The Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman from Queens, NY “AOC” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez apparently don’t understand how and why an economy thrives! They come from capitalist backgrounds but ran for public office on a platform of giving away other people’s money and promised lots of things for free just like the newly elected Mayor of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani when the only means they have to fulfill these is to raise taxes or as the Federal Government can do, print inflationary dollars.
Senator Sanders achieved his wealth because of Capitalism so why does he want to give away other peoples hard earned money. Congresswoman “AOC” aka Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got her college degree in Economics from Boston University so what did she learn in the blue state of Massachusetts that made her a Socialist?
She ran for office as a Democrat but she is really a Socialist. Senator Sanders ran as an Independent but he too is a Socialist. They both psych up the young voters promising to give them lots of free stuff but free stuff is not free. Someone always has to pay for it. Young voters never learned in school what Socialism does to a society but they get excited when they hear the word “free”.
Socialism like Communism is governmental ownership, the administration of production and the distribution of goods. Its core principle is that the community rather than private individuals or corporations should own and manage resources to reduce inequality and distribute wealth depending on one’s need. Socialism is the redistribution of the gainfully employed’s income to those who either have little or no work incentives, desires, less education and/or skills or any combination.
Socialism lasts until you run out of other people’s money. Since government does not have to make a profit to survive nor do they have to worry about going out of business, when they screw up or run out of money they raise taxes or in the case of the Fedeal government print inflationary dollars diminishing your purchasing power.
Communism is when a Doctor gets the same pay as a dishwasher. Both ideologies encourage laziness, lack of new inventions, the elimination of wealth and the reduction in the expansion of an economy. Goods and services become scarce and no one has any incentive to work or create things.
Greed is good to build wealth, innovation, inventions and a high standard of living. It also generates tax revenue to support governments services. Government jobs cost the taxpayer and do not create new jobs efficiently. Private sector jobs are not paid for by the tax payer and create new jobs organicly.
Communism is when there is no private property or social economic class distinction. Everyone is equal. The government owns and controls all means of production and all resources. There is no individualism which results in removing God’s gift to mankind, the incentives for creativity and the fulfillment it brings emotionally and spiritually.
Wealth creates more jobs, inventions, innovations and a better quality of life. Communism and Socialism reduces man’s intellectualism, the emotional and spiritual satisfaction one gets by creating things such as products, jobs and the enhancement of the quality of the lives of their love ones and those in their economic community.
Ask yourself why is the United States a 32.4 trillion dollar economy, Russia a 2.5 trillion dollar economy, China a 20.5 trillion dollar economy, Viet Nam is .5 trillion, Cuba is .2 trillion, and North Korea is a .16 trillion dollar economy. The answer is Capitalism.
No other country of the 195 +/- countries in the world don’t even come close to the massive wealth and strength of the United States economy. It is not perfect but it is better than all the rest. We are the envy of the world. If you opened the borders as had President Biden which were recently closed by President Trump, most of the world would race to our shores.
The quest for profits is essential for an expanding economy and the creation of wealth. In this sense greed is good acting as the great motivator, innovator and creator of a better quality of life and happiness. Inventions and innovations and the expansion of jobs come from Capitalism not Socialism or Communism.
Winston Churchill said: “Capitalism is the worst economic system except for all the others.” “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
Churchill acknowledged that free markets create wealth disparities (the “unequal sharing of blessings”). He argued that while Socialism seeks equality, it ultimately achieves this by dragging everyone down to a baseline of shared hardship (the “equal sharing of miseries”)
Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher said “The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
From the Foundation of Economic Education
American Economist and Advisor to Presidents Milton Friedman said about Capitalism.
“Well first of all, tell me: Is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy; it’s only the other fellow who’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus.
Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worse off, worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that.
So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system.”
Anyone who thinks Socialism and Communism are better than Capitalism should talk to people from Russia, China, Cuba, Viet Nam, North Korea and pre 1990 East Germany where people would literally risk their lives to get past the Berlin wall. What they wouldn’t do to come to America and become a United States citizen to have the opportunity to pursue the Ameican dream and try at whatever they wanted to. Not so easy under Communism and Socialism.
The Industrial Revolution evolved and because of Capitalism made America the greatest, most powerful economy in the world by far. China number 2 is not even close.
Sources: AI, Wikipedia, Milton Friedman, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, the Foundation of Economic Education.