A Note to Millennials on the Sexiness of Socialism

Does socialism sound sexy? I suppose if you grow up in an entitlement environment where everyone gets a participation trophy just for showing up it might. Those children were taught to believe competition was bad — if you didn’t finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd; you’d be justified in hurt feelings. Heaven knows we wouldn’t want hurt feelings.

Many of the schools attended by the “entitlement generation” stopped ranking students based on merit or achievement. Valedictorians were no longer identified, much less allowed to speak at graduation. The notion that one person might be more gifted than another, or might be rewarded for more effort than another, became hateful.

No surprise then that those same young people were taught that capitalism was inherently bad, conservatives were oppressors, Republicans were racists, and corporations were the enemy of the people. In fact, the wealthy were by definition evil.

Students were given safe spaces, coloring books, puppies, and whatever else was necessary to assure they didn’t suffer the realities of life. Of course, you can only shelter people for so long till reality bites. That’s what happened when Hillary lost, and it left many disoriented and angry.

Hillary’s loss also confirmed what teachers and professors had taught students about the system — it’s rigged against you, white males are misogynists who mostly hate women, and redemption is found only in big government that forces certain politically correct behaviors.

They also learned a skewed view of economics. You had the right to a pay check, whether you wanted a job that required you to work for it or not. Health care should be a basic right; and those who provided it should stand ready at the call of any who wanted or needed their service. Education from pre-school through college should be free. Likewise, housing, food, and whatever other necessities you required. After all, you’re entitled.

In a word, socialism!

Usually at this point, some poor dope insensitively asks, “how do you pay for it all?” That’s the kid who missed the lecture on the villainy of the wealthy or he would know the answer. You tax the wealthy.

Damn, sounds perfect does it not? After all, the wealthy are evil. They’re the bad and greedy with big houses, fast cars, and fat stock portfolios. They spend their days figuring out new ways to screw the little guy … you!

The formula thereby emerges: Big government takes from the bad, gives to the good, and keeps a healthy cut for itself to spread among the bureaucrats who service it and the wise visionaries who direct it.

What could be more fair? It’s virtually heaven on earth.

And it’s all achievable because the socialists have spent most of the latter half of the 20th century, and all of the 21st, brain washing you to skip through Sherwood Forest on the trail of the mythical Robin Hood.

There’s just one itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny problem. It doesn’t work. In fact, to say it’s a disaster gives disasters a bad name.

The problem with socialism, as Margaret Thatcher was fond of saying, is that “Eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Or as Ronald Reagan noted, “Socialism does make everyone equal … equally miserable.”

When you take the money people earn, you remove their incentive to work, innovate, or invest. They stop producing. They stop opening small businesses, building factories, inventing new technologies, planting farms, solving problems. They stop employing people.

They no longer provide the goods and services that benefit their neighbors — but then their neighbors can no longer afford to pay for goods or services.

With socialism, everyone loses everything … with one exception: the political elite.

These are the folks who convinced you to skip through the forest with them. They are the ones who convinced you that you were entitled. They’re the ones who promised a new utopia built on wealth that would never end because it was taken from the bad and greedy who would never stop.

They’re also the ones who will order the army to shoot you when you take to the streets because you’ve run out of food, medicine, housing, running water, electricity and all the other things they promised you’d never have to pay for.

Beware the promises of free stuff. In the end, everything costs someone something. Nothing is free. Absolutely nothing.