What Leads Grown Adults To Believe In Economic Santa And The Tooth Fairy?
That's about as rational as it is to believe in communism and socialism in the face of all the bloody evidence.
Along those lines, there's a moving piece in the January print edition of Reason by Jose Cordeiro, "Socialism Killed My Father." The subhead: "Venezuela's failed collectivist experiment brought death and despair to a once-prosperous country."
An excerpt:
The growing number of people in the West who say they prefer socialism--or even, God help us, the pernicious Cuban and Venezuelan variants that might more properly be known as communism--often cite the provision of universal health care in their case for collectivism. That is why it's so important for me to tell my father's story. An entire nation is being hollowed out because some people refuse to accept that one of history's most deadly political ideas has produced corpses everywhere it's been tried....During my childhood in the '60s and '70s, Venezuela enjoyed extraordinary economic growth--often above 10 percent a year. It was a land of opportunity, with relatively free markets, low inflation, little foreign debt, and something close to full employment. The local currency, the bolivar, was considered one of the strongest and most stable in the world. It was even revalued against the U.S. dollar in the 1930s, increasing its international value. As kids we used to say that our hometown of Caracas was "the capital of Heaven."
With increasing oil revenues, Venezuela became the wealthiest country in all of Latin America, overtaking once-dominant Argentina and Cuba. By the mid-1970s, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) was very close to that of Texas, which had comparable oil reserves and population numbers. Some pundits even foresaw the Venezuelan economy eclipsing the Lone Star State's by the 1980s.
Until, that is, the Socialist government of Carlos Andrés Pérez began nationalizing the economy in the late 1970s. All foreign oil companies (Shell, Mobil, Exxon, etc.), as well as the smaller Venezuelan producers, were taken over by the government in 1976 under a single conglomerate called PDVSA. Pérez also nationalized the telecom industry, the mining sector, and even the central bank, which had been partially owned by several private financial institutions. The country's GDP peaked in 1978 due to previous oil booms. Then it began a steady, two-decade decline that set the stage for something even worse.
Black Book, Red Terror
I still vividly remember when I first read The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. It was 20 years ago. By then I had studied in America, France, and Japan; developed interests in oil production, monetary policy, and futurism; and witnessed the slow-motion failure of socialism in my own country. Still, nothing prepared me for the shock of Black Book's truths, which clearly described how communism failed, killing millions of people, wherever it was tried.The international bestseller was published in French in 1997 by a group of European academics, then translated into Spanish the following year and into English the year after that. It sifted through the wreckage of both Soviet communism and Chinese Maoism and found staggering body counts wherever government owned the means of production. Communist regimes, the book famously argued, were responsible for more deaths than fascism, Nazism, or any other political system of the 20th century. Nearly 100 million perished from communism worldwide--65 million in the People's Republic of China, 20 million in the former Soviet Union, 2 million in Cambodia, 2 million in North Korea, 1.7 million in Ethiopia, 1.5 million in Afghanistan, 1 million in Vietnam, and several million more in various "experiments" across Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
The actual number of people killed under communist regimes will never be truly known, since totalitarian governments actively manipulate, hide, and control official figures. But the costs were so evidently brutal that new terminology was necessary to describe the horror. For instance, the political scientist R.J. Rummel in his 1997 book Power Kills coined the term democide to indicate murder by government, as in the Stalinist purges or Mao's Cultural Revolution.
In 2008, I went to visit the site of one of modern history's worst democides: Pol Pot's murder of almost 2 million Cambodians, about one-fourth of the population, in 1975-79. Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, on the site of a secondary school that Pol Pot's vicious Khmer Rouge regime transformed into a murder camp, is a hauntingly unforgettable experience, with piles upon piles of skulls from the infamous "killing fields" of the grossly misnamed Democratic Kampuchea.
At the "Red Terror" Martyrs Memorial Museum in Addis Ababa in 2016, I saw similar displays of skeletons, bloody clothes, and photographs of some of the hundreds of thousands of people massacred by the Ethiopian government in 1976-77. "We are doing what Lenin did," the ruling Derg movement bragged back then about its pogroms against other Marxist-Leninist groups in the country. "You cannot build socialism without Red Terror."
He winds up with this:
Socialism kills in Venezuela, like everywhere else it has been implemented. It kills regardless of local flavoring or whatever branding the individual dictator employs. It is beyond reason that this ideology, which has led to the deaths of more people than any other during modern history, which was thoroughly and tragically discredited in the 20th century, is still racking up body counts in 2019. May we finally learn this tragic lesson.
Because they see it working more or less well in the Nordic countries.
The problem is, they don't take into account that the European countries pretty much all fall under NATO protection whether they are members or not, and thus spend less on the military and have more money to spend on amenities.
(Though there is probably a happy medium between what the US spends and what the average European country spends per capita)
NicoleK at December 21, 2019 11:28 PM
@NicoleK - One of the great lies of the American left is that the Nordic countries are “socialist.” None are, and none have ever been. Their respective governments have never owned the means of production or directly regulated that. In the past they have had high tax rates - although sometimes not much higher than the US or in the rest of Europe - and extensive social welfare programs - although not all that much more extensive than in the US or in the rest of Europe - but they are all capitalist economies. In the last couple of decades the trend there has been towards reducing taxes to make their respective countries more competitive internationally, and some reductions in social programs. They, also, maintain robust militaries, although they rely more heavily on reserve forces than the US. Their militaries are more similar to the Swiss model of universal service and training, with every able bodied man, and many women, having a military weapon at home, and should they be invaded, the casualties from guerrilla warfare being too high for an invader to sustain, and the economic benefits to the invader would soon disappear.
Their economies emphasize technologically advanced and high quality goods, which bring fairly high prices (e.g., Volvo is representative). However, a study by the Rand Corp, a few years ago showed that standards of living throughout Europe were below those of the US. However, until recently, there were few pockets of poverty in the Nordic nations. The influx of ME refugees has changed that, and also resulted in the development of certain urban areas which are dangerous. Recently there have been travel restrictions between Malmo, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark related to this. However, because the governments punish press reports and individuals who make statements considered “racist” or “hate speech”, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of the extent of the problems, but the problems are serious enough to be fueling the rise of “right wing” or “nationalist” political parties.
So, while Northern Europe has much to commend itself and admire, it isn’t paradise. The countries there have problems, but, socialism isn’t one of them.
Wfjag at December 22, 2019 12:44 AM
I think when most Americans talk about wanting Socialism, though, they mean Nordic, not Russian.
That said yes, there are lots of problems. A colleague of my husband worked there a bit and sure was relieved to come to Switzerland where he could actually earn money.
NicoleK at December 22, 2019 1:41 AM
"There" was Denmark in this case.
NicoleK at December 22, 2019 1:42 AM
There" was Denmark in this case.
NicoleK at December 22, 2019 1:42 AM
I think a lot of people confuse ruinous income tax rates with socialism.
Not the same thing.
At one time after World War II in the US marginal income tax rates above a certain amount approached 90 percent. It was highly progressive.
Somewhere short of this point is where companies start showering non cash benefits on their senior employees, like free housing, company cars, paid vacations and lavish health insurance plans. When that fails to keep up with the kleptocracy, they move their operations overseas.
Isab at December 22, 2019 2:46 AM
Why should they not?
Just what struggle has any of these people undergone?
Combined with the unrelenting propaganda of politicians urging the public that everything will be all right if they just have a little bit more control, social programs mean the government cares, unlike that horrible leprous businessman scum who only wants me to, ugh, "work"!
You're talking about a population that has heroes that play with a ball, heroes that are to be admired devoutly but never emulated. A population who cannot remember anything whatsoever and can't even look it up.
When all you have had is handouts your whole life, how could you vote for anything else?
Radwaste at December 22, 2019 6:21 AM
✓ NicoleK at December 21, 2019 11:28 PM
Exactly. Correct... Correctina de la Mundo. Correct-a-doodle-doo. It's a Prehistoric Flying Correctasaures.
Trump isn't leading the American voter's burgeoning disinterest in spending blood and treasure defending the well-being of stingy & disengaged nations overseas, but he's certainly offering those nations a chance to consider their choices in a blunt and consequential way.
Crid at December 22, 2019 6:24 AM
Socialism is full of good intentions. But the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Good intentions just aren't good enough.
I have relatives throughout south america. The ones in Argentina may be going the Venezuelan communism way. Over the years talking with them the different way we raise our kids really stood out to me. They want their kids to be kids for as long as possible. They tell their children that life is good, the world is fair, we all play nice. I got chided when I told my teething baby "It's a hard baby life". Sixclaws' 'Am I the Asshole' father who taxed his 12 year old sounded like a reasonable person to me. It was a good life lesson. Look at the people complaining about him.
"I hate this man and I’m excited for his kids to cut contact"
"This girl is learning an important lesson in why landlords should be guillotined"
When you extend childhood as long as possible and try to keep people 'innocent' as long as possible you aren't doing them any favors. Instead you are crippling them. Eventually they have to grow up and the later it happens the angrier they become. Finding out life isn't fair at 10 is normal. Finding out life isn't fair at 30 leads to severe anger issues. These angry old children decide to force life to be fair, with guns if necessary. And hence the next generation of angry communist revolutionaries are born.
Ben at December 22, 2019 7:05 AM
This is simply horrifying.
"This girl is learning an important lesson in why landlords should be guillotined"
Amy Alkon at December 22, 2019 8:12 AM
> I have relatives throughout
> south america
Immigrant! I totally called it.
My sensitivities are acute, my attunement profound.
Crid at December 22, 2019 8:25 AM
I hate myself for defending it , Socialism happens when the dark side of Capitalism rears its ugly head.
Remember, the emergence of workers unions during the first half of the 20th century happened for a reason.
Now excuse me while I dip my fingers in alcohol to cleanse the filth away from them.
Sixclaws at December 22, 2019 9:08 AM
"This girl is learning an important lesson in why landlords should be guillotined"
I suspect the same person also complains about the lack of affordable housing.
I R A Darth Aggie at December 22, 2019 9:46 AM
> Socialism happens when the
> dark side of Capitalism rears
> its ugly head
I don't believe that for a stinking moment. No. No. No.
The self-regenerating, revolutionary power of capitalism is its insistence on individual self-reliance and rigorous effort.
The incessant cancer of socialism is nourished by the indolent and irresponsible impulses in human nature, and their susceptibility to pandering 'authorities.'
Crid at December 22, 2019 11:46 AM
Sixclaws: "Socialism happens when the dark side of Capitalism rears its ugly head."
umm, no Sixclaws; free-market capitalism does NOT cause people to turn to socialism. Let me help you clean you hands - no alcohol needed. Although with the right kind we can make this a fun drinking game. Every time someone says "capitalism" when they mean something else has to down a shot.
It is when the free-market is no longer free and the few in power use the government to oppress the masses while benefitting themselves that socialism rears its ugly head.
Only a Marxist would consider those conditions that you refer to as "the dark side of capitalism" as capitalist. A dyed-in-the-wool Marxist would consider it capitalism given that they believe that capitalism means wealth and power reside in only a few individuals. But most folks who are not indoctrinated by the leftists in universities today would not. Most folks would call it cronyism or nepotism or a kleptocracy when the free market has been replaced by corruption. But, I'd like to think that is what you meant when you said the "dark side of capitalism." You just used a shorthand.
And, it is the leftists who want to gain power for themselves that will sell to the people that socialism is the answer to this condition. Desperate people will believe anything at that point.
Given how much influence the leftists have in academia today - and that they define capitalism as something evil - it is no wonder that so many young folks think socialism is the answer.
It is interesting that many on the left will defend socialism by claiming that places like the former Soviet Union or Venezuela didn't practice "true" socialism; but, they also fail to recognize that it isn't "true" free market capitalism when societies fall into a corrupt state of cronyism. Instead they say: "see! Capitalism is evil!"
The only "cure" for this ignorance is education and I think our colleges are failing to apply this cure.
charles at December 22, 2019 12:43 PM
Yep, sorta that. It seems like when corporations grow past a certain size, something clicks in the collective corporate psyche and they swing into that direction.
Sixclaws at December 22, 2019 2:24 PM
"I hate myself for defending it , Socialism happens when the dark side of Capitalism rears its ugly head."
Criticizing a less than ideal implementation of capitalism is not defending or promoting socialism.
Noting that evil people may be engaged in capitalism is not defending or promoting socialism.
Socialism promotes the worst aspects of human nature.
iowaan at December 22, 2019 6:46 PM
No Crid you didn't. They are my inlaws. Wife's family came from Argentina. She was born and raised in Houston. Keep making those predictions. You are 0 for 1 million and counting.
Ben at December 23, 2019 9:22 AM
> They are my inlaws.
Your interesting language choices are yet to be explained!
Also-
> Socialism happens when the
> dark side of Capitalism rears
> its ugly head
Capitalism is never the default economic scheme. The default economic scheme is muscle and family allegiance. Which is also, y'know, the typical consequence of Socialism. All of life's a circle.
Crid at December 23, 2019 8:33 PM
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