Dear Friends,
It seems to me, on Tuesday, the United States of America will be making a decision between two competing economic ideologies, socialism and, the traditional American way, free market capitalism. I say this because, once you boil off the campaign rhetoric, media spin, and personal likes and dislikes, this is what the choice sugars off to. Even as the modernizing world is moving away from the socialist model the US is tipping dangerously near the precipice of socialism. History shows anyone open to it, the results, the fruit, to put in William James Philosophical formula… of the socialist model. The acmes of every country that has gained prosperity in the last five hundred years, has done so using the free market capitalist model, but perhaps this time socialism won’t create human suffering… Probably will though.
The French revolution was the first notable example of the socialist ideal put into political practice. The barbarism of the French Revolution is partially the result of the socialist mindset. The socialist sees his or her fellow human beings as chattel for their whim. They, in their hubris, believe they stand above and astride humanity, twisting us to their tune. They set up regimented austere rules for us to follow while they themselves live as emperors. Even a cursory look at the French Revolution shows this to be the case. The modern examples, like, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela show this to be incontrovertible fact.
The economic results of socialism have been universally pathetic. There has not been a single time socialism has resulted in a rising standard of living. (An argument could be made about Nazi Germany, but if we look at the case more closely, we see it was Hitler’s refusal to pay WWI reparations among other things, not socialism, that led to Nazi Germany’s economic rebound under the socialist model). As I have iterated many times, the entire incentive system within the socialist model of economics, is pernicious and counter productive. It inevitably leads to diminishing returns. Add to this, that people are never as judicious, or as smart about taking risks, with someone else’s money, as they are their own. This, in and of itself, is sufficient reason for the socialist model to fail. More importantly however, why the socialist model is doomed at the outset, is, looked at, through the lens of distributive justice, it is distributive justice by political favor.
To believe that political favor is the best means to distributive justice is a valid point of view. (If you have no merit, the last thing you want distributive justice to be based on, is merit). There are no invalid points of view, as a person’s point of view is a intrinsic thing, thus not being subject to extrinsic nullification. If someone has this as their point of view, openly thought out, then they should state it aloud and for everyone to hear. Obama always couches it in rhetoric and double entendre. Make no mistake however, regardless of the rhetoric and obfuscation, Obama is a supporter of distributive justice by political favor. If you are, then he is your man, but if you are not, he certainly is not.
Every time free market capitalism has been implemented it has exceeded expectations. In fact, Marx himself went on and on, about the improvements in the productivity of labor that capitalism had brought about in his day! When Denmark liberalized it’s economic and political laws, (what today is called “trickle down” in the US), it saw a huge jump in wealth creation. They allowed Jews to come there from Spain where they had been recently ejected. They allowed corporate innovation that led to the Dutch East India Company. Their liberalizations directly led to the free market.
The examples of free market capitalism improving the lot of Man are too many to tick off. There are no examples of where socialism has ever led to anything but, death marches, killing fields, holocausts, politically enforced famines, war and perpetually lowering standard of living. The choice, it would seem, is obvious. To choose the path of failure, will lead to failure and to choose the path to success, will lead to success. William James philosophy of pragmatism looks at the results of philosophies, to garner their actual worth to humanity, by this metric, socialism falls far short of free market capitalism. The fly in the ointment is, Will Romney really be a free market capitalist, or will he lead as an oligarch? Obama is certainly a socialist, he has said as much many times, and proven it by his actions in office. Romney is probably a free market capitalist, at least he claims to be…. The one is known, to definitively answer the other, requires a vote. Lets pray the choice is made wisely. For the sake of the whole World.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
