AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

Since the Democrat convention starts this week, I thought I would talk about the guiding principle of their Party which is Socialism. Although I probably could have posted this last week judging from some of the “highlights” I saw from the Republican convention.

As a coach, my most difficult task is to get each member of our team to think of the team first and himself second. Have you heard the old adage, “there is no I in TEAM? It’s an adage because it’s true! The reason it’s difficult to mold a group of people into a team is because humans are selfish by nature.

The video below, by Prager University, is titled “SOCIALISM MAKES PEOPLE SELFISH”.

I’m going to disagree a little bit with the title, although this may be just a distinction without a difference.

If people are selfish by nature. And socialism incentivizes selfish behavior. Than socialism doesn’t make people selfish as much as it allows their natural selfishness to flourish.

Here is a quote that sums up the differences between capitalism and socialism.

“Capitalism is an economic system for devils, of which there are many. Socialism is an economic system for angels of which there are few.”

In a free market capitalist system selfish individuals have to first produce something that other people want in order to receive what they want in return. Give before you receive. Free market capitalism incentivizes the golden rule.

Watch the video narrated by Dennis Prager.

In this article, The Problem With Socialism, Thomas DiLorenzo states the definition of socialism as “government ownership of the means of production“. Government politicians and bureaucrats figured out that production was a difficult task that is best left to entrepreneurs. So “the means to the socialist end evolved into government enforcing redistribution of income through the welfare state and the progressive income tax“. So in Robin Hood fashion, they decided to rob the producers of their property and redistribute it to the poor. Even though Robin Hood actually reacquired and gave back the property the tax collectors stole from the producers.

Here is an excerpt from the article: “As Mises wrote in his own classic on Socialism, socialists have always employed a dual strategy: 1) nationalize as much private property as possible: and 2) “destruction” or the destruction of as much of the private property/ free enterprise society as possible with taxes, regulation, inflation.”

Related Article – Why Socialism Won’t Work? Human Nature, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Milton Friedman – Socialism Is Force, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Socialism Sounds Great, at austrianaddict.com.

This entry was posted on July 26, 2016 at 12:39 am and is filed under Econ. 101. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Capitalism vs Socialism, Government Ownership OF Means of Production, Human nature, Prager University, Socialism is Force, Socialism Promotes Selfishness, Socialism Sounds Good, Wealth Redistribution