Socialism cannot survive without Capitalism - by Centinel

 By Centinel

   Watched a video of a Bernie sanders supporter this morning saying how great things are in Sweden. The American left seems to be enamored with Scandinavian style socialism. Milton Friedman once noted when a student made the statement: “In Scandinavia, we have no poverty”. To which Friedman responded, “In America among Scandinavians we also have no poverty". Both statements are not true of course, poverty in America among Scandinavians and in the country of Scandinavia are around 6.7%. The point is Friedman understood that among the countries that practice Scandinavian style socialism (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden), there is an underlying culture that gives the appearance of socialism working well. This type of socialism would never work in the USA because the United States is a much more complex society than Sweden. Comparison of the two is disingenuous. In Sweden, the culture has a high level of social trust. This makes for a relatively efficient government with low levels of corruption. Highly trusting societies tend  to be ethnically, religiously, and linguistically homogeneous, relatively small, and culturally insulated by the use of a rare language (like Swedish or Icelandic). A good example of this is most of these countries have taxpayer supported state churches. Sweden had a state church until 2000. They also have nationalized banks. Try either one of these in the USA. Sweden has opened itself in the past few years to immigration and the accompanying welfare programs that go along with it.  Let’s check back in 10 years or so and see how things are going. Because of opening itself to immigration, Sweden already has the highest disparities of employment between immigrants and native-born citizens in the world. In other words, segregation. The immigrants schools are inferior (mostly in the suburban areas). Let’s see how long this lasts when the taxpayers of Sweden see whole communities living on welfare (which will not be long). One last point before we leave Sweden. Sweden is relatively poor, and it is getting poorer. If it were a state in the United States, it would be the poorest state. One of the reasons is that fewer Swedes are working now than in the past. In a society that once prided itself on a strong work ethic, they now have the sickest workforce in the world according to Swedish Journalist Ulf Nilson. ”Monday is the sickest day of the week“. So in other words, Socialism is starting to catch up with Sweden. Given the tax system there being what it is, you lose little by not working.

    The real point of this post is how socialism cannot survive without capitalism to live off of. I just could not resist pointing out that socialist Utopia Sweden is not what it seems. Just go on-line and checkout the problems. In Sweden, the problems are just not on the surface.  Their entitlement system itself is a ticking time bomb. Anyway, on several occasions, I have gotten into discussions with socialist Utopians and state that socialism cannot survive without capitalism for funding. They are incredulous that I would say such a thing and immediately discount me. Look at it this way. European socialism is allowed to survive because of the United States. We have and still do provide for their defense. We have since WWII. When you state this their immediate reaction is They have NATO. My response is where would NATO be without the USA? Do some research and it is stunning how much NATO relies on the USA. If it were not for the USA, there would be no NATO. Don’t leave the UN out of that research either. But not even counting those two entities, look at the direct loans and arms supplied to European countries. Every time they need help these countries call on us and we gladly give support. There are so many examples of this it is mind boggling. Missile defense systems? Just a cursory search on Google shows we have spent Billions protecting other countries. No wonder they can afford their social programs like universal health care. We are lifting a huge burden off of them for their defense (among many other things). We have given them loans, many since WWII, and just forgiven them. Often we just give money or aid to a country. The USA has been propping up countries all over the world since WWII. Canada falls into this category also.

    What is socialism without capitalism? North Korea. Think about it. Want a better example? Look at China. Under Mao the population, for the most part, rode around on bicycles wearing coolie uniforms, working on rural farms. They were the lucky ones. Along came Nixon and Kissinger in the 70’s (yes, Nixon) and working together with China introduced capitalism. Now look at China. It is indisputable what capitalism does to the human condition. It raises people into a middle-class lifestyle which allows them leisure time. Time to pay attention to government policies instead of worrying about just getting by, or where the next meal is coming from. Is it any wonder Obama has targeted the middle class? Think about that one. Socialism is about many little folks working for the good of the few in positions of power. The occupy crowd points to this and says that the current mess is the failure of capitalism.  Having lived 55 years now, I point at it and say the current situation in the USA is because of the slow creep of socialism in our society. If you study the results of socialism, it is undeniable that is what is happening. Just in my lifetime.

Sources:
The politically incorrect guide to socialism. By Kevin D. Williamson (The parts about Sweden).