And socialism benefits these poor people,
how, exactly?
I certainly don’t recall too many efforts by the USSR (back during the Cold War) to improve the infrastructure serving any of the people in these countries. To the contrary, I do remember the EEEVVVIIILLL US (so full of those greedy capitalists) shipping grain to the USSR to help alleviate starvation in that country (with the exception of a period in 1980 where the socialist Jimmy Carter suspended grain shipments…promptly lifted by the capitalist Reagan once he came into office).
And how much famine relief did the USSR provide to Ethiopia during their famine in the mid 80s? Seems to me that at least the vast majority of the relief came from the West, particularly the evil US (under the Reagan administration) and the evil UK (under the Thatcher government).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to cast aspersions on the USSR. I’m sure they would have have contributed mightily had they been able to do so (after all, that would have been a tremendous propaganda coup)…but the fact of the matter is that the great experiment in socialism was coming crashing down around them…because it simply
DOESN’T WORK.
The only way to solve those problems, both in the short term and the long term, is through economic activity (i.e., through the free market: through that evil capitalism).
In the short term, the way to solve those problems is through providing emergency relief. The majority of that relief comes from voluntary contributions to groups like
Caritas. Guess what:
it is documented that conservatives are far more open with their pocketbooks that leftists (see the link).
It is documented that a higher percentage of income is donated from those living in red states (conservative) than blue states (leftist) (see the link). You can
see the full list here (out of the top 10 highest states, only one, Maryland, is a “blue” state).
Even government relief to these poor people is dependent upon free market trading. After all, foreign aid is done with taxes collected from those who had the most economic activity (70% of tax receipts come from the top 10% earners).
In the long term, these countries where starvation is rampant simply must have economic activity to sustain themselves. They have to have something to trade in order to be able to buy that which they need. There is no other way (unless emergency relief is to become a way of life in the long term). While, in theory, a direct barter can happen (I give you X units of product A in exchange for Y units of product B), it is vastly facilitated through a commonly accepted medium of exchange (as it allows indirect barter to happen between multiple parties). That medium is called “money.”
Even small societies where the members ***voluntarily ***have community of goods (such as monasteries) depend upon trade to sustain themselves. Ever hear of Mystic Monk Coffee? Abbey Beer? Benedictine? etc.?
Now you can talk about fluffy ideas like “love” all you want, but the most “loving” thing you can do to help alleviate suffering is to work to help these societies have the capacity to build products and services that they are able to trade with people in other societies, causing economic activity, so that they are able to acquire that which they need to feed their people, medically treat their people, and house their people. The only way that this can happen is through free market trading…in other words, through capitalism (or, if you want to try a model with maximum ownership of private property, you could call it distributism…but it is still free market trading).
