Socialism is Immoral and Unethical

Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. Today I will begin the debate process concerning socialism v. capitalism. I believe that the 2020 presidential campaign will be a debate between those who advocate socialism and those who advocate capitalism and to that end this Report will from time to time enter that debate. I will begin with a quote from Winston Churchill, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

A rising tide of socialism?

That quote from Mr. Churchill is from a speech before the House of Commons given on October 22, 1945. He had just brought Great Britain successfully through the most terrible war in human history and was seeking reelection as Prime Minister. Mr. Churchill was not reelected primarily because the people wanted socialism and he definitely was not a socialist.

All tides rise and all tides recede; Empires rise and fall; nations rise and fall over the course of history. Socialism seems to be on the rise in America and further intervention in the economy by the government would seem to be inevitable. Those of us who think the trend toward socialism and its ideas is a bad thing should endeavor to refute those ideas by rebutting them in debate whenever possible. Through debate we can perhaps convince people that the ideas of AOC and all the Democrat candidates for president aren’t very good ones. Debate is a far better approach than violence and shouts of “send her back.”

The minority of one suffers under socialism

Socialism is essentially an avenue for  globalism to travel on because it favors a world socialist state. Socialism advocates such as all Democrat politicians pretend to favor minority rights. But as Ayn Rand pointed out the smallest minority is an individual. So if you don’t favor individual rights how can you truthfully say you favor minority rights.

I will point out that a lynch mob is a majority and it has only one dissenting vote. The individual screams don’t steal my labor and my property. Then the mob screams we want your labor and property for free and we will take it by majority vote. Therefore socialism is theft. But it is also the enslaving of one class of people to the government and to other more favored classes.

Degrees of socialism in America

Granted we already have a certain degree of socialism in America. We have social security, government control of medical care, government control of banks, etc. These things are all here to stay it seems. So they serve as anchors to allow more and more government intrusion into the economy to serve the needs of those who benefit from such intrusion politically. In other words the camel’s nose is under the tent. Now certain politicians are now urging us to push the whole camel in.

The trend toward socialism that is gripping America and the world right now is the fourth major effort by the globalists to increase centralized control through government power in the last 100 years. For a century, certain people have been steering the government of America away from the people and into their hands. Little by little inch by inch the camel is moving into the tent so that he is now almost completely in and could be in within less than two years.

First step toward centralization: the Federal Reserve

I have done many Castle Reports on the first centralized grab for power that occurred in 1913. That year saw the Federal Reserve was established as the country’s central bank. The Fed took . control over the nation’s monetary system. Congress also gave us the income tax which has little by little increased government power at the expense of working people. I argue that the Federal Reserve is very bad for the American people because it allows the government unlimited funds through counterfeiting and discourages any limits on spending.

 Perhaps the most important concept in all of this discussion and those to follow is that to have liberty you must have a sound currency. We simply cannot allow the government to expand itself by counterfeiting. We must stop the counterfeit funding of endless wars and endless vote buying. By doing so we will stop the empire and return to the republic. The end of the Federal Reserve means the end of the empire, therefore the Fed lives forever.

Second step toward centralization: the New Deal

The great depression brought about the second grab for centralized power by the federal government. Remember, the anchor allowing government control of the economy was already in place from 1913. The 1934 Gold Reserve Act banned Americans from owning gold and forced them to surrender their sound money to the treasury department. That Act was a clear if unrecognized message to the American people that they were no longer a free people. The New Deal programs of 1937 forced government control over much of the private sector. It also extended the precedent for such interventions in the future.

Third step: abandoning the gold standard

The third grab for government power was in 1971 when President Nixon cut the last ties between gold and the dollar. He had an obligation coming out of post World War Two agreements to exchange foreign held dollars for gold at $35 per ounce. The Great Society programs of President Johnson coupled with the costs of the Vietnam War made it very difficult to continue the exchange. So President Nixon defaulted on the agreement.

Unlimited credit for government

From that moment on the world and certainly America has been on a credit money system or credit is money as most people believe. Washington now has the power to fund its spending programs without restraint. Each year the power in Washington simply adds another zero to the deficit. We were quite alarmed when the debt started to climb each year from 200 billion to 400 hundred billion under the austerity of Ronald Reagan to the now one trillion plus austerity of Donald Trump. I’m not talking about a trillion dollar budget folks, I’m talking about spending a trillion more than revenue year after year so that debt service grows and grows. Congress doesn’t even bother with a budget anymore so at least they’ve stopped the façade.

This type of spending which has been going on now for almost fifty years gives rise to an illusion. People believe spending has no consequences. So the only thing restraining government from making everything free is the greed of politicians and their corporate sponsors. There really is such a thing as a free lunch because any bank can simply create the money on its computers. This idea that money has no real value and can simply be created or more likely stolen from others is the fourth power grab by government and those who seek to control it.

Socialism destroys economies

Some can see the indirect and delayed consequences of policy proposals but others cannot. Too often it seems those who cannot see are the ones actually making the proposals. They seem to think that what is happening in Venezuela today, and what happened in Zimbabwe in the near past, as well as in 1981 Poland when General Jaruzelski who came to power only a month before declared martial law. That was the beginning of the end of Poland’s disastrous experiment with socialism.  Socialism is a destructive force that doesn’t work except to destroy economies and countries.

The inherent evil of socialism

Socialism is the forceful control of other people’s lives and property. To say it differently it is evil on a very basic level.  Many prominent Democrats including all presidential candidates and of course the four women known as “The  Squad” have proposed various levels of theft as a way to raise some money so that it could help pay for all the things they propose to give away for free. AOC wants a 70% tax in income of 10 million or more. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders would go even higher.

Elizabeth Warren even proposes theft on non triggering event wealth. In other words if you own more than a certain amount and I believe in her proposal its one billion then you would have 2 percent of your wealth stolen by the government. Bernie Sanders would steal 77 percent of your property upon your death. None of the proposed taxes would come close to funding the giveaways that have been proposed. But power, not revenue is the idea.

Theft is not moral even when a majority does it

Now, I ask you a question, is theft any more moral if it’s done by majority vote in the halls of congress than if it’s done at the point of a gun in a back alley? No, theft is theft wherever it is done. Nor is it ever moral or ethical to steal from people whether they are wealthy or not.

The sad part of this story is that most young people have bought into these ideas. Poll after poll shows a majority of young people agreeing with those who seek power by promising to steal by majority vote. Less than 45 percent of young people view capitalism favorably. The dissatisfaction of the young is certainly understandable with their now more than a trillion of student loan debt. The student loan problem was, however, due to socialistic intervention in the education process by the government. So give us more of what caused the problem and maybe that will fix it.

The end game of socialism: Venezuela

Back to Venezuela for a moment because our socialist friends in charge there tried many of the same things including; they nationalized key industries including oil assets and used the proceeds to fund a giant welfare state. Everything was free including gasoline since petroleum was the country’s crown jewel. But there was no gas or fuel of any kind. Spending on various social programs wrecked the country’s finances. This in turn led to more money printing. That, of course, made the problem worse. Inflation will reach 10 million percent by the end of this year according to the international monetary fund.

The country is on its knees with food and medicine all but gone violent crime increasing rapidly. Admittedly it’s hard to tell how much the problem is exacerbated by economic sanctions imposed by the United States Government.  Sanctions are just another example, another part of the empire. And all the Democrat candidates except possibly Tulsi seem to endorse them. Yes, they love war and empire those Democrats. But they are sure we can have our wars to feed the military industrial complex and our free stuff to feed their voters as well.

As Venezuela has gone, so will go America

Will America descend into a socialist hellhole such as Venezuela overnight? Probably not. But as Doug Casey says: socialism is a trend in motion. And

Trends in motion tend to stay in motion until they reach a crisis.

So Americans no longer value Capitalism, and that seems to also be a trend in motion. I can understand why it is losing popularity. Because government interference and decades of relentless propaganda have all but destroyed it as the greatest engine of prosperity for the greatest number of people ever devised in history.

What capitalism does

The free markets give people and businesses what they deserve instead of what they want. In capitalism, trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. The economy is left to its own devices rather than being managed by bureaucrats. In America we haven’t had pure capitalism in many decades. But even our government interference in every business decision and government ownership of banks is superior to what is being proposed.

The free market, individualism, personal liberty, personal responsibility, hard work, rationality, free speech, all values of Western Civilization are being swept away. There aren’t many to defend them because the argument is intellectual, economic, and historical. Thus it cannot be swayed by emotions as the majority seems to be swayed at the moment.

Have Americans abandoned good will?

Finally folks, it seems that the goodwill and common sense of Americans can no longer be counted on.  The values of the past are being swept away in this new century. I have said that socialism is immoral because it is theft. It uses the brute force of government to do the stealing. It is enslaving as well because it enslaves people to the government and to another more favored class of people. And it is unethical because it violates the rule of law. Being ethical is not about obeying all laws because ethics stands above law. Ethics is not what is legal; the law is or should be about what is ethical. Somehow we have decided that virtue is a classical abstraction with no value. So vice supplants virtue in the public square.

At least that’s the way I see it.

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle.

About the image

“Conservative rally protesting against socialism” by Fibonacci Blue is licensed under CC BY 2.0