Fox business anchor Charles Payne famously said, “You can only vote for Socialism once.”  Another common quip is “You can vote your way in, but you’ll have to shoot your way out.”  Well, 86 US Congressional Representatives just voted for it.  Fortunately, 327 voted against it. 

The seeds of Socialism are sown in free market capitalism.  That’s why socialism is like the blob that ate New York City, and the Phoenix that continually arises from its own ashes.  Because, in a relatively free society, you are free to advocate for socialism.  But in a socialist totalitarian society, you can’t advocate for free market capitalism.  Economists make the assumption that people are reasonable and will make self-interested votes in favor of themselves and their neighbors having freedom that makes them all richer.  As I often quip to Ginger: “There you go, thinking again.”  Look, it’s pretty clear: Socialism feels good, capitalism thinks good. 

 The latest evidence of the freedom to be stupid is the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Congressional Resolution #9—a resolution “denouncing the horrors of socialism.”  Ok, the resolution passed, but the vote was 327–86, with every Republican and 109 Democrats in favor. Are you feeling safer now? Less threatened? Less worried about the direction of Uncle Sam’s Big Government policies? 

Let’s see, so 86 Democrats used their freedom to seek less freedom.  Uh-huh.  Kinda makes you wonder about them, doesn’t it?  Here’s even a stranger application: Folks are taking the Trump tax cuts and using that money to advocate for higher tax rates.  If you gave them a bat, would they beat themselves over the head with it?  This makes economists do what I call the “Freshman fake,” it’s kinda like your dog when you speak to her as if she were human, and she gives you that “huh” look.  Economists assume that people act in their own self-interest.  Why would US congressional representatives use their freedom to vote for less freedom? 

 One of my favorite quips is, “65% of college students would vote for a Socialist.  After visiting with my co-author Sergiy Saydometov, that number drops to near zero.”  That’s because Sergiy lived in a socialist economy in the Ukraine until he was 11.  And that’s why he’s substitute lecturing in my class this week.  Students were assigned to ask him questions about life in a socialist economy.  When I get back in the classroom next week, I think it will be void of socialists.  Maybe they need to invite Sergiy to visit with the 86 congressional reps who voted for Socialism.  

We assume that the four million folks who illegally crossed the southern border of the US in the last two years were acting in their own self-interest.  They were fleeing Socialist economies for what’s left of our capitalist wealth.  There’s more about that in podcast # 133 titled South America turns Socialist.  There’s more support for that basic idea in podcast #131 Abraham and Wealth Migration, where I point out how people vote with their feet.   

 

No Utopia 

That’s a subtitle in my little book Economics and the Christian Worldview.  The reason Christians don’t camp on either end of the simple Socialist – Capitalist spectrum is that monopolies occur on both ends.  That’s because of the fallen nature.  Fallen businesspeople buy up their competitors on the right end of the spectrum, and fallen politicians grant monopolies on the left end.  So, the Christian favors a point in the middle somewhere.  And,