and is loaded with growth hormones, mutagens, carcinogens and antibiotics. Bon Appetit.

TRIGGER WARNING: Merry Christmas to all our readers from MLLG!

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

MLLG

Socialism and Bottled Water

George Noga

Socialism and Bottled Water

A simple bottle of water explains socialism’s failure

GEORGE NOGA

Water began to be sold in single serve bottles in the USA during the 1970s. There always had been a small market for sparkling water and for bottled water in parts of the world where tap water was unsafe or of poor quality. But who would have fathomed that Americans would shell out good money for bottled water when safe, good quality water runs scot-free out of faucets, fountains and coolers?
bottled water

I am educated in economics and would like to believe I would make the best possible decisions to serve my fellow man. However, if I were a 1970s era socialist government planner, I would not have allowed our economy’s scarce resources to be used to produce and to distribute bottled water. After all, no one would buy it; right?

I would have been dead wrong; consumption now is 1 million bottles per minute.

Today, bottled water is the second largest beverage sold – ahead of both milk and beer. In 2022 Americans spent over $30 billion to buy 16 billion gallons. That pales in comparison to China which consumes nearly 100 billion bottles annually. The world market is over $300 billion and is forecast to hit $500 billion by 2030. Every day, people across the globe consume 1.3 billion plastic bottles, or about 1 million per minute. A Harris poll showed that 94% of Americans buy bottled water. Worldwide, 600 million households (about 2 billion people) drink bottled water. Whew!

All of my economic training, smarts, logic and pristine intentions would have failed dismally in discerning the preferences of my fellow man. I would have completely misjudged the creativity and ambition of entrepreneurs and the behavior of consumers armed with a free choice. Had I been the chief central planner for a socialist government in the 1970s, there would be no bottled water today.

One million bottles of water are consumed every minute!

However, as dead wrong I would have been about bottled water, no one would ever have known of my mistake because it would have been impossible to know what would have happened with free people in free markets.

Of course, it isn’t just about bottled water. There would be no copy machines, personal computers, smart phones, internet or a host of other products we take for granted today. IBM originally estimated the world market for copy machines at 5,000 and for personal computers at 100. The cognoscenti of the time believed the internet would be used only by government and universities.

No socialist government would have produced copy machines or personal computers or facilitated the internet. If perchance they had produced copiers or PCs they would have been shoddy – just like their cars (the Trabant comes to mind) that had less horsepower than today’s riding lawn mowers.

The humble bottle of water, available in any store for around one dollar, shatters the myth, arrogance and fatal conceit underlying socialism and all command economies.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

MLLG

Adam Smith Tricentennial

George Noga

Why there is no capitalist manifesto
GEORGE NOGA – JUN 25, 2023

This month is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith, born June 1723 in Kirkaldy, Scotland. Adam Smith was not the father of capitalism, as he often is called, but the first to articulate its principles. He is known for his invisible hand metaphor explaining how self-interested individuals operate in a system of mutual interdependence and direct economic life more effectively and fairly than government intervention.

a statue of a man standing in front of a building

Adam Smith did not invent capitalism because it evolved organically. No intellectual ever wrote a capitalist manifesto. Capitalism doesn’t require pointy-headed professors to theorize; it just happens naturally. To the eternal pique of liberal elites, no one is capable of controlling capitalism, whereas socialism requires controllers, i.e. the same progressive savants who castigate capitalism. Capitalism is egalitarian and rewards those who best serve sovereign consumers; i.e. their fellow man.

Capitalism evolved in prehistoric times

Capitalism evolved organically. For example, Paleolithic fishermen worked incessantly, spearing just enough fish to survive. Then along came one nascent capitalist who thought of a net. Since neither he nor anyone else had any capital he could borrow, he worked longer hours for months to accumulate enough surplus fish (his capital) to give him time to make a net. With his net he generated a fish surplus to trade for other goods. He also financed others who, in turn, specialized in different skills, with the resultant benefits from the division of labor. Our first capitalist became wealthy, but his capital also made everyone else much better off.

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests.”

In sharp contrast, socialism never has happened organically. All the failed attempts throughout history to achieve Utopia, Xanadu, Zion and Valhalla were spearheaded and financed by some ivory-tower dreamer. That explains, as well as anything, why capitalism always succeeds and why all forms of collectivism always fail.

More Wisdom from Adam Smith

Adam Smith wrote many other pithy statements about economics and capitalism, which continue to have relevance for those of us in the twenty-first century. His point in Wealth of Nations about comparative advantages of trade still resonates.

“By means of glasses and hotbeds, very good grapes can be grown in Scotland and very good wine too can be made of them at about thirty times the expense for which at least equally good can be brought from foreign countries.”

Smith’s statements about the role of government also are valid 300 years on.

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”

“To hurt in any degree the interest of any one order of citizens, for no other purpose but to promote that of some other is evidently contrary to that justice and equality the (government) owes to all the different orders of citizens.”

“The statesman who attempts to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capital would not only load himself with unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could be entrusted to no council, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had the folly to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”

Perhaps my favorite Adam Smith quote applies (in spades) to today’s virtue-signaling progressives, private-jetting climate alarmists, greenwashing corporations, limousine liberals and their ilk. Adam Smith had their number 300 years ago when he wrote:

“The man who has performed no single action of importance, but whose whole conversation and deportment express the justest, the noblest and most generous sentiments, can be entitled to no very high reward. We ask him, what have you done.”

Adam Smith’s genius lie in being first to clearly explain an economic phenomenon that is as old as our Paleolithic fisherman who first generated an economic surplus. Remember, no one ever wrote a capitalist manifesto because it wasn’t necessary. Unlike all forms of collectivism, capitalism is organic and consistent with human nature. That explains why capitalism and free markets succeed and socialism fails.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

MLLG

Equity Means Socialism

George Noga

What if everyone was equal?

Equity Means Socialism
By GEORGE NOGA – APRIL 9, 2023

Collectivism has gone by many names: socialism, communism, fascism, Marxism, democratic socialism, Utopianism, Fabianism, progressivism – and now, the most mellifluous term of them all – equity. Despite its euphony, equity is just another code word intended for maskirovka and to make socialism palatable – just as politically correct hospitals refer to death as a negative patient outcome.

The horrors of socialism, in all its names and iterations, has been the subject of dystopian works such as Atlas Shrugged, Animal Farm, 1984 and Brave New World. Herein, I take a fresh look at what equity could look like in the 21st century.

Harrison Bergeron

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, published in 1961 provides one spine-chilling perspective. It is set in the year 2081, after the 213th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified making every American equal. A powerful new government czar, the Handicapper-General, strictly enforces the law so that everyone performs at the lowest common level. Everyone is handicapped. Those who are good looking must wear masks; those who are strong or athletic must carry weights; those who are smart must wear earbuds to disrupt their thought process. For example, more proficient ballerinas are weighted down and masked to counteract their gracefulness and appearance so the audience won’t feel bad about their own appearance.

The protagonist is 14-year-old Harrison Bergeron, a genius, tall, incredibly handsome, athletic, strong, artistic and brave. The Handicapper-General forces Harrison to wear earphones, glasses to cut his vision by 50%, disfiguring makeup, blackened teeth, a red rubber nose and 300 pounds of weight to compensate for his prodigious strength. However, Harrison decides to live unimpeded by government interference. Note: There have been several movies made of Harrison Bergeron.

Achieving Perfect Equity

Following is my idea for how perfect equity could be achieved today? The most progressive minds in America could create a master algorithm incorporating all known markers of success and failure. The algorithm would take into account, inter alia, DNA, race, gender, sexual orientation, height, weight, IQ, life expectancy and appearance. Exogenous factors in the algorithm would be birth place, social class, family income and educational level.

The end result of the master algorithm would be a polygenic score assigned to everyone at birth. Those with positive scores would pay a polygenic tax, while those with negative scores would receive a corresponding benefit. The taxes and benefits would vary in direct proportion to how much the scores were positive or negative. The scores would be reevaluated and adjusted periodically so that any inequalities that emerged would be corrected. Done correctly, this could make everyone equal.

Mythical Germanic Kingdom

In the real world perfect equality is a chimera. If all wealth were equalized, within a few years the wealth distribution would return to the status quo ante. Equity is merely the latest stalking horse for socialism. Interestingly, no sci-fi (or other) writers have ever written a positive story about a society where everyone is perfectly equal.

Something in the human condition makes some people (usually those with nothing to lose) dream of collectivism – the term du jour being equity. This post provided a peek at what perfect equity might look like – Harrison Bergeron with a 300-pound weight and algorithmic polygenic scores. How much of that kind of equity do you want?

Despite the failure of all forms of collectivism throughout the ages, progressives dream of a world, like the mythical Germanic kingdom, where candy grows on trees, lemonade flows in rivers and the fattest, ugliest and stupidest person is king.

© 2023 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com

 

 

MLLG

The First Thanksgiving in America

George Noga

The enduring lesson of Thanksgiving is the triumph of freedom over socialism.

The First Thanksgiving in America

By: George Noga – November 20, 2021

This Thanksgiving, as your family gathers to celebrate, regale them with the indelible lessons of the first Thanksgiving in America and not with the usual feel-good, warm, fuzzy, multi-cultural and politically correct narrative of Pilgrims sharing their first harvest and peacefully celebrating with their Wampanoag neighbors. This fusty canard about Thanksgiving is mostly false and offers no enduring life lessons.

The Pilgrims did not invite the Indians to the first Thanksgiving 

The Wampanoags were not invited to the harvest feast but crashed the party after it had begun, not to celebrate but to remind the Pilgrims they were there at their mercy. The relationship turned violent soon thereafter. Native Americans regard Thanksgiving as a tragedy leading to genocide, loss of land and slavery. Americans have been taught a story that is historically incorrect and that ignores the true lessons of Thanksgiving.

The True and Enduring Lessons of Thanksgiving

Following is the authentic story of Thanksgiving in America and its timeless lessons about human nature that speak to us even today. It is an inspiring and uplifting story about human survival, adaptation and eventual triumph over starvation and death.

Once upon a time, good and righteous people seeking a better life came to settle in America; they had sincere and lofty ideas about how they would govern themselves in the new world. They believed that sharing all work and benefits equally was just and even noble. They strove gallantly to make such a socialist system work.

The Pilgrims starved under socialism but prospered with capitalism

But after enduring social dissonance and unfathomable hardships, they came to the realization that a system of communal property is incompatible with human nature. They quickly took decisive action and instituted private property rights. The next harvest resulted in a veritable cornucopia, and they held a feast to celebrate. Today, we celebrate this triumph of freedom over socialism as the first Thanksgiving in America.

The authentic Thanksgiving narrative is about early Americans overcoming starvation, death and collectivism. It is about understanding that socialism always results in starvation amidst plenty. It is about understanding that severing the link between work and benefit is contrary to human nature. It is about understanding that socialism is such a perversion that people choose starvation over living and working communally.

People in Plymouth (and Jamestown) literally chose death over socialism. Yet, all these same people who, one year earlier, starved under socialism suddenly became industrious, inventive and prosperous when they had property rights. And that, dear readers, is the authentic narrative of the first Thanksgiving in America!

A HAPPY AND AUTHENTIC THANKSGIVIING TO ALL OUR READERS

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May Day 2022 – Commie Compilation

George Noga

Humans have dreamt of a temporal paradise since the Garden of Eden.

May Day 2022 – Commie Compilation

By: George Noga – May 1, 2022

May Day commemorates the Haymarket riots, which to socialists symbolize the struggle for workers’ rights. It is the most important holiday in socialist countries such as Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, Venezuela and former Soviet republics. In observance, we present a compilation of the failures of collectivism from many different angles. We do this because polls show many younger Americans prefer socialism over capitalism. Also, progressivism is a gateway drug for socialism.

Socialism fails in theory and practice: Throughout history socialism has failed everywhere it has been attempted; it never has succeeded for a group larger than a small clan, family or tribe. There is not one example where socialism has improved the human condition over a sustained period of time. Collectivism fails because it is fundamentally contrary to human nature and ignores and misaligns incentives.

Collectivism is a lie: Commies promise you liberty; you get the Berlin Wall and closed borders with watchtowers, razor wire and minefields. They promise prosperity; you get lines, rationing, shortages and shoddy goods. They promise hope; they give you nihilism. They promise truth; you get Pravda, censorship, propaganda, and banned internet. They promise life; they give you death – murdering over 100 million of their own people. They promise a workers paradise; you get a phantasmagoria of lies, terror, slaughter, misery, poverty, injustice, kleptocracy and social pathology.

Socialism is just like Scandinavia: Progressives assert socialism is just like Sweden and other Scandinavian countries. Sweden experimented with socialism in the 1970s and it was a colossal failure. They abandoned socialism and embraced free market capitalism. Today every Nordic nation is capitalist. They provide robust social benefits only because their capitalist economies generate great wealth. Sweden is not prosperous due to socialism; it is wealthy because it abandoned socialism. Moreover, if Sweden were a US state, it would be the poorest one – and by a wide margin.

Initial successes are illusory: Socialism can appear to work briefly as socialists plunder a nation’s wealth. They confiscate assets, loot industries, strip natural resources, run huge budget deficits, and borrow to the hilt. They tax the wealthy to oblivion, print worthless currency, hyperinflate, pillage banks and beg for foreign aid. They impose price, rent and currency exchange controls. For a time, these measures give the illusion of progress, but all socialists have done is steal a nation’s patrimony. After socialists are done pillaging, it always ends the same, i.e. starvation amidst plenty.

Jamestown and Plymouth: Both colonies initially were governed under socialist principles. All property was communal and there was no direct link between work and benefit. Both experienced mass starvation and death – even cannibalism. They starved to death en mass rather than work collectively. They literally chose death over socialism. Once private property rights were restored, the colonies prospered. The very same settlers who had starved under socialism, now thrived under capitalism.

Trabant versus Mercedes: The best car ever produced under socialism is the Trabant. It had a two-cylinder engine and 26 horsepower – similar to a riding lawnmower. The gas gauge was a dipstick and oil had to be mixed in with the gas in precisely the correct proportion. There was no fuel pump and the gas tank was placed above the engine for gravity flow. Payment in full was required up front and the car would be delivered in 12 years. The Trabant was made in East Germany; a few miles away in West Germany, consumers had their choice of VW, Audi, BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.

Head-to-Head Comparisons: Many years ago there were five islands, all of them poor and bereft of natural resources. Two of them chose command economies and collectivism; the three others chose free market capitalism. A half century later, the socialist islands are impoverished hell holes and the ones that chose capitalism are rich. It’s as simple as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan versus Cuba and Puerto Rico.

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Progressives continue to harbor quixotic dreams of utopia; perhaps they will get it right the next time. But for the entirety of human history, it is the god that failed.

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Next is a special posting about the beginning of the spending crisis.
More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us