Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

October 23, 2008

Where Socialism Leads...Wise Words from a Russian Immigrant

My friend Karen pointed me to the following. It's a comment posted to this blog entry by Jake Tapper on Political Punch. The blog entry quotes Obama in Virginia claiming he'll sweep into Washington as the agent of change with a "righteous wind at our backs."

While that statement by The One is creepy enough, I feel the comment below is something we should all read and internalize. It's a lesson I am hoping Americans won't have to learn first hand (all spelling, grammar and punctuation from the original):

I'm an immigrant from Russia. I grew up in Siberia in 1960-70-s, the prosperous period in USSR. Neither my parents nor I were Party elites and had no special privileges to get an apartment, a telephone, a car etc. To give it to us would be decided by a few Communist Party demagogues on their subjective opinion regarding how hard and productive we worked for USSR and therefore for the Communist party.

Based on the size of our family, two parents and child, the government gave us a one room apartment that consists of a single room, 18 sq. yards, used as a bedroom, living room, and storage. The only other rooms were a bathroom and a kitchen, where I had to sleep. Lucky we had an apartment, since many families had to wait sometimes for twenty years to get one.

Since government controlled food production and distribution each person had special ration cards to buy in the local store 2 lb of meat or 1 lb of processed meat products per month, and 8 oz of butter.

During Yeltsin reign, in the early 1990's, taxes on business were significantly increased resulting in great decrease in production. Inflation hit 2000%. Sugar, eggs, salt, detergent, soap, vodka and even matches were also distributed through the ration cards. I was an engineer then. I remember having nothing to eat but bread and spaghetti. Shelves in the stores were completely empty. My mother, teacher, and her doctor friend were in the same situation. Nobody talked of poverty. We were all equal.

After I was fortunate to immigrate to US I was surprised how many people here whine about hardship of living and believed in a socialistic utopia. The question "Why?" is always on the back of my mind.

Looks like after Soviets were defeated by Reagan a lot of people fell asleep and let communists come to their back yard in the clothes of liberal media and education system, with promises of free healthcare and education -- with ideas to make irreversible change "…from the lies, falsehood and hypocrisy of …democracy for the rich — and establish democracy for the poor…" (Quote Marx and Engels)

If we will follow this road everyone will be poor. I guess I understand the liberal elite in D.C, they would revel in power. But local news paper reporters, or teachers? In socialist society they would be defeated and silenced first.

I want to scream that socialism was never about equality. To quote Lenin the socialism is "dictatorship of proletariat ", but in the end it is just a dictatorship.
Why so many people forget that freedom of individuality and enterprise all encompassed in the genius of capitalism makes this country great! Why so many do not realize that they live in the cleanest and most prosperous country in the world? Do you really want the government to decide how the necessities of life should be rationed or how big your home should be? Do you really believe that somebody in government can "spread the wealth around" fairly? I don't. I've been there before! Also I don't want that my children and grandchildren would live as I did with no way out. USA is only haven of freedom from government left in the world.

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Thanks Zina. We can see how well socialism works today: Hugo Chavez, determined to create a socialist utopia in Venezuela, now can add national blackouts to his credit. The nation with some of the world's largest energy reserves can't give reliable power to its own citizens.

Those of you who have a shaky foundation in economics should read Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell. It explains why socialism and communism doesn't work and why the free market does. I highly recommend it. Sowell knows his stuff, and he writes in an entertaining, easy-to-understand style.