Can socialism work in the United States? I suppose your answer will depend on how you define work.
If you mean it will work as well as it did in the USSR, or as it is presently doing in Venezuela, then you can fairly say it will work in the United States. But do you really want to live in a 21st century USSR? Venezuela?
The Union of Soviet Social Republics came into being in December 1922, and lasted nearly 70 years, until December 1991. The USSR had its beginning in the 1917 revolution when Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Provisional Government.
The country became a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party. Following Vladamir Lenin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin came to power.
Stalin committed the USSR to socialism (communism), a planned economy, the abolition of private ownership, rapid industrialization and forced collective farming. Famine followed; millions died.
Those landowners who survived were sent to forced labor camps. Under Stalin, communism became totalitarianism. The “Great Purge” followed.
According to declassified secret police records, more than 1.5 million people were arbitrarily arrested in 1937 and 1938; some 600,000 of them were shot.
Atheism became the state religion. Church property was confiscated. Personal professions of religion were not officially banned, but participation was stigmatized by the government and its controlled press. Certain professions were closed to religious believers.
The government undertook to control and use the Russian Orthodox Church. During the first decade of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed some 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled.
Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open while 54,000 where open prior to World War I. For 68 years, the communists (socialists) ruled without opposition. In 1991, the USSR collapsed.
If the one-party socialist government couldn’t succeed in the USSR where all opposition (churches, unions, opposing political parties, capitalists) had been crushed, why is there any reason to believe that the socialists will succeed here?
In 1999, oil-rich Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez, a communist-socialist to power. His successor is Nicolas Maduro. When the opposition won control of the National Assembly, Maduro caused its abolition. Constitutional rights have been suspended.
Chronic shortages of food, medicine and even toilet paper are rampant. For 2018, the inflation rate is projected at 1,000,000 percent. Savings of $100,000 on Jan. 1, 2018 will be worth 10 cents on Jan. 1, 2019.
Why do U.S. socialist believe they can do any better than USSR or Venezuelan socialists? Are things so dire in the U.S. that we are willing to entrust our economy (and perhaps our rights) to “economic experts,” like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
In the Acts of the apostles, we find that the early church adopted socialism. The faithful placed all their property into the hands of the Apostles. Squabbles ensued almost immediately over the use of the donations.
The Greek Christians complained their widows were getting less than was given to the Hebrew Christian widows. A committee (the deacons) was appointed to fix the inequality. Suddenly, we hear no more of the early Christian socialist experiment.
The Pilgrim’s tried socialism at Plymouth Plantation. They nearly starved. “Communal stewardship” failed. It was only after each man was allowed to plant corn on his own parcel of land that the colony began to prosper.
Gov. William Bradford tells us that prior to allowing each man to have his own plot of land, the community was afflicted by an unwillingness to work, by discontent, by a loss of mutual respect, and by a prevailing sense of injustice. And this among “godly and sober men”!
The industrious were forced to subsidize the slackers. The strong “had no more in division of victuals and clothes” than the weak. In other words, the productive members of the Plymouth Plantation objected to being plundered by the less productive.
They objected to sharing the hard-earned fruits of their labors with those who failed to make equal effort. The 2017 Gross Domestic Product per capita in the capitalist United States, after adjustment for “purchasing power parity,” was 54,225 US dollars — 305 percent of the world average. Adjusted in comparable dollars: “Germany: $45,229; France: $38,606; United Kingdom: $39,753.
In the USSR, the workers told a bitter joke: “The government pretends to pay us; we pretend to work.”
The government undertook to control and use the Russian Orthodox Church. During the first decade of Soviet power, the Bolsheviks executed some 28 Russian Orthodox bishops and over 1,200 priests. Many others were imprisoned or exiled.
Most seminaries were closed, and the publication of most religious material was prohibited. By 1941, only 500 churches remained open while 54,000 where open prior to World War I. For 68 years, the communists (socialists) ruled without opposition. In 1991, the USSR collapsed.
If the one-party socialist government couldn’t succeed in the USSR where all opposition (churches, unions, opposing political parties, capitalists) had been crushed, why is there any reason to believe that the socialists will succeed here?
In 1999, oil-rich Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez, a communist-socialist to power. His successor is Nicolas Maduro. When the opposition won control of the National Assembly, Maduro caused its abolition. Constitutional rights have been suspended.
Chronic shortages of food, medicine and even toilet paper are rampant. For 2018, the inflation rate is projected at 1,000,000 percent. Savings of $100,000 on Jan. 1, 2018 will be worth 10 cents on Jan. 1, 2019.
Why do U.S. socialist believe they can do any better than USSR or Venezuelan socialists? Are things so dire in the U.S. that we are willing to entrust our economy (and perhaps our rights) to “economic experts,” like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
In the Acts of the apostles, we find that the early church adopted socialism. The faithful placed all their property into the hands of the Apostles. Squabbles ensued almost immediately over the use of the donations.
The Greek Christians complained their widows were getting less than was given to the Hebrew Christian widows. A committee (the deacons) was appointed to fix the inequality. Suddenly, we hear no more of the early Christian socialist experiment.
The Pilgrim’s tried socialism at Plymouth Plantation. They nearly starved. “Communal stewardship” failed. It was only after each man was allowed to plant corn on his own parcel of land that the colony began to prosper.
Gov. William Bradford tells us that prior to allowing each man to have his own plot of land, the community was afflicted by an unwillingness to work, by discontent, by a loss of mutual respect, and by a prevailing sense of injustice. And this among “godly and sober men”!
The industrious were forced to subsidize the slackers. The strong “had no more in division of victuals and clothes” than the weak. In other words, the productive members of the Plymouth Plantation objected to being plundered by the less productive.
They objected to sharing the hard-earned fruits of their labors with those who failed to make equal effort. The 2017 Gross Domestic Product per capita in the capitalist United States, after adjustment for “purchasing power parity,” was 54,225 US dollars — 305 percent of the world average. Adjusted in comparable dollars: “Germany: $45,229; France: $38,606; United Kingdom: $39,753.
In the USSR, the workers told a bitter joke: “The government pretends to pay us; we pretend to work.”
Posted: QCOline.com November, 20, 2018
Copyright 2018, John Donald O'Shea
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