I have a friend who loves Bernie Sanders, or thinks he does. My guess is, he doesn't know Bernie Sanders or what he really stands for. But he thinks Bernie is all right. He thinks Bernie wants to makes all of us more equal.
My friend believes that it is wrong for some people to earn a lot of money while other have nearly nothing. He believes it is unjust that his former employer lived in a large house, drove a new car and went to expensive vacations, while he, my friend, earned minimum wage and barely got by. My friends longs for a world in which Bernie Sanders will make the rich people pay more and give the poor part of their wealth.
However, my friend will not like the world when the followers of Bernie Sanders take over. Believe me, he will not like it.
You see, my friend, though he considers himself to be poor, lives in a large old house that he inherited from his mother and father. He lives alone in the old house with 4 bedrooms, a separate living room, dining room, kitchen and 2 bathrooms. That's more house than he needs. That's more than many poor people have.
That house should be occupied by a larger family with, say 5 or 6 kids, and 3 or 4 adults. My friend should be moved to a small efficiency apartment with one bedroom, a tiny bathroom and a small kitchenette. Maybe 700 sq. ft.
Who says he should? Bernie Sanders, that's who. In the real world of socialism, the government forces "efficiency." One old man has no right to live in a large house that could better be used to house a large family with 6 kids. In fact, an individual has no right to own anything...period. The government would own the house and decide who gets to live there. And it would not be my friend. The government would decide how many automobiles to be manufactured each year and it would own the auto production factories. my friend drives an old car but if he ever wanted a newer one, he would have to get Bernie's permission to buy one. I don't think he would like that.
For socialism to work, the government must own and control nearly everything. As long as individuals own private property, they can decide what to do with it. This is as anti-socialist as it gets. Socialism must, by definition, destroy the private ownership of property. That's the only way to make everyone truly "equal." Once our right to "own" anything is taken away, we have no real rights.
Who says my friend has a right to live in his big old house if he wants to? The private ownership of property says so. He owns it, he can live in it as long as he wants. But only as long as he owns it. But if he no longer owned it..... If the government owned it.... Then, the government would decide who lives there.
My friend drives a big, gas guzzling automobile. The socialist would say he should not do so. He ought to drive a little Geo Metro or some other little two-seater contraption.
If my friend understood Bernie, I don't think he would like him or his plan for America. But my friend does not understand Bernie. Neither do the millions of people pushing for a socialist or Marxist agenda for America. They won't like the real Bernie, either. Any more than Russia liked Lenin or Stalin. Any more than Cuba liked Fidel, once he was really in power. Any more than Venezuela liked Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías. But they learned too late.
I saw a poll the other day that says 40 percent of college students feel that socialism is better than our present free enterprise ("capitalist") system. 50 percent of high school students prefer socialism. However, a majority of them could not define or explain what socialism is. They've just been taught to prefer it.
If you believe those numbers, we can't be very far away from electing a socialist (excuse me "Democratic Socialist") government. Heck, the Socialist candidate got 40 percent of the vote in Georgia and Alabama in the primaries. Maybe we're even closer than I feared.
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