Socialism!! -Now that Stinks!!!!

Before the end of the Cold War, visitors from the communist bloc who visited American grocery stores were often in awe at the overwhelming selection of goods. These guests would stroll from aisle to aisle gaze at the bountiful cornucopia before them and marvel at the choices that individual liberty gave a people. It seemed that everything people would want could be found. This is what freedom gives individuals. Opportunity and agency. But this does not sit well with our resident wealth redistributionists who see the bounty of economic liberty as an excess. At one time Bernie Sanders mockingly questioned “why do supermarkets need to carry 23 different kinds of deodorant?! “ Bernie and those of his ilk have and never will understand that the issue is not the 23 different kinds of deodorant, it is individuals pursuing their economic liberty in creating, crafting and marketing 23 different kinds of deodorant. That is freedom! This is what creates economic growth, increases income and reduces poverty. The issue is not deodorant or toothpaste or the number of automobiles that are available for purchase. The issue is that individuals (who are the market) are deciding which product they will choose. There are 23 different kinds of deodorant because free-liberty loving people want 23 different types of deodorant. But it is more than this! The desire for more goods and services means individuals use their creativity, innovation and capital to manufacture these items. Therefore, the producers of goods are also maximizing their liberty by devising, testing and making these goods for the market. For Bernie Sanders to mock this illustrates his inability to understand freedom and capitalism. On a more insidious level, Bernie and his fellow travelers believe they have the moral and hopefully in the future the legal authority to dictate to the market, meaning to tax, regulate and probably ban this imaginary excess which is ironic since it is the utilization of free markets which have reduced the global poverty rate by 2 billion since 1980. It is of no consequence to Bernie that socialism has only served to perpetuate poverty, increased the possibility of famine and stymied economic growth wherever it has been applied. One needs only an airline ticket with a direct flight to Venezuela to discover this awful truth. Of course it is the common folk who take the full brunt of such destructive policies while the elites will find themselves enjoying the fruits of other’s labor.