Economic Socialism and Communism

Communism is dead. Well, maybe not. Although only about eleven people attended Karl Marx's funeral, we won world war II, the Castro regime is falling apart, and the Berlin Wall is down, Communism is not dead. It is alive, it is well, and it is a very real threat in America.

Communism seeks to gain control over the nations which it inhabits, through step by step processes, the end of which is to have everyone own everything, with all the people being on an equal status. In the United States Senate there is already one self-styled socialist. Socialism and Communism are words used interchangeably in the Communist Manifesto.

Free Market Economics are those which say that all people have a right to try, to buy, to sell, to fail. The government’s job is not to run around putting up safety nets to keep the investors from breaking their fiscal necks. The Capitalistic system demands that we allow people to invest in new companies, and if the public does not want the service or product that the company provides, then the company fails, the money is lost, capitalistic cleansing has taken place, and the public has let it be known that the market does not, at this time, need that sort of company.

Socialism, the social planners, would not allow such things to happen. They institute such things as the minimum wage. The minimum wage acts as a wall to those outside of the jobs market. If the wage is five dollars, then to be hired I have to make the company five dollars. Whereas without it, if I could only make them three dollars the company could still be able to hire me at two.

One of the great complaints of the Communist Manifesto of 1848 was that the poor laborers had to work too hard and did not get paid enough. He says that the capitalists exploit the poor laborer, suppress him under big business. So “they (the workers) destroy imported wares that compete with their labor, they smash to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages.” (Communist Manifesto 1848, part one, spelling modernized.) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wanted this to happen.

“Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots. Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers…Law, morality, religion, are to him (the working man) so many bourgeois (capitalist) prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests…They (the working revolutionaries) have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property.” (ibid.)

However, explains the Social Planner, all of this is “in the interest of the immense majority.”

“The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.” (Communist Manifesto 1948 part two.)

“In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property…In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.”

Abolish private property. Let us think about that for a moment. If we abolish property, then all fields will be owned be everyone, so that any farmer who works them will have most of his fruits taken away. So, to his mind, why should he work, when, with everyone owning everything, he will eat whether he works or not. The free market punishes those that are lazy, communism rewards them. In a free market society a bad metal worker will have to shut down. In a communistic one, he will be propped up. Even the good metal workers do not need to work well, because they will eat and sleep the same whether they work well or not.

The manifesto goes on to say we should essentially abolish the family, the institution of marriage, and the borders of countries. However, the revolutions did not work. Guns in the hands of the populace were knocked out by the guns of the government, so the Communists decided that, instead of fighting the government they should become the government. And so they changed their names, became progressives, moderates and liberals, and attempted to enact their ten planks. The following are the ten planks which, when the manifesto was written, were not yet in fashion or favor.

1.Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c. (Spelling modernized.)

While people may howl about worker’s being unable to make more money, if the company does not pay you for your labor the amount you want, you do not have to work for them, big business is only as big as the amount of money you want to pay to it.

A communistic system is a system of unjust control. The Scriptures set up three realms of government: family, church, and state. unless there is gross negligence and crime in one sector the others are not to interfere, and when they do only the proper sphere is to do so. The Communists would advocate giving all control to the state. Karl Marx said of religion "It is the opium of the people."

As can be seen by the above list, the communists have accomplished many of their goals here in America. They did not do it by firing guns and blowing up armies. They did it by words, they did it by organization, they did it by planning. There is an old saying that the conservatives get rhetoric, the liberals get action. The system is gigantic, with hundreds of thousands of government workers, millions on their doll, and trillions of dollars of debt, and we will not turn the ship around by sitting by and giving a few more sound bites or by getting them to pass a watered-down version of their bills. These groups such as the Fabian Socialists sat down and wrote this out. They planned and they acted, the Christians have, mostly, thrown back their heads and howled. The Communist manifesto ends with the call to unite and to set to work. So if we are going to fight them, we need to unite and set to work. We need to plan, we need to act.

 

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Note: While I would suggest reading Adam Smith’s classic work Wealth of Nations, on the capitalistic system, it is rather ponderous and not easy reading. For those that want something easier and less time consuming, I would suggest F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, as well as The Communist Manifesto to receive the other side of the controversy. I would also recommend the film Agenda, sold by Vision Forum. (www.visionforum.com)