“Socialism is guilty of a fatal conceit: It believes its system can make better decisions for the people than they can for themselves.”
I encourage anyone to go read this post that talks about Great Britain, India, and Israel and where they were to where they are economically – and from the standpoint of Freedom. From Statism to Liberty of the Individual. From being centrally planned to the self-ordering system of the Marketplace, what were the ramifications of shucking off “Government knows All” to “Maybe our citizens know better”.
A taste:
Israel, India, and the United Kingdom all adopted socialism as an economic model following World War II. The preamble to India’s constitution, for example, begins, “We, the People of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic . . .” The original settlers of Israel were East European Jews of the Left who sought and built a socialist society. As soon as the guns of World War II fell silent, Britain’s Labour Party nationalized every major industry and acceded to every socialist demand of the unions.
…But the government planners were unable to keep pace with increasing population and overseas competition.
…As we have seen from our examination of Israel, India, and the United Kingdom, the economic system that works best for the greatest number is not socialism with its central controls, utopian promises, and OPM (other people’s money), but the free-market system with its emphasis on competition and entrepreneurship. All three countries tried socialism for decades, and all three finally rejected it for the simplest of reasons — it doesn’t work.
…Israel’s socialist miracle turned out to be a mirage, India discarded socialist ideology and chose a more market-oriented path, and the United Kingdom set an example for the rest of the world with its emphasis on privatization and deregulation. Whether we are talking about the actions of an agricultural country of 1.3 billion, or the nation that sparked the industrial revolution, or a small Middle Eastern country populated by some of the smartest people in the world, capitalism tops socialism every time.
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Socialism is guilty of a fatal conceit: It believes its system can make better decisions for the people than they can for themselves. It is the end product of a 19th-century prophet whose prophecies (such as the inevitable disappearance of the middle class) have been proven wrong time and again.
Backed up by real economic data, the result is clear: people in the aggregate are smarter than central economic planners. The piece lays out all kinds of strategies, quotas, and plans while a few economic factors drive the people (e.g., what’s my take home wage, what’s the price point I’m willing to buy at, and how can I get ahead (er, self-interest)).
End conclusion – not only do people do better for themselves on average when THEY get to make the decisions (and yes, making bad decisions doesn’t help but that’s part of the bell curve of life) rather than somebody else ORDERING decisions for others.
