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Financial Freedom Is Merely Organized Common Sense
What’s The Technique To Make Socialism Work This Time?
Is there any chance at all that socialism might work? I suppose it depends on what you mean by “works.”
The economic aspect
This thought from Michael Keyes sums it up in terms of economics, “If I had a 100 bucks for every time socialism worked I’d have $0, and even if it did work I’d still have $0.”
That seems to pretty well describe the results we have seen where it has been tried. It would take some imagination to see a different outcome here or anywhere else. Perhaps “works” must be examined differently.
The social aspect
There are two clear views of how people act. Type One says people are aggressive, selfish, and greedy. It is their nature. Type Two says they are born as a blank slate and society creates their expressed characteristics.
The difference in how societies address one or the other of those two views.
For type One we have the idea of civilization. Proper behaviour. We learn to tamp down anger, greed, and the other deadly sins. We learn to channel aggression into productive work. We learn to notice others. Most of the conditioning has been accomplished by the time a child is 7 or 8. There is a refresher course in their mid-teens. Productive adults emerge, but not all beginners succeed.
Type Two thinkers look at the ones who didn’t get the lessons and make an assumption. Society made them misfits. It had nothing to do with them. They were capable of being imprinted the right way, but society is not set up to appreciate them or allow them to flourish. Society must change in order for these people to have a chance. If society was flatter, no advantages for any, egalitarian, then all would be well.
Type Two thinkers might be right,
But they face two problems
- How do you make the transition? Certainly aggressive, selfish people are not the ones that just go along with the idea. Eventually I suppose most of them will die off, and then the fullness of the plan will flourish. Could take a while. Maybe a hundred years. Some of the modern socialist experiments have sped that process up some. Re-education and summary execution being two of the tactics.
- What if they are wrong and people have some instincts. Not a blank slate. Is it possible to accommodate them?
Having watched babies, I have noticed they are not a blank slate. At least not emotionally. Each is selfish. Each is aggressive. Children are at least 6 before they, even moderately overcome this imprinting they came with.
Who thinks it is a good idea?
There are two obvious groups. The people who are having trouble making it in the non-socialist system and the intellectuals found in university departments and think tanks.
I can understand the ones who cannot cope, but not the others. They have the talent to be productive but waste their time envying others and creating theories that are unproven and unprovable. I know one professor who claims if your tripled the salaries of professors in the sociology department, they would stop being leftists.
What should we notice about the earlier trials?
It is sold as way to make the world a kinder gentler place. If the Type Two human exists, maybe it’s possible. The risk is they do not exist in numbers. Quite possibly, not at all. I have noticed the infighting at universities is quite vicious at times. Perhaps the intellectuals have the same instincts as the Type One crowd.
The outcome we can expect
Socialism’s purported advantage is egalitarianism. Everyone is equal. Well, except for the ones in control. They have more prestige, more economic advantages, and more power. Could that advantage be their purpose? Are we, the peasants, being offered a bill of goods?
Is it possible the intellectuals think they will be the holders of high office?
History suggest they will not. In previous iterations of the egalitarian idea, from the French revolution, to Russia, China, and now Venezuela. intellectuals are not the favourites. Most disappear or more correctly are disappeared.Conventionally, the leaders of the various socialist revolutions are very much Type One characters. Doers not thinkers.
What to do instead
Have you noticed that most of the people who fail have a common characteristic. They think they have been made a victim and deserve better treatment. If I believed that about myself, I suppose I would think something else could heal me.
I would easily find allies in my quest. Thomas Sowell has pointed out the condition.
“many of what are called social problems are differences between the theories of intellectuals and the realities of the world—differences which many intellectuals interpret to mean that it is the real world that is wrong and needs changing”
The intellectuals could be wrong. They cannot seem to objectively justify their position. Should we let them try a big experiment? The deep problem with implementing is that the intellectual bears no cost. If the experiment fails, it is because the brilliant plan was executed poorly, or not enough resources were made available to them. Money and power.
I can see where the power comes from, but from whence the money. Money can only be spent once. If you use it to support the ones that were away the day they taught getting along in society, it will not be available for innovation, growth, or solving other problems. Who wants to try anything under the socialist conditions?
The total amount of money available to support socialism will begin to fall immediately. Margaret Thatcher, “Socialism is a great idea, until you run out of other people’s money.”
Socialism is a dream of amateurs.
Socialism is a long run plan. The amateurs violate an immutable rule of life. A rule everyone who has been charged with doing anything has learned the hard way.
If the short run doesn’t work, the long run doesn’t matter.
The amateurs are telling you the long term value and not explaining how they will cross the short run. Maybe they believe in magic. Fairy tales are easier to create than execute.
The takeaway
Use your common sense. Demand methods for crossing the short run. 50 years or so. Express the advantages to having crossed with evidence and reasoning.
You won’t get any of that, so better start demanding responsibility and accountability for yourself. There is no free lunch. You can only have what you can earn. Merlin is dead. There is no magic in the kingdom.
Be sure you teach your children sound values. Look out for each other. Help where you can. Make the most of your talents. Work harder. Acquire skills. Admit mistakes and learn from them. Ask for help from others, people like to be asked.
Every once in a while, reread the Desiderata. It will help you have the courage you need.
I help people have more income and larger, more liquid estates.
Call in Canada 705-927-4770, or email don@moneyfyi.com
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