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Many times, when Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar talk, it’s their lips that move but the voice of Karl Marx that comes pouring out.

In videos posted Thursday night by The Hill, Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Omar, D-Minn., suggested a radical transformation of significant parts of the American economy that are essential for fighting the effects of the coronavirus.

After complaining that America’s “systemic priorities” are all wrong, AOC said, “We have to start demanding and organizing from the bottom up – from grassroots movements, from nurses to warehouse workers to grocery store employees to the halls of Congress, demanding that we strip profit motive out of our decisions and reprioritize for the public good and the health of everyday people.”

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Demanding that the country “strip profit motive out of our decisions and reprioritize for the public good” is a not-so-subtle way of saying that we should significantly reduce markets and individual property ownership (capitalism) and put the government in charge of much of the economic and social decision-making (socialism).

History has proven the socialist utopia AOC is constantly screeching about will never come. But whenever it’s attempted, destruction, economic chaos and misery inevitably follow. (Just ask survivors of the Soviet Union how that socialist experiment turned out.)

Conversely, societies that have embraced private property ownership and management – like the United States – have become the wealthiest, safest nations the world has ever seen.

This isn’t a coincidence. Freedom works because when there is a profit motive, people behave much more efficiently and cautiously than when they are spending and controlling the wealth that other people produce.

Just ask any parent with a teenager whether people who don’t have to work spend money as wisely as those who must earn it for themselves!

Omar, another far-left member of the “Squad,” was perhaps even more direct about her socialist demands in her video, in which she directly called for the federal government to nationalize key industries.

“And so, it is important for us to nationalize the supply chain, it’s important for us to take action in nationalizing our health care system,” Omar said.

The coronavirus outbreak is a perfect example of why the government should not be charged with managing even greater parts of the economy.

Omar’s tactics are familiar and dangerous. Historically, socialism has thrived in the midst of chaos. When people are feeling desperate and afraid, they are more willing to trade their freedom for the alleged security offered by a massive, all-powerful government than when times are good – as they were prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

But Americans should know that they’ll find little comfort or security in the warm embrace of the national government, which is so dysfunctional that it can’t even manage to run the Postal Service or Amtrak without losing dump trucks full of cash every year.

In fact, the government’s long track record of failing to adequately plan for or deal with crises of every sort – whether they be health care-related or economic – should convince Americans who hear AOC and Omar beg for more power over the economy and health care to run as quickly as they can away from socialism, not toward it.

The coronavirus outbreak is a perfect example of why the government should not be charged with managing even greater parts of the economy. In the earliest days of the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, both federal agencies, completely botched the rollout of COVID-19 testing.

First, the CDC and FDA prevented states, businesses and universities from conducting and developing their own testing systems. Then, when CDC finally sent out its initial round of tests to health care agencies and providers across the country, those tests were defective.

Perhaps even more importantly, many of the areas that have been hit the hardest by coronavirus have significantly fewer hospitals and hospital beds available, in large part because of government regulations like certificate-of-need (CON) laws.

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Researchers at the Mercatus Center estimate that if New York, the state most affected by COVID-19, had eliminated its CON laws years ago, there would be 93 more hospitals throughout the state today, with many located in the New York City area.

Government has an important role to play in dealing with natural disasters and sudden health care crises like the present one, but that role shouldn’t include eliminating economic freedom – the reason America has been so successful throughout its history – by destroying markets, reducing private property ownership or “nationalizing the supply chain.”

Of course, AOC and Omar know none of their proposals would be seriously considered under stable economic conditions. They’re hoping to take advantage of the suffering many Americans are now experiencing due to truly extraordinary circumstances by using this crisis as a tool to expand the power of the federal government.

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And if they’re successful, you can bet many of the government’s new powers won’t go away anytime soon – or perhaps at all.

Beware of socialist snake oil salesmen promising to cure our economic problems by moving America closer to socialism. As bad as COVID-19 has been for millions of Americans, embracing socialism would, over the long run, be much, much worse.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY JUSTIN HASKINS