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