Posted on 02/03/2016 6:52:55 AM PST by reegs
It's disheartening that an avowed socialist is a viable candidate for president of the United States. Socialism is a dead end. For hundreds of years, it has failed everywhere it's been adopted. The enthusiasm of our youth for the candidacy of Bernie Sanders is a symptom of our failure to educate them, not only in history, government and economics, but also basic morality.
You don't have to be a student of ancient history to know socialism doesn't work. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 was an unequivocal demonstration of the moral and economic superiority of capitalism. The misery caused by socialism is unfolding today in Venezuela. Since Venezuela embraced socialism in 1999, poverty, crime and corruption have all increased. Grocery shelves are empty and the annual inflation rate is estimated to be as high as 200 percent.
The United States is a constitutional republic founded on political equality, not equality of income or circumstances. Our system of government was designed to secure the natural rights of its citizens. These rights include not only "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but the right to acquire and maintain private property. The Founding Fathers considered property rights to be sacred and paramount.
Under capitalism, goods and services are distributed through private, voluntary exchanges. When people engage in volitional transactions, everyone benefits. If we believe a transaction is in our best interest, we have an incentive to maintain good relations with those with whom we're trading. Thus a society based on freedom and trading promotes good will and civility. Our free-market system has produced the greatest prosperity in human history.
There are no property rights under socialism. Goods and services are distributed by force through political means. Everything you possess is subject to confiscation and redistribution. Industrious and productive people are punished; parasites are rewarded. When people come to believe they have a right to goods and services produced by other people, society disintegrates into squabbling factions. If socialism is allowed to progress to its logical extreme, it culminates in a military dictatorship like North Korea.
What about so-called "crony capitalism"? This is nothing more than socialism that benefits the wealthy and influential. It's just as wrong as any other form of socialism. The cure is to limit government power. Human nature is corruptible. If government has the power to redistribute wealth, it will always act in the interests of the powerful segments of society. What made America great is not progressive government, but the genius and industry of a people freed from arbitrary power by the chains placed upon government by our Constitution.
Socialism isn't so much a legitimate economic system as it is a moral failing. It will always exist because ignorant people will always want something for nothing. If we want to retain our freedom and prosperity, then we must educate our children that the purpose of government is to secure liberty, not provide free lunches.
Deming (ddeming@ou.edu) is a professor of arts and sciences at the University of Oklahoma.
Followed to a “T”, eh? Sad.
Professors don’t go to ‘education school’.
“He attended Indiana University Bloomington, graduating in 1983 with a BS degree in geology, and received a Ph.D in geophysics from the University of Utah in 1988.”
That students favor Sanders is proof that the announced objective of the left - to take over education and schools in America - was a resounding success. The extremists wanted to make America embrace socialism. After two generations of diligent persistent work, they have achieved their goal of squashing initiative and self-reliance of too many Americans. They have been so successful that these sheep think folks who want to work hard for their own benefit are greedy and evil.
Clicking on that graphic took me to the sign-on page for your email account.
“OU professor: Youths’ attraction to Sanders shows education failure”
I’m sure the Marxists think it’s been quite a success.
Deming has been persecuted for years by the administration at OU.
Here is a link to one episode ten years ago:
http://www.academia.org/david-deming-fights-back/
Now being a college professor is about being a political activist with no sense of humor for hire to the highest and longest funding source for life.
We were better off getting them high and laid while they did little.
East Europeans seem to be the new leaders in defending western civilization and freedom.
Maybe that’s the place to go before the SHTF.
My nephew, now a student at CU-Boulder, is a Sanders crony. He is concerned about the ‘social issues’.
But our DOE teaches the principles of Socialism as what’s best. Seems they succeeded.
So Sander Claus comes along and promises unicorns and rainbows - free college for everyone!
No one has an answer how he can pay for it all, but Bernie's supporters think that this is someone else's job to figure out. Free College! Bernie Sanders is promising candy to chocoholics. Of course they will support him.
Socialist governments murdered 100 000 000 people during the twentieth century. Just think of what they could have accomplished, if only “the right people had been in charge”.
I have a friend that has a doctorate in P-Chem but teaches broad humanities post graduate courses. One of the most intelligent fellows I know.
My son who is a chemistry teacher that graduated with a triple major holds anyone who survived a P-Chem doctorate with awe.
Modern day Leonardos.
bump
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