From: utzoo!decvax!wivax!linus!genradbo!mitccc!zrm
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.philosophy
Title: What IS wrong with socialism
Article-I.D.: mitccc.349
Posted: Fri Feb 18 12:16:13 1983
Received: Sun Feb 20 11:51:12 1983
References: genradbo.1415

That one's life is not one's own under socialism hits the nail right on
the head. The best argument for this position skips over the never
ending theoretical debates on political systems and looks at the fact of
the matter in the world today: Socialist countries are the least free,
the most oppressive, and the most imperialistic in the world today. The
abysmal record of the Comecon countries in both human rights and
economic developement is topped only in certain instances by the
"unaligned" socialist countries of the third world. On the other hand,
citizens of the "capitalist", or mixed-economy OECD countries live in a
paradise of civil liberties and economic opportunities.

Centrally planned economies wind up being centrally planned disaters
because they have taken away control from the shopkeepers, labourers,
and small factory owners that are best able to react to economic change.
These people no longer own the means of their livelihood or even their
homes. Their lives are not their own in all material respects. And to
maintain this hold over their people most socialist states wind up
abandoning democracy and taking away from their people even more control
over their lives. In other words succesful socialism is the tyranny of
the many over the individual, and most socialism in practice is just
plain tyranny.

Furthermore, most Americans DO NOT have a vast ignorance of other
political systems. They just know what they like, and they don't like
the Gov'mint telling them what to do.

Like it says on the licence plates: "Live free or die!"

Cheers,
Zig