What's Wrong With Socialism: The final word (I hope)

I have recently made a point of asking several people a number of questions to help better understand what I am up against. While it was anything but scientific I tried to get the most honest results possible and was very careful not to let the pattern of the questions taint the results.

First I looked for people who i knew to be generally uninterested in politics, that is, those who are only subjected to the basic flow of information through mass media and the bias of their upbringing. Then I asked questions about government programs (including health care) and eventually about capitalism vs socialism.

What I learned was both interesting and scary as hell. First of all I found that few knew of a difference between a democracy and a republic. Most, however, thought that we were a democracy. Obviously they are wrong... We are (or once were) a Republic, more to the point, a representative democratic republic. If you don't understand then please let me know so I can help you out.

I also found that most people in my survey thought that socialism was "definitely not good" and that capitalism had "something to do with greed" but could not define either one. I'm guessing that the Hollywood portrayal of both sides has led to this conception of each. I'm glad that they think of socialism as bad but I'm not comfortable with their lack of reason in the matter.

Finally, I found that most people want the government to get involved in the lives of other people but not of their own. That is to say that they want to punish the "greedy rich" and to "help the poor" but they are not willing to give up their own freedoms nor the product of their own labor in the process. I guess that's the middle class mantra... "leave me out of it".

What most people seem to ignore is that when you give the government the power to give to the poor and take from the rich you have also giving them the power to set those parameters. You see, during the campaign Obama promised that the necessary tax hike would only apply to those who made over $300k. Then he dropped that number to $250k, and then $200k and now I'm hearing both $150k and $100k. "So what, they are rich" right? Well how much do you make? What if they decide that they need to raise taxes on everyone making over $40k?

Now in order to pay for those who have nothing you are being forced to pay up to 40% of your earnings. That means that the first 3 hours of your workday go to paying for those who do not work and then you get to keep what you've earned for the other 5 hours. That hardly seems fair right?... Wait, it gets worse.

So the government feels that $7 an hour is not a livable wage and raises the minimum wage to $10. At that point it would cost every business in the country an extra 30% to pay the least productive employees. How does a business offset that extra cost? Well, either by raising the price of the product or reducing the payroll and demanding more productivity from the remaining employees.

If they raise the price of the products then the new wage will no longer be considered a livable wage in a market where all of the prices are higher and the same cycle will continue to repeat itself until the minimum and maximum wages meet. Remember, every time the minimum wage goes up your wage stays the same but the prices go up. That means that the entry level worker gains nothing while your income to expense ratio decreases.

On the other hand.. If the employees choose to absorb the new wage increase by reducing payroll then they will need to release those who are least productive. those individuals will become dependant on the state and the cost of welfare will skyrocket. The government will then be forced to raise the tax burden on the producers in order to absorb the cost.

With an increase in taxes levied on the businesses they will be forced to raise the price of their product in order to absorb the new cost. You will also feel that increase in cost as your expenses go up while your income goes down. The net result is the same, everyone will make the same thing regardless of their productivity.

This is the Democrats dream, the Utopian fantasy that Obama preaches. A world where no matter what you do you will not be able to gain ground on others. All will be equal but will anything be fair? The "progressives" are proud to tell us that they can provide universal equality at the expense of the "rich".

Sure, they want us to all drive little "green" go carts and plan to tax us if we choose not to. They want us to all eat healthy so that we do not add a burden to the "free" health care system and they have proposed punishments if we don't comply. They will offer affordable energy to everyone who uses the right amount at the right time (as they define). They want to offer federally approved education to every single child at no cost to anyone.

They are currently offering up these things and many more... but, where is the freedom? All we hear from Obama (the millionaire) is how we need to be prepared to "sacrifice" for the "common good". How only our federal government can make things good for "everyone". His Idea of responsibility is that everyone is responsible for everyone but themselves. If lawyers have proven anything it is that we can get away with anything as long as we can blame someone else. This is where our nation is headed, "I'm not responsible so I can't be held responsible for my actions".

All of the things that I've shown you are consistent with socialist societies. I hope that my short series has enlightened you and you are willing to admit that it is better to start with capitalism and introduce limited restrictions than to move to socialism and try to introduce freedoms. I pray that I never again find myself having to answer the question "what's wrong with socialism"!