Free Stuff Costs More

Much like the meaning of the word "pro-choice" means pro-killing of the unborn, the word "democrat" has become synonymous with "socialist." This is due to the unfortunate reality that there is no longer any distinguishable difference in the two terms. Those in this country wanting socialism have no idea what it is. The word socialism is synonymous, in the minds of the democrat voters, with, "take from the rich and give it to me." This is what those wanting it think it means, a simple, spread the wealth around, give me free stuff, stick it to the rich, wealth re-distribution scheme. A large portion of democrat voters are even supporting an openly socialist candidate for president as opposed to the usual, non-openly socialist candidate but this could be due to the repugnant personality of the front runner that is making "anyone but her" seem better to many. If these two were republicans instead of democrats the preference for the old white man over the more qualified woman would obviously be due to sexism but they are democrats, or socialists, so are not capable of anything less than virtuous behavior. In addition to her likability issues, it could be the possibility of winding up in prison being just as likely as winding up in the white house making the front runner less appealing. Of course, it could simply be that someone came along offering more free stuff than her. Obviously it has been quite a conundrum for many democrats, trying to decide between two people, one that might soon wind up in jail, the other that might soon wind up in the morgue, but, for a growing and surprising number of democrats, the possibility of more socialism, not less, over rides any concerns for the one promising to deliver it. The old man socialist will probably not win the nomination but the fact he is doing as good as he is, is somewhat alarming as it means socialists are starting to find they don't have to bother with pretending they are not socialists anymore. Both democrat front runners are offering lots of free stuff, always a requirement with any democrat voter. It is easy to understand why some people love free stuff and gravitate to the destructive socioeconomic system that claims to provide it, socialism. The problem is, socialism, nor any other system can provide that which does not exist, free stuff. That which some call free stuff is not free. Someone has to make free stuff and free stuff costs money. Under socialism, those who work are required to provide for themselves and also provide for those who do not work. So, the government takes stuff away from the producers and gives it to the non-producers. This increases the cost of the production of goods. Increased production costs are passed along to the consumers as price increases. This means everyone pays more for the stuff they purchase or produce in order to pay for the stuff others receive for free. It might appear that some get free stuff under socialism but they do not. Everyone pays more for their stuff to cover the cost of the free stuff the state gives to others. We argue among ourselves over the merits of socialism vs capitalism but this argument is actually a distraction. It might work best to simply point out that we have socialism already and it is not working. We have a hybrid socioeconomic system where capitalism and socialism both exist to some degree. Those things done by the state are socialist endeavors and we have lots of them, many would argue too many. We simply do not have the extra money to pay for more socialism, our almost $20 trillion debt tells us this. No one has any idea how that amount of debt will be paid back except offering the observation that the only way it can be done is to grow our way out of debt through an expanding economy. Socialism is a non-expanding economic model that exploits the wealth production elements it has access to in order to pay for its expanding wealth redistribution schemes. Socialism shrinks economies rather than expand them so debt increases rather than decreases under its rule. No one who knows what it is wants socialism, only the useful idiots lured by the false promise of free stuff. What those who think they want socialism really want is what we have now, a hybrid socialist/capitalist system where the producers are forced to pay for everything the parasites want. At some point very soon we will have to make massive, painful cuts in all social welfare and entitlement spending. Unless someone does indeed come up with a way for getting something for nothing the party is over and it's time to clean up the mess, not add to it. cjpost