Bernie Sanders, et al., have branded themselves as socialist. And they want to brand the rest of us too, whether we like it or not.
It's not hard to find examples of socialists systems currently in place around the world that are failures. But if we can't learn from them, then we can look to our own history. Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620, could have been the first socialist test by European settlers. The socialist system set up by William Bradford lasted about 2 1/2 years, but the people became lazy and unproductive. Then reality set in, and "the leaders of the colony decided to abandon their socialist mandate and create a system which honored private property." Source: Occupy Plymouth Colony: How A Failed Commune Led To Thanksgiving.
Another failed socialist experiment was conducted by Robert Owen two centuries later in New Harmony, Indiana. After a couple of years, it too was a failure. See Britannica.com, New Harmony:
About 1,000 settlers responded to Owen’s public appeal, but most were misfits who ate his rations, argued over government, and were unable to perform the menial tasks vital to such a community. Farms and workshops lay idle while virtual anarchy reigned.
People in the U.S. today are deeply divided politically, and a reconciliation doesn't look likely any time soon. By one estimate, 45.3 percent of households in the U.S. don't pay taxes. It's easy to assume that those people would favor socialism since they wouldn't have to pay for it. Might that exacerbate the divisiveness we're experiencing? And might people on either side of the tax equation become the modern day "misfits" who spoiled Robert Owen's socialist dream?
The failures of Cuba and Venezuela are right here in front of us. But it's too bad our schools are not educating students about all the socialist failures that happened right here in the U.S.A.
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3:08 PM 4/22/2019
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