They say, ” Socialism helps the poor”
What’s the best way to help the poor? Ask this question, and it’s a sure bet that someone will suggest taking from those who have and giving it to those who don’t.
To be clear, they are suggesting that your money and property don’t really belong to you, but instead, they belong to everyone and may be taken away and shared if enough people agree. It is one of the central beliefs of socialism.
Socialism is a system that relies on a tiny minority of officials who centrally plan and implement decisions for the common good. In a free society, your individual rights protect you from the power of government.
Under socialism, your individual rights are subject to the approval of the collective. The collective is simply another way of describing a group or mass of people united under a particular government. Socialism relies on collectivism to accomplish its goals by treating everyone’s money and property as a common, rather than a private, good.
When it comes to helping the poor, socialism claims to provide what they need by taking from those who have more. At first glance, this may seem like a compassionate use of government power.
The problem is that to accomplish this goal, socialist governments must take someone else’s money or property away before they can give it to the poor. Here’s the moral problem with this approach.
If I take something that is not mine, especially if I take it by using or threatening force, that’s still stealing. Why don’t we consider it stealing when the government takes something from us by threat of force?
Just because the taking is done by the government or with the approval of the collective, that doesn’t make it any less of a matter of stealing.
Unfortunately, socialism requires coercion in order to accomplish its goals.
Governments that embrace socialism will target the most productive members of their societies as a source of revenue or property to fund its programs. Inevitably, this leads to wasted resources and a powerful motivation not to be too successful, so as not to draw government attention.
This results in shortages and even more poverty than before. People who might have wanted to build businesses and to create wealth and opportunity will think twice before doing so if they stand a good chance of getting fleeced for their efforts.
This is why socialism has a very long record of failure wherever it has been tried.
So, how does a society truly help the poor?
By encouraging individuals to own private property and to voluntarily exchange with one another in order to create wealth. This is in harmony with human nature and also allows those who create wealth to freely share it as they choose.
This promotes authentic rather than forced charity and meets the needs of the truly poor without creating greater dependency on the government.
Ziad K Abdelnour, Wharton Grad, Family Office, CEO, Wall Street Financier, Dealmaker, Activist
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