{"id":1460577,"date":"2024-03-04T05:00:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1460577"},"modified":"2024-03-04T05:00:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T10:00:01","slug":"for-socialists-it-doesnt-matter-if-socialism-works-what-matters-is-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/for-socialists-it-doesnt-matter-if-socialism-works-what-matters-is-power\/1460577\/","title":{"rendered":"For Socialists, It Doesn’t Matter if Socialism “Works” – What Matters Is Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Socialists, It Doesn’t Matter if Socialism “Works” – What Matters Is Power<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jason Montgomery via The Mises Institute,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A recent rash of libertarian-leaning right-wing podcasters\u2019 rehashing of a\u00a0shopworn takedown of socialism<\/a>\u00a0has bothered me to the point of launching into this essay. It goes something like \u201cWhy is this still a thing? When are they going to realize that IT DOESN\u2019T WORK, and drop it?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

This criticism deserves a closer look. Maybe socialism does too. By the way, I define the term as any economic paradigm that turns over the means of production to \u201csociety,\u201d \u201cthe workers,\u201d or some other fictitious entity that effectively means\u00a0the state<\/em>; and limits or prohibits private property.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my best stab at fleshing this out.<\/p>\n

Socialism is defective, because everywhere it\u2019s instituted (which is nowhere near Scandinavia, but that\u2019s a different topic), the assured universal plenty fails to materialize.<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Instead they get extreme poverty, hunger, and deficits of every variety. <\/em><\/p>\n

The evidence is littered throughout history, all over the world. <\/em><\/p>\n

So, any idiot still promoting this mess is ignorant to the facts of reality.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Quite a counterargument; factually correct, hard-hitting, down-to-earth, and practical. No abstract political theory here, just the bottom-line question: does it work? Period. Look to the historical statistics. Any other consideration doesn\u2019t correspond to the real world, so it\u2019s useless. Thus, we\u2019ve effectively relegated socialism to the historical scrap heap, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not in the least.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not calling this refutation ineffective. It\u2019s much worse than that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First there\u2019s the obvious question; what does it mean for an economic system to \u201cwork\u201d? That nobody\u2019s poor? What\u2019s the standard of \u201cpoor\u201d? A certain universal margin of disposable income? A level of GDP? Maybe in a survey of 1,000 random people, 672 of them rated their economic status at least \u201csatisfactory\u201d? What are the criteria? What\u2019s the barometer? How can we know if it \u201cworks\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t someone just cherry-pick an arbitrary standard of \u201cworking\u201d in hindsight and proudly tout socialism\u2019s great success?\u00a0It\u2019s happened before!<\/a>\u00a0And here\u2019s the real question: Who could this someone be? By what right could he decide this measure on behalf of an entire population?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Well, those might be tough questions to answer, but surely we can know what it means to\u00a0not work<\/em>. Socialism has repeatedly yielded famine, rationing, production shortages, and the seeming disappearance of natural resources. An economic record like this\u00a0has to be<\/em>\u00a0sufficient to dismiss it.<\/p>\n

Think so? Let me ask you\u2026<\/p>\n

Are you against slavery because it doesn\u2019t engender a thriving agrarian industry?<\/p>\n

Are you against restricting speech because it does a bad job protecting people\u2019s feelings?<\/p>\n

Are you against random home searches because they don\u2019t uncover enough contraband to bolster public safety?<\/p>\n

If not,\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0not? These are exactly the grounds on which you\u2019re rejecting socialism; because it appears not to satisfy its stated societal goals. Therefore\u2026<\/p>\n

What if it did, indeed,\u00a0work<\/em>? If it produced a society of loyal proletarians, happily subsisting on their allotted resources, working limited hours at their communal farms and factories, with plenty of days off, and enjoying their state-approved hobbies with all that spare time? Then I guess you\u2019d be all for it?<\/p>\n

Is this really your angle of opposition, or is there something else at work here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, there\u2019s more to it!\u201d you say. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond economics, socialism has repeatedly led to mass surveillance, arbitrary incarceration, torture, death camps, and the greatest human atrocities every known! That\u2019s the\u00a0real\u00a0counterargument!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019re just digging yourself deeper into the rhetorical pit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know the responses to this. Say them with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wasn\u2019t real communism.\u201d<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was all just one bad guy in charge, not an indictment on the system itself.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the leftover greed and sadism from the market economy.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMarxism is scientifically sound. It just requires a maturation period for people to learn the right values, then it all turns to paradise.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Are these platitudes frustrating? Well, anyone arguing that \u201cit doesn\u2019t work\u201d has tacitly agreed to the exact same underlying premises.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This argument appeals to pragmatism, utilitarianism, empiricism, and consequentialism; the Four Horsemen of Sophistry.<\/p>\n

It says don\u2019t knock socialism till you try it. <\/strong>Gauge its practical impacts (pragmatism), based solely on experience (empiricism), to see if it confers the greatest good on the greatest number (utilitarianism) by delivering its promised economic equality and prosperity (consequentialism).<\/p>\n

This is part of the desperate longstanding campaign to render economics a hard science, with a definitive answer, discoverable through rigorous testing of hypotheses. If you accept these terms, then \u201cit doesn\u2019t work\u201d is no counterargument at all. The possibility of a blown experiment is built right into this scheme. It just hasn\u2019t worked\u00a0yet<\/em>, so we tweak the theory and try again.<\/p>\n

Did we get\u2026 riches and happiness for all? Great! It\u00a0worked<\/em>! Or\u2026 an extermination campaign of biblical proportions? Ooops, back to the drawing board. There was no way to see\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0coming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is where \u201cit doesn\u2019t work\u201d surpasses fruitlessness and becomes self-defeating. If you posit one unfavorable result (or a few) as grounds to reject the theory wholesale, the other side can call you inconsistent and unscientific, and they\u2019re right! See how their fraudulent reasoning can make a correct conclusion seem wrong?<\/p>\n

Therefore, socialism continues to be apologized for, rationalized, promoted, and consequently implemented around the globe; with more comebacks than Aerosmith (apologies to Aerosmith).<\/strong><\/p>\n

(This is covered brilliantly in\u00a0Hoppe<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

This plays to two of Marx\u2019s great historical swindles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, commerce and all human action can be scientifically engineered by a central authority to produce desired ends.<\/p>\n

Second, that the nobility of those ends in the indeterminate future justifies any and all means, potentially limitless suffering, in the present.<\/p>\n

Other than stripping the ethics, morality, and all humanity from human action; whether it \u201cworks\u201d can never be resolved, just deliberated ad infinitum, making it ideal mainstream media fodder. Under any legitimate scrutiny, it collapses under its own haughty intellectual weight because there\u2019s something missing at its foundation;\u00a0fundamental principles\u00a0<\/strong>that can be ascertained as self-evidently true or not.<\/p>\n

To go after socialism, you must aim for its fundamental principles. And what are some of those?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rooted in collectivism \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0no individual is of material importance, only society as a whole. Any number of individual needs, preferences, and lives can and should be sacrificed for the good of the collective.<\/p>\n

Absence of a market \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>production and trade operate by the will of central planners, not economic actors. What gets made, in what quantity, and for what use is not determined by consumer demand or the profit motive, but by\u00a0top-down calculations<\/a>. Based on what? Such questions will not be tolerated. Now, get in the bread line! Which brings us to\u2026<\/p>\n

Necessitates a totalitarian state \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0This centralization of economy requires such thorough micromanagement of human action that monitoring, espionage, harassment, and stiff penalties for violators (for starters)\u00a0must<\/em>\u00a0become features of the landscape. Some adherents claim that state control, and the state itself, will one day become unnecessary under socialism, once the people fall in line (read\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0beaten into submission<\/em>). But, like the arrival of universal abundance, that day never seems to come. More on this momentarily\u2026<\/p>\n

This argument may not be perfect, but notice the differences between this and where we started. These premises are axiomatically integral to socialism. No experience, experimentation, or research is required to bear them out. <\/strong>No statistical data is going to come along and change them. These aren\u2019t\u00a0ends<\/em>, which cannot be conclusively known at the outset of any initiative (if they ever can at all). These are\u00a0means<\/em>, which\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0known, instantly and to a certainty, as they effectively become the material conditions of life in the given society. Economics is a journey, not a destination, so those someday promises of wealth and statelessness in exchange for your present suffering mean nothing from the man prodding you with the rifle.<\/p>\n

Now a REAL debate begins.<\/p>\n

The socialist must be prepared to defend all of the items above,\u00a0at least<\/em>. Any claim against the necessity of these factors can be gleefully met with, \u201cthen that\u2019s not real socialism!\u201d If they prefer their ideologies a la carte, by plucking the \u201cgood bits\u201d of socialism and discarding the gulags and mass graves; then they\u2019re arguing for something else entirely, a\u00a0mixed economy, the polluting of the market with some degree of the above tenets.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Do the Horsemen\u2019s graphs and data have any validity? Sure, as persuasive support. But they cannot BE your argument.<\/p>\n

That must come from\u00a0First Principles<\/a>, e.g. freedom, property, and individual sovereignty. <\/strong>These are all that matter. To subordinate them to numbers and stats is to discount them entirely.<\/p>\n

So, when it comes to socialism; stop saying it doesn\u2019t work, stop calling it a perfect idea on paper that falters in implementation, and stop dignifying its adherents with \u201cnoble intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give it its intellectual due, then you can call it what it is; an evil concept on its face that has no place among the human species.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 03\/04\/2024 – 00:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/socialists-it-doesnt-matter-if-socialism-works-what-matters-power<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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