Loren Lippincott
Socialism is a system in which the government controls the economy, owns major businesses and tries to make everyone equal by taking from some people and giving to others. In practice, it causes great damage in many ways. It weakens money and economic growth, damages relationships between people and dampens the human spirit. The history of socialism shows a wasteland of nations that ended up in poverty, division and virtual slavery. As President Ronald Reagan said, “Socialism only works in two places; Heaven where they don’t need it, and hell where they already have it.”
When the government runs factories, farms and companies, there is little reason to work hard or invent new things. Workers get paid the same whether they work hard or are indolent. In business there is no risk taking and thus no reward, which kills innovation. In free systems, people create better products because they reap the rewards. Under socialism, the government decides what to manufacture and usually decides badly.
As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has said, under capitalism “companies are forced to constantly innovate because of competition and the rise of customer expectations. Bureaucracies can go on in perpetuity without change because they have no effective pressure to improve.”
High taxes are another problem in socialist countries. To pay for services, the government takes a huge share of people’s earnings. This leaves families with less money and over time the economy slows down. Shortages become normal and food, medicine and fuel become scarce.
Venezuela is a prime example. It had huge oil profits but turned to socialism. Today, millions live in poverty, with hyperinflation and people eating out of trash cans. In some socialist European countries people face growing debt, stagnant growth and young people who cannot afford houses. Socialism promises shared wealth but delivers only shared poverty.
Socialism destroys a society and envy and division become the norms. Telling people the government will take care of them from cradle to grave creates dependency. Many stop trying to improve their lives because they expect handouts which damages work ethic. Families become smaller and weaker because the state becomes the provider.
Capitalism encourages people to work together to pursue common and individual goals, but socialism creates suspicion and division by pushing the idea that successful people are greedy thieves. When the government decides who gets jobs, houses or help based on politics rather than merit corruption is the result. Leaders and their friends get rich while ordinary people suffer and social mobility is virtually non-existent. Bright young people from poor families have fewer chances to rise because connections to power matter more than talent or effort. Crime rises as people lose hope in honest work.
But the deepest harm may be spiritual. Humans are made to create, take responsibility and help others freely. Socialism takes away much of that freedom. When the state controls so much, people feel like cogs in a faceless machine instead of unique individuals with purpose. Charity is forced through taxation, replacing generous giving from the heart. This weakens real compassion and moral growth. Meanwhile, as Rush Limbaugh used to argue, the free market is the greatest engine of wealth creation, with poverty as the default global condition and wealth as the exception.
By pushing the idea that material equality is the highest goal, socialism downplays faith, family and personal character. History shows socialist governments frequently attack religion because strong churches give people values outside government control. Socialism turns citizens into sheep, creating dependency, emptiness, boredom and eventually despair.
Socialism fails because it defies basic human nature. Individual self-interest, the driver of capitalism, is treated like a bad thing under socialism, but people will work harder and create more when they get to keep the fruits of their labor. Strong societies are created by people free to choose, create and keep what they’ve earned.
As 250 years of American history has demonstrated, nations do better when they protect individual freedoms, reward effort and let people build their own lives. True progress and prosperity come from systems that lift people up by encouraging them to do their best, not by pulling successful people down.
Loren Lippincott represents Legislative District 34 in the Nebraska State Senate. Read his column in the Nance County Journal.