No Snooze: Why America Ought to Wake Up to Rail Against Socialism

How serious should America take presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (D-VT)? Significantly. His inclination to run as a social Democrat ought to wake this country up to the evils that this would present. Instead of the innovation we see in the technology and Silicon Valley professionals, there would be no such thing. The driving force behind socialism is not well-being and flourishing. It’s quite the opposite. Socialism means robbing Peter to pay Paul. But Peter votes for it because he feels guilty that Paul doesn’t have the funds. What is so devastating about socialism is that it creeps into the marketplace and wreaks havoc upon the system. Instead of considering your neighbors as traders willing to save money and at times exchange value for value, socialism disallows commerce and fosters an environment of resentment. It’s goal is to create envy amongst the people and force people to be “moral.” But it is the morality that is aligned with all of the scourges, periods of starvation, and bitter wars. It brings about in people a certain sense of fear and loathing. Fear that they have not given enough alms to support their neighbor’s liver transplant; and loathing as a result of realizing that it is you who must subsidize this new organ.

A socialized health care system would engender a spirit of disloyalty to logic and facts, both key ingredients in the medical field. A doctor must be able to set his or her own prices and to evaluate who they care to treat. With socialism, long waiting lines, diminished bedside manner, botched operations and other horrors would rule the day. Rather than going to your physician for a check-up, you would have to fill out form after form and see that your neighbor get the treatment that you looked forward to obtaining. Again, because he lacks, this would stir up feelings of responsibility for his welfare. As you rot away in some basement of a wretched medical center, you would have a sense of unearned guilt. Nowhere would the question “Why?” ever appear as it applies to the diminishing of your life and values. Why would it be right to shell out funds so that your neighbor’s kids could attend college, but to consider your own offspring would be a major vice? Why is it alright to have your property take away in the name of serving the “public good”? These questions remain unanswered.

And because there are no earthly answers, socialism’s plague ought to encourage a sense of resistance to it.

Senator Bernie Sanders’ opposition to capitalism is not rooted in the fact that it works. He recognizes this fact. Rather it is on moral terms that he knocks the social system. With ideas like making college free for everyone, this negates what the Founders outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Where in that document did Thomas Jefferson write, “The right to an education”? At whose expense would such an notion be implemented? This actually has an answer. The people, of course. But it would be out of the goodness of their hearts to ensure that the weedhead down the street can earn credits in underwater basket weaving. Because a rational, egoistic mind would reject this proposition, the government would coerce individuals into paying for it. The expectation would be for Americans to give of themselves no matter if it clashed with their interests or stood as a non-interest. Mr. Sanders could care less about students and success. He just wants to shackle the able and competent into doing his bidding. His evil spells a threat to the way of life and what it means to be an American. A nation based on self-reliance would be crippled in the face of socialism. And of course, most critics don’t see the crux of the matter. They would say that his plans for health care and college tuition would be okay because at least you're being selfless, but it would cost too much to the taxpayers. The root of the problem is simpler and more fundamental. The plan to make these institutions any less private than they already are flies in the face of reason, of morality. With the government already involved in schools and medical care, whatever private elements in and of them both are slowly slipping away. Mr. Sanders only wishes to accelerate this process. To retard the growth of government and to combat these toxic ideals, America ought to respond to the alarm clock and rouse from their slumber before it’s too late.