I find this troubling. Online activists, or the reds as I like to call them, are more open about being socialists and communists. I find this sad as more and more of them are popping up and they're coming from people I didn't expect it to come from. This post was shared by a friend of mine and I still can't wrap my head around the idea that he's become a red.
Socialists and communists. I admire their honesty in clumping these two ideologies together. I've heard it said that socialism is just the stepping stone to communism. Communism is a bad idea. It's a bad idea in all the countries that have tried it. Socialism is also a bad idea and it's also a bad idea in all the countries that have tried it.
Both systems are based on Karl Marx's idea that everyone simply contributes to the community (which is where communism gets its name) and takes from the community according to their needs. No one entity owns anything. Everything simply belongs to the commune. In other words, the government owns everything and the government can distribute the goods however they see fit.
Simply put, in both systems, the government (or the community) controls the means and distribution of production. This is seen by the reds as a moral way of distributing the finite resources we have. But is it really? To do this would be to reduce the human person to a mere machine who's sole purpose is to provide goods or services for others.
Does the commune require all hands on deck to produce food? If it does, then that's what's needed. Never mind if you don't want to produce food and instead wish to provide entertainment for society. These systems do not take into account the personal choices of people and as such, would not lead to human flourishing. It could lead to human survival, but human flourishing? No.
How about things like universal health care? This is one of those "sounds good" ideas. I mean if everyone pitched in for healthcare, it should only be a good thing right? Well, not exactly. I've explored this in a previous post but the government is not the best at handling money. If we give the government money to handle our healthcare, we would expect to see a lot of wastage.
What would inevitably occur in the long run is hospitals would tend to increase their prices instead of lowering them since there's a guarantee of payment from the government. With increased prices, we would expect to see higher tax rates and we'd tend to have less money for other expenses we may have.
The reds brand socialism and communism as this moral way of handling state affairs. These systems actually undermine our own choice and as such are not moral. I can see how some people could see the appeal but I for one am not having any part of it. And I do think, neither should you.
Does the commune require all hands on deck to produce food? If it does, then that's what's needed. Never mind if you don't want to produce food and instead wish to provide entertainment for society. These systems do not take into account the personal choices of people and as such, would not lead to human flourishing. It could lead to human survival, but human flourishing? No.
How about things like universal health care? This is one of those "sounds good" ideas. I mean if everyone pitched in for healthcare, it should only be a good thing right? Well, not exactly. I've explored this in a previous post but the government is not the best at handling money. If we give the government money to handle our healthcare, we would expect to see a lot of wastage.
What would inevitably occur in the long run is hospitals would tend to increase their prices instead of lowering them since there's a guarantee of payment from the government. With increased prices, we would expect to see higher tax rates and we'd tend to have less money for other expenses we may have.
The reds brand socialism and communism as this moral way of handling state affairs. These systems actually undermine our own choice and as such are not moral. I can see how some people could see the appeal but I for one am not having any part of it. And I do think, neither should you.
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