Second article in the series, Separating Myth from Truth

There is a growing number of people who consider themselves socialist in the United States today. However, fewer and fewer individuals are scholars of socialistic schools of economic thought, like Marxism, Mutualism, and Syndicalism. It is evident to me that many people, especially those that proclaim to be socialist, don’t truly understand what socialism is or what it entails. Since the last post was very long and drawn out, I will try to shorten this one up a bit!

Myth 1: Socialism is a specific ideology

Many individuals view socialism as a specific ideology. Some people describe socialism as state ownership of the means of production, others describe it as worker ownership of the means of production, and others describe it as any mixed economy. The majority of descriptions about socialism are correct. The reason behind this is socialism is an umbrella term for collective ownership of the means of production.

If the state owns the means of production, an argument can be made that it is collectively owned because the state is the organization collectivizing everyone. I disagree with this analysis because I do not believe in the fallacy that “we are the state” or “we are the government”. I believe that the government is a separate entity: it’s necessity and reason is a different discussion altogether. However, I digress. The fact of the matter is that this theory of state ownership of the means of production being socialism is in fact socialism, we can call it state socialism. I call it a fascist economic model.

If the workers own the means of production, an argument can be made that the collective owns the production. This follows a more basic Marxist or Kropotkinist approach. These socialistic schools of thought are more on the worker’s rights or mutualist side as opposed to the statist side. In my opinion, worker ownership of the means of production is both inefficient and impossible. I will have a full critique of socialism in another article.

All mixed economies, however, are not socialistic. In the United States, there is a mixed economy. However, I would not consider it socialist. The United States is a combination of Keynesian, Socialist, Capitalist, and Galbraithian philosophies, depending on the industry in question.

Myth 2: Socialism has never been tried

Many individuals argue that socialism has never been tried. These are generally the same people that advocate for socialism. Some even live in denial because of the failures most socialist “experiments” have been. It has been tried in all forms; however it has only succeeded in a handful of forms. The mutualist and worker-ownership schools of socialism have been tried but have failed. In the USSR, they followed Marxist-Leninism for a long period of time and it was a colossal failure. Karl Marx said, “Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.”. This was the main philosophy of the Russian communist revolution- workers are oppressed and action needs to be taken to stop this oppression in the eyes of Marx and Lenin.

The communist Russian revolution was a success, but socialism was a massive failure. The life expectancy of the soviet union averaged 55 years old between 1926 and 1982 (Vladamir M. Shkolnikov and France Mesle, The Russian Epidemiological Crisis as Mirrored by Mortality Trends, in Julie Davanzo, ed., Russia’s Demographic Crisis). This measure of standard of living was well behind the rest of the world. It is also clear that the government collected huge amounts of monopolized power and killed everybody that disagreed. Nearly 62 million Russian citizens were killed for disagreeing with their government (According to University of Hawaii). This is the largest state genocide in all of world history. Russia became classic fascism. There was large-scale patriotism and nationalism while the economy and media was entirely controlled by the state (which distributed huge amounts of propaganda). The end “utopia” was never reached and almost all of Marx’ predictions were incorrect.

Socialism was also tried in China under Mao Zedong with very similar results. 35 million Chinese citizens were murdered for disagreeing with their government.The government became a totalitarian state, controlling everything and displaying deceit to the citizens.

Some will argue that this is communism. That is incorrect. Communism is communal life where there is no hierarchy- no state. Lenin said, “The goal of socialism is communism”. The end Utopia discussed above was communism- the final abolition of hierarchy. This in- between totalitarian state was the attempt to get there- socialism.

Some examples of modern-day socialism include Venezuela, Colombia, North Korea, Cuba, Libya, The Republic of Congo, Syria, and Iran.

Myth 3: Modern Socialist States are Happier (Like Scandinavian Countries)

Many people think that Scandinavian states are socialist and the happiest countries in the world. There are many reasons behind this thought, but the biggest is the fact that many nordic countries have universal healthcare and state-operated upper-level education. Note the meaning of socialism- collective ownership of the means of production. Healthcare and education may be certain industries controlled or aided by government in these states, but if we look at the facts, these states are far from socialist (and far from productive/happy).

According to a joint study of several university scholars and research from the Fraser institute, Nordic countries are actually very close to the United States and are in the more economically-free quartiles. Canada is ranked 8th most economically free country in the world, Finland 19, Denmark 22, Norway 27, Netherlands 30, and Sweden 42. All of these place in the upper half of the study in terms of economic freedom. Now, what does this have to do with socialism? In order to achieve socialism, the economy (and exchanges within) must be manipulated. Remember from the post about Capitalism that without manipulation of exchange, you have capitalism. The more economically free a state is, the most capitalist and less socialistic/fascist/totalitarian they are. To describe nordic countries as socialist is outright obtuse and incorrect.

Nonetheless, Scandinavian countries aren’t happier than the United States. According to the OECD, the United States Average Income Consumption is 145, while in Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland the Average Income consumption is 122, 107, 104, 103, 101 respectively. This, of course, is the universal measure of Standard of Living.

But we find that truly socialist countries aren’t necessarily happier than us in economically freer countries, either. Lower Life Expectancy, Less Civil Liberties, More Income Disparity, and less income per capita (EFW Report 2015) are strongly tied to those states with less economic freedom (more market manipulation). Of course, this jabs a finger into all economically totalitarian states (all non-free market states), but this includes socialism.

Also, many studies show that universal healthcare systems in socialist states are failures. The wait times are ridiculous. Many people go to private healthcare instead of the universal healthcare because of the 1) poor quality of universal healthcare and 2) outrageous wait times. Take Canada for example. To see a specialist in Canada for medical care, the average wait time is 9.8 … wait for it… WEEKS. This is incredible. To add to those problems, the cartelized and monopolized markets of healthcare in Canada have driven private prices up. The entire healthcare system of Canada and other Nordic countries is a mess.

Myth 4: Democratic Socialism exists, and is different from Totalitarian Socialism; Socialism is not inherently democratic

Many, many people reading this will believe that I am discussing only totalitarian socialism with these myths. They look at states like Norway and Finland and say “These countries are democratically socialist! They all operate in the economy instead of it being top down!” As we saw above, these nordic states are not, in fact, socialist. Instead, they are free markets with government manipulation in certain industries. But still, individuals argue that socialism is not democratic. This is entirely untrue.Democracy is “By the People”. All Socialism is Democratic. The base of socialistic thought, starting with Vladamir Lenin is Democracy. Lenin, the founder of the USSR’s socialist state, strongly advocated democracy. He even said, “Under socialism all will govern in turn and will soon become accustomed to no one governing.”. We can go back even further. Karl Marx said, even more directly, “Democracy is the road to socialism.”. These men saw all socialism as democracy because socialism is democracy. Socialism is literally an economy collectively owned. This is democracy. Socialism is inherently democratic in all forms. It’s like economic democracy.

Socialism is also extremely immoral by most western standards. Thievery, Murder, and Deceit are generally seen as immoral in the entire world. However, socialism lives on thievery. To run a socialist state, you have to manipulate and plan the economy. In order to do that, you have to regulate and (generally) run up taxes on individuals. When you take 90 or 100% of what somebody earns, it is thievery. No matter how you look at it- if it’s in the public good does not matter- it is thievery. If a band of robbers donates what they steal from you to charity, it doesn’t make it morally acceptable. Murder is seen as immoral as well. However, the USSR, Red China, and Nazi Germany, all democratically socialist states, have murdered a total combined 118 Million citizens in the 20th century. Deceit is also seen as immoral. However, Lenin himself said “The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.” and “Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism.”.

Myth 5: Socialism has bad intentions; Socialism is inherently totalitarian

Many people view the immoralities of socialism alongside the edgy philosophy of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin and think, “only a bad intentioned philosophy could do and think these things”. This is not true, however. These philosophers and people today that follow socialistic thought have the best of intentions. These intentions are that it is necessary that the government redistribute wealth and/or land to everyone in efforts to eliminate poverty. Socialism is also not inherently totalitarian. Although it has ended in totalitarianism every time it has been tried throughout history; in theory, it is not totalitarian. Philosophers and followers of economic philosophies throughout history and around the world seek to eliminate poverty with the best system foreseeable by separate individuals. In my opinion, it is wrong to judge socialists, communists, fascists, monarchists, capitalists, and oligarchists because everyone’s intention is a better society, a better economy, and the elimination of terrors such as poverty and exploitation.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, please leave a comment below or email me at andrew30126@gmail.com.

Up next: “Fascism: Separating Myth from Truth” on Wednesday, April 20th.



Sources:

Fraser Institute Economic Freedom Study

Canadian Healthcare Study

University of Hawaii Democide Study