Transcription
Socialism. Socialism. Socialism is the way forward. Socialism is popular!
In recent years, more than a third of American adults said they view socialism positively. Why? Maybe because social media is filled with economically illiterate people saying things like: Socialism is working better than capitalism 93% of the time. 93% of the time? Where does she get that?
Well, I asked Stossel TV producer Kristin Tokarev to investigate. She got it from this study published in the Journal of Health Services 40 years ago. But its Marxist authors conveniently exclude high-income countries like the U.S., Japan, Canada. In fact, all the biggest capitalist countries. They compare socialist countries to allegedly capitalist countries like these, some of which were at war. Based on that, she says: We have all the data showing that socialism does work.
Madeline Pendleton is a TikTok star with more than a million subscribers. What do I like about communism? She celebrates communism too! Mostly the increased life expectancy. But there’s no increased life expectancy. People live longest in capitalist places like Japan and South Korea. Even in the United States, where more people die young because we drive more. [shouting] [crash] And so we have more car accidents. We eat more and get fat. Is that mac and cheese on your hamburger? Yeah, it is mac and cheese. [gun shots] We shoot each other more often, and we take more dangerous drugs. Yet we still live longer than people in China.
But socialism is also better, says Pendleton, because of: The 90-100% home-ownership rates. 100%? That’s just silly. China, if you believe their statistics, does have almost 90% homeownership. But that only happened after China terminated socialist housing. Under socialism, just 20% of people owned homes. In socialist Venezuela, homeowners don’t even own their homes. Dozens of people, squatting in this abandoned office tower in central Caracas. Yet Pendleton claims: The commies want to steal your house from your landlord and give it straight to you.
Pendleton has plenty of company praising socialism on social media. This YouTuber with almost 2 million subscribers tells people, “Why you should be a socialist.” The guaranteed right to healthcare, food and shelter. It’s true, socialism promises free healthcare, food and shelter, but that doesn’t mean what people get is any good. Look at Cuba. This socialist TikToker, with Karl Marx like hair, has a hundred thousand subscribers. Socialist theory does, but again and again, what people get is misery. You would be subjected to back breaking labor, brutality, starvation. Countless millions of deaths and the worst manmade famine in human history. Yet, a man calling himself “Spooky Scary Socialist” gets almost 2 million views saying: Communism did work. It provided essential services like full employment, rough income inequality.
How can these people be so deluded? I’m eager to hear what they’ll say when John interviews them. They tell millions of people: The central idea that unites all socialists is maximizing freedom. A more dignified life and the democratization of power. Democratization? Like in China? [music] Here there's just one party and its leader made himself president for life. [shouting] Every socialist economy has failed. Venezuela was once the richest country in South America. Now, there are food shortages. More and more people reduced to eating from the rubbish. Socialism just doesn’t work.
So says this TikTok socialist. But what finally worked in Vietnam was free markets. Before Vietnam embraced capitalism, people went hungry. The country depended on handouts. [music] Then Vietnam legalized capitalism and freed the private sector. The TikTokers make the same mistake about China. Socialism worked in China. China eradicated extreme poverty. Wrong again. When China banned capitalism, millions died. Those who didn’t get on with the leader of the production team or those who disobeyed his orders were starved to death. It was only after: Campaigns like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution had killed tens of millions of people. That China’s leaders reversed course. Embracing capitalism and encouraging private business. Only then, did average incomes in China rise.
But Socialism’s promoters still say, you don’t need capitalism or profit. Innovation can flourish even when people are not motivated by profit. The USSR gave the world the anthrax vaccine, artificial satellites, and one of the earliest mobile phones. That’s true. But do any of you have a socialist made phone today? The West has just created so much more. The socialists say: Ownership should be collective. But every attempt, anywhere, at collective ownership has failed. In America, people tried that 200 years ago. In New Harmony, Indiana, private property was abolished. The result, as with similar attempts, was famine.
No matter how many views these propagandists get, the fact is, socialism fails. So, what do these popular socialists say in response to these inconvenient facts? Sadly, I can’t show you. We invited them to come here and make their points to you. Not one would. Socialism stays winning. The bottom line is that incentives matter. Nobody washes a rental car because most people don’t care a lot about what belongs to everyone. It’s just human nature. Capitalism isn’t perfect, but if we really want a better future and freedom, capitalism, not socialism, is the way to get those things. [swoosh]
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