Listen To Those Who Have Experienced Socialism First-Hand

That title is not so much a request for anyone who knows socialism is a failure and is horrible as much as a request for anyone who thinks the opposite: that socialism is great and we should bring it here.
 
I understand full-well that the vast majority of those who will read this and watch the accompanying video (below) from Campus Reform are on the side that knows that socialism is a catastrophe, but it is always important to listen to those who have experience in some matter, as they will have knowledge that many others likely lack.
 
In his State of the Union address, President Trump declared that America would never become a socialist country. However, the very reason he felt the need to make such a declaration is because there are people in Washington now that are openly advocating for socialism in America, and most Democrats view socialism more favorably than capitalism, according to polls.
 
So to gain a better understanding and perspective of what it is like to live in a socialist country, Campus Reform’s Cabot Phillips went to a Venezuelan Freedom rally in D.C. to ask some people who actually have lived in Venezuela some questions.
 
He begins by asking this elderly man and a young-ish looking man (I’m guessing early thirties): “what is your message to those who want socialism here?”
 
One said: “You do not ever want anything close to socialism.” Another person noted: “people are eating from trash cans in the streets, so how has socialism helped?”
 
Another rally attendee, whose family is still in Venezuela, unfortunately, added: “No Venezuelan can like socialism, because we’ve seen it put in place very well.”
 
The aforementioned young-ish looking man said that socialism “is not a game… not the route to go. It is not possible, it is not feasible. Don’t fall for it.”
 
Another female attendee said: “It doesn’t work the way the book says it works because we’re humans and we have imperfections and socialism is too perfect to be true.”
 
Now, I have some things to say about that one. First, I suppose by “the book” she means Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. And I personally have, in the past, at least once before, explained just why Marx’s theory of how communism is supposed to work is very flawed, but for those who might’ve missed it, I will get to that in a moment.
 
Second, I imagine the lady meant to say that it sounds too perfect to be true, because if it were “too perfect”, it would work. The idea that someone can protect you and watch over you, that that entity will take care of things for you, that it can take care of everything and everyone, that all problems are erased for one reason or another does sound heavenly… because that’s the only place where this actually works.
 
Not to say that God is a socialist. Socialism, by nature, puts the government ahead of everything else. The government is not God, so socialism very much goes against God. But God, being the only perfect being in existence, can actually do everything these loony socialists think the government can do.
 
And that’s what we should focus on: the fact that it takes perfection for something like socialism to actually work. Not something CLOSE to perfection, but actual perfection.
 
Just look at Medicare-for-All. That idea alone costs over $40 trillion. We have nowhere near that amount of money, even if you confiscate everything the rich have (which, of course, would lower the threshold for what constitutes as being rich, so the upper-middle class is considered rich, but they definitely don’t live like the rich. As a result, they are left to pay the tab, and when they can’t, the bar gets lower and lower. Just look at… well… Venezuela).
 
And that’s just one thing these socialists want. We can’t pay for it and it would destroy our country by simply TRYING to pay for it. So what is necessary here is to have a nearly, or actually, endless supply of money. There is no such thing on this plain of existence because everything is limited to some amount. God, however, has unlimited resources. Not that Medicare-for-All would even be considered as necessary in heaven, since no one gets hurt, but still. Literally God is the only being in existence that can afford Medicare-for-All.
 
And by the way, this is ignoring the very fact that people are, themselves, imperfect and naturally evil. It’d be difficult to make socialism work even with people who are not naturally evil. What I talked about in the last two paragraphs only talks about the financial stipulations of ONE item of socialism. But that ignores the fact that people are imperfect and naturally evil.
 
Again, let’s take a look at Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro lives in the Miraflores Palace. As the name suggests, it is a literal palace. He lives like literal royalty, is perfectly well-fed, has security, healthcare, and everything he wants or needs.
 
Meanwhile, people are forced to eat their own pets, and when that meal is gone, are forced to eat out of the trashcan or even go to the zoo to eat some animals there. They have no actual healthcare, even though socialism promises that because they don’t have much in terms of medicine, resources, doctors, etc. Not to mention that power outages are also a problem for many hospitals and clinics.
 
If socialism truly were about equality, Maduro would share what he has with as many people as he could. And if people weren’t naturally evil, Maduro wouldn’t be blocking a U.S.-backed humanitarian convoy with food and medicine from entering the country.
 
The only system of government that truly creates any sort of wealth gap between the 1% and everyone else is socialism/communism. Of course, at that point, the 1% are really only people at the very top of the government.
 
For example, Venezuela’s richest woman is Maria Gabriela Chavez, Hugo Chavez’s daughter. Her net worth is $4.2 billion. Nicolas Maduro’s net worth, at least according to Heavy.com, is estimated to be around $2 million. However, this only accounts for his salary, which, due to Venezuelan laws, can only cap out at 12 times of the minimum wage. The minimum wage in Venezuela, according to a recent Reuters article is 18,000 bolivars a month. This was actually a raise of 300% by Maduro earlier last month.
 
If you think that’s not bad, know that 18,000 bolivars is basically $6.70. And let me remind you this is PER MONTH! Not per hour; per month.
 
And by the way, he actually has made more than just $2 million dollars. According to the Miami Herald, Nicolas Maduro, when he was just a candidate, demanded a $50 million bribe from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. The company, according to Venezuela’s exiled AG Luisa Ortega, did not agree to that and “only paid him $35 million”.
 
If we’re talking bribes here, it is unlikely the money went to the Venezuelan government. It likely went to Maduro’s pockets. So the reason Heavy.com says his net worth is only $2 million is because that is the estimate given his salary as President of Venezuela. It was hard to gauge how wealthy Chavez was, so I imagine it can be hard to gauge Maduro’s wealth too.
 
In any case, what I’m trying to say is that the only people that actually live like the 1% are those up high in the government and their families.
 
Maduro lives like a king while his people barely make anything and struggle to survive.
 
But even if Maduro weren’t a jerk, the country would still be a dystopia under socialism because that is what it does.
 
Like I said before, I will try my best at explaining Marx’s reasoning behind his idea of communism.
 
Marx theorized, and I’m not even joking, that people in a capitalist country would naturally evolve past capitalism and go towards communism. And then, after there is full-on communism and every problem is magically solved, there will not be any need for a government at all, no need for a state, no need for a nation, because people will be able to self-govern.
 
That is basically the gist of his theory. That communism is the NATURAL evolution to capitalism and that, once there is complete government control of the means of production and everything is great, there is no need for government and it will NATURALLY also evolve to people governing themselves without a state.
 
It is literally ridiculous, every part of it.
 
But what I want to focus on with this, since I could write an entire article based on this alone, is the fact that for this to even be REMOTELY POSSIBLE, people would need to be two things: 1) PERFECT and 2) NATURALLY GOOD.
 
And that’s just talking about the people running things. This is ignoring the fact that you would need an endless source of income in order to afford everything and make everything work. Not to mention the fact that communism requires people being willing to do things out of the kindness of their own hearts, such as working when they don’t need to work or paying what they don’t need to pay (look at Panera Bread’s attempt at running restaurants by telling people they can pay whatever they want for the food until they had to close every restaurant that ran that way).
 
But Marx’s overall theory is heavily flawed, the people are flawed, and the system is heavily flawed. Socialism does not work and there is not one example in the history of the world in which it has worked. However, there are multiple examples in which socialism is shown to be a disaster for the people and the country that attempts it.
 
Communism has killed well over 100 million people. Death and despair follow everywhere there is socialism.
 
Which is why I’m astounded at the stupidity of people like Ocasio-Cortez, who complains about the way people live in New York, where THE GOVERNMENT ENACTS SOCIALIST LAWS AND POLICIES!
 
If AOC were intelligent, she would notice the high cost of living in New York, notice how badly people live there, and look at how things are being run, i.e., socialistically, and deduce that socialism and big government does not work and only hurts people.
 
The people affected by socialism want to leave it. Sometimes, they acknowledge that socialism is horrible, such as the people in the Venezuelan Freedom rally, and sometimes, they fail to recognize that socialism is horrible and vote for people that want to implement it wherever they move.
 
This is the importance of educating and informing people. Socialism is humanity’s worst idea ever. And the people that advocate for it are either uninformed of this fact, are informed but are stupid, or are informed and evil.
 
I pray that Trump is right when he says that America will never be a socialist country. I pray that God spares us from such a horrible fate. But regardless of what may happen, I know it will be part of God’s Plan for us. Even under the worst circumstance, those who are saved will never have to live through the worst of it all.
 
We can all thank God for that.
 
Ephesians 2:8
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
 
And please make sure to check out our free weekly newsletter. As the name suggests, it is a newsletter that comes completely free of charge. What you get is a compilation of the week’s articles sent right into your inbox. So make sure to check it out today!
 
Author: Freddie Marinelli.