Most people in the U.S. live in a home or apartment of some kind.  Some are very nice, some are literally hovels.  

People in the middle class typically own a three-bedroom house, with a living room, dining room, kitchen, and two or three bathrooms:  the main bathroom, a bathroom for the master bedroom, and for homes with a den, often a third bathroom.  

Imagine that one day, a President says, “People in this country have been generally supportive of the changes towards a more Socialist-style government.  Therefore, we are enacting several Socialist reforms to reduce poverty.”

You get a letter in the mail:  “People are being moved out of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles tenements which are too run-down to renovate.  

“Those people will be moved into homes all over the country.  Your children will be required to move into your bedroom.  A family will be assigned to move into each of your other two bedrooms.  Another family will be assigned to the den.  

“The living room, dining room, and kitchen will be common areas, to be used by all occupants.  Everyone will store food in the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator.

“As the former owners of your house, you will be responsible for all maintenance, with such help as the other families are able to provide.  However, be aware that many of the families are likely to be illiterate, and may not speak the same language as you.  Also, they may not be familiar with the maintenance and sanitary habits which you might consider normal.”

Socialism means you do not own your own home.

The next day, everyone at work is discussing the similar letters which they received, until a call to a general meeting is announced.  

Once everyone is in the auditorium, the company’s CEO begins to speak.

“As you know, people in this country have been generally supportive of the changes towards a more Socialist-style government.  Yesterday, the President dictated a new series of Socialist reforms.  Our company is now a sub-agency of the Bureau of Production and Labor.  From this time forward, you will not be allowed to resign from this company – er, sub-agency, without government permission.  All promotions or changes in job function must also be approved by the Bureau.  All of our salaries will be realigned with Bureau specifications, based on job-duties, averaged across all companies – sorry; I mean sub-agencies.”

“Please note,” he continues, “that the company stock which you have earned and received as employees now has no value.  As government employees, when you retire you will be receiving standard government pensions based on years of service, starting today.”

The CEO, it is obvious, is not happy, but he is in fear of losing his job and so says nothing against the new conditions.  His freedom to speak freely, like yours, is gone.  That freedom has no place under Socialism.  The Bill of Rights and Socialism are mutually exclusive. 

Employees leave the room in quiet, sullen moods.  What had been a great place to work, with opportunities for financial achievement and career promotions, is now only a job at the mercy of a faceless government bureaucrat.

Many employees soon cease to put forth more than a token effort.  Whether they are simply the lazier employees, or are the ones whose dreams and goals have been stripped away, their only incentive now is to satisfy appearances for the bureaucrat in control of their jobs.  

Economic growth and the profits which feed it are no longer a driving incentive – neither for the company, nor for individual workers.  That pattern is repeated nationwide; not surprisingly, so is a general economic decline.  

That bureaucrat is only interested in pleasing his supervisor.  Meeting given quotas for specified goods is the bureaucrat’s goal – without regard for product quality, market demand, productivity, innovation, or economic growth.

But That Is Not Socialism!

That kind of life was the norm in the Soviet Union and in Communist China.  The result was economic decline; the consequence was the collapse of the Soviet Union and massive economic change in China.

But Europe Is Socialist!

Europe has instituted many Socialist policies, and continues to enact more.  Consequently, Europe is in an acknowledged economic decline – which nobody seems able to reverse.  Socialism is gradually wiping out Europeans’ incentives to innovate and achieve.  

European Socialism survives by feeding off the remaining capitalism of private businesses.  Those businesses and their workers are burdened with heavy taxes, which take away the “seed corn” – the money that could have been spent for the innovation and economic growth of the future.  Without that spending, decline results.

Economic growth requires Capitalism.  

The foundation of the future is today’s profit.  Socialism lacks the necessary mechanism – freedom – which makes economic growth possible, dooming a Socialist country to economic decline.

Socialism Is a Slippery Slope.  

Even the smallest step towards Socialism is an endorsement for an ever-growing, ever more encroaching intrusion of Socialism.  There is always that “one more change” which is promised to “make things better”.  Each change forces more change, in never-ending efforts to compensate for Socialism’s failures.

The freedoms you enjoy – in your life, how you live, the choices you can make – “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, and the kinds of things you can produce or buy – Capitalism – are inevitably eroded away by Socialism.  Socialism is inherently destructive.  

If you accept Socialism, be prepared to accept the ultimate, inevitable destruction of the culture and country you live in – perhaps not in your lifetime, but certainly something your children will experience, as Europeans do presently.  Imagine your children living with the ever-increasing hardships of economic decline that Socialism brings, with no escape.

The alternative is to admit that the Socialist schemes which have been enacted to date have had too many bad consequences, and must be removed as failures.  The full, unequivocal restoration of Freedom is a non-negotiable requirement.

There are no winners under Socialism; only losers. Whose side are you on?

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