Letter: Rebuttal to ‘socialism’

After reading Chuck Wieland’s letter in the August 31 edition of the Tribune, I can tell he took his old Democratic Central Committee playbook from the 70s off the shelf in an attempt invoke class envy and promote more government control over our lives.

Much of what was in the letter simply does not hold up to the facts other than the country is marching down the road to socialism led by the Democrats with a number of Republicans capitulating.

The problem with socialism, as stated in Chuck’s example, is it counts on government to own the means of production and distribution with bureaucrats making the decisions.

Chuck refers to the “key” being government policy used to serve political interests. I ask what government entity can you point to that operates efficiently and not without a bloated budget that seems to grow, no matter what work is or isn’t performed or how successful the operation is? Amtrak? The Post Office? High Speed Rail?

The problem is we send many inexperienced people to represent us in Congress and the state house (Democrats and Republicans) with the only political interest they serve is their own.

Liberals/socialists, whatever the Democrats are labeling themselves, always want to damn the owners or shareholders of businesses. The fact is the owner or shareholders risked their homes, savings or other assets to be able to create the business. The owners of businesses I know spend excessive hours working on their business, staying awake at night worrying how to solve problems, spend time on weekends away from family working on the business, basically living their life around their business. There certainly should be a reward for the effort, but in some cases there is not; that is the risk the business owner takes.

Capitalism is an individual pursuing his or her own self-interest for the benefit of many. There is nothing stopping anyone or a group of people from starting their own business or pursuing their own self-interest. I happen to know many people who have been successful doing just that.

When you look at societies where the masses have benefited the most it is not in socialist societies, but those societies who have embraced capitalism and free trade. There is not one socialist country I know that I would deem a success or have made the advancements the United States has made in such a short period of time because of capitalism.

The more I hear the Democratic presidential candidates and the Congressional “Squad” speak, the more I disagree with Chuck that “No politician espouses total socialism.” I think some most definitely do.

Of course, no liberal/socialist can pass by the opportunity to call out the “rich.” There is not one Democrat I know, or (have) heard, who will tell you at what income level you are considered “rich.” Their “playbook” does not allow for that, just as long as they can create envy to push mis-guided policies to control and tax the “other guy” when in fact they mean all of us.

By the way, the Great Depression was not “Republican led” nor did capitalism cause it. The Great Depression was caused by years of bad monetary policy by the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank sitting passively by allowing a recession to turn into a depression. Also, nearly every Republican President has not “led” the country into a recession.

What is not elaborated on is Congress’ or the Federal Reserve’s role in recessions.

Also not discussed in the letter was the recession caused by the dot.com bubble at the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency or the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, passed overwhelmingly by both parties and Bill Clinton and signed into law in 1999 that played a significant part in the Great Recession of 2008.

You can take point after point Chuck makes and bring facts to show there are far better alternatives to socialism to achieve a better life for Americans.

The American people deserve “good” government. A government that does not spend more than it takes in, provide services to help the Country advance economically and socially and protect us from our enemies. What the American people need is a government that provides policies to allow us to thrive not hold us back like socialism does.

— Steve Barsotti,

Madera