Americans are greatly misinformed when it comes to socialism and communism. Winston Churchill said it best, “socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Socialism is ownership and control by the government of the means of production and of distribution. It is the stage following capitalism in the transition to communism. During this stage, according to Marxist theory, collectivism is implemented imperfectly. Communism, the ultimate utopia, refines this process.
“Socius” is Latin for comrade and ally. You had to be very careful whom you allied with, lest you found yourself in jail or dead. “Communis” is Latin for “shared.” I can attest first hand that nobody shared anything under communism except misery and poverty, except for the ruling elite. Although communism is described in textbooks as having no classes, in reality there were two: the proletariat (the majority) and the ruling elite (communist party members).
The grandfather of all communists, Karl Marx, found a benefactor, Friedrich Engels, the son of a businessman in Prussia, to support him and his family while he sought re-distribution of wealth in his native Russia through “cultural and political revolution.” Karl Marx was your 1960s hippie bum who hated manual labor, finding ways with “ideas” to mooch off rich patrons.
While his large family survived on a diet of bread and potatoes, he worked on his “Communist Manifesto” with Engels. Three of his seven children died before the age of ten and one died in infancy because they were malnourished and literally starved to death.
In 1852, a police spy from Prussia said that Marx, with a Doctorate of Philosophy from Berlin University, “lived the life of a gypsy, rarely washing, combing, and changing his linens. He is a drunk and idle for days on end…” He was being spied on as the leader of the Communist Party. Such philosophers as Marx were not interested in contributing anything productive in society, but destroying it and creating their communist Utopia.
Marx died a pauper although his wife was the daughter of the Prussian Prime Minister. Espousing ideas and creating havoc in orderly society were more important to Marx than caring for his family or contributing to society in a positive way. His ideas laid the groundwork for immense destruction of property, of families, and the killing of millions of innocents across the globe.
“Creeping socialism”
The “creeping socialism” that Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, and Friedrich von Hayek have warned us about is now blatant and a daily reality: illegal government takeover of Chrysler, GM, student loan programs from banks, banking industry, health care, internet control, FCC radio programming content, stifling of conservative speech, attack on Christianity, its symbols, and Judeo-Christian values. Private sector of our economy is shrinking every day; our economy is becoming more and more socialist. “We are all socialists now,” said Newsweek on its cover.
Having lived under socialism and communism for twenty years, I can attest that there is nothing “shared” except misery. There is nothing “equal” under communism except poverty; doctors, lawyers, mechanics, teachers were paid the same miserable salaries and had to work in less than desirable places, dictated by the communist party upon graduation. There is no “leveling of the playing field,” to use the Democrat euphemism. There is no “economic security” but insecurity. There is no “living wage,” another darling euphemism of the Democrats, but a barely surviving wage. The communist work ethic is, “we pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”
Socialism and Communism are not open but repressive societies
Socialism and Communism are not open but repressive societies. There is no “universal healthcare,” but rationing of it. There is no “public good, only the communist party “good” and goodies at specialized communist party-only stores. There is no free public education but forced indoctrination into the Marxist theory through Marxist Economics and the laughable “Scientific Socialism.” Students of all ages had to study and pass these courses.
We define our civilization by our humanity. There was no humanity under communism. Life was worthless unless it was the life of those in power. If a baby was born with a fixable handicap, nobody bothered to spend valuable resources on repairing the problem, he/she was left to die unattended.
Students were vaccinated in school with the same 3-4 syringes and needles boiled in rusty pans every morning, not autoclaved. Hepatitis was rampant. Hospitals washed and re-washed bandages and cotton. Hospital personnel, from orderlies to nurses, to doctors had to be bribed in order to have proper care provided to the patient. Medical care and drugs were free but families had to provide sheets, towels, round the clock care, food, drugs bought on the black market. The patient who had no family caring for them lingered in a metal frame bed unattended for weeks until they got better on their own or died.
The doctor would write an order for a prescription, the hospital pharmacy could not fill it because they had run out of money to buy the drugs. The family would buy it on the black market and bring it to the doctor so he can administer it to the patient. When 4 p.m. came, everybody went home, nobody worked beyond the required 8 hours. Who cared if patients died during the night? There were no inquires and no accountability.
I have lost many family members to medical malpractice, lack of care, gross medical negligence, and rationing of care based on age or connections to the elite in power. Yes, “death panels” did very much exist. People lingered in hospitals for weeks, ignored by medical staff, untreated, unfed, literally screaming in pain, with no drugs available to ease the pain unless doctors were bribed with money, soap, shampoo, wine, food, cigarettes, gold, and foreign made goods.
We had free medical care for all in Romania. The doctors were poorly trained, had no adequate equipment, were under-paid, and violated the Hippocratic Oath daily by giving poor or no medical care unless bribes were given. Rationing had to be imposed in order to serve everybody. Ambulances were a joke – they came with no staff of emergency equipment and arrived not just hours but days late. Some drivers would stop on the way to the hospital to pick up hitchhikers in order to make extra money. The neglect and potholes were enough to kill anybody.
Pharmacy shelves were empty because the allotted money for that area had run out. You have abundant drugs of any kind if you are sick. Try to picture your only choice being the Black Market at ten times the cost.
There is a reason why most Europeans have bad teeth; it is the result of socialized medicine. I had root canal as a teenager without anesthesia, blood spilling everywhere, screams of pain, while the doctor is spitting in my mouth talking to the nurse. After a few months of such torture, the tooth was pulled anyway. It is true, it did not cost me anything, but I got nothing but a lot of torture and pain.
Americans foolishly criticize doctors as greedy although they spend ten or more years in school and six figures in tuition. How many doctors do you think will go into medicine if our government can now tell them how much they can earn and where they must practice medicine? Who is willing to invest the time and money when their salaries are going to equal those of a teacher who spends only $25,000 and four years in college?
Do you want to be treated by a mediocre medical student or the top of the class? Do you want to be treated by someone who graduated from a medical school in a third world country and got a work visa? There is a reason why doctors from third world nations cannot practice medicine in the U.S. right now unless they go to med school two more years and pass a licensing board – they are not trained properly by American medical standards. It is a known fact that those who can afford private treatment will come to the U.S. instead of accepting the free medical care in their countries. The wait alone and the denial of services kill many people.
We have passed Obamacare in the dead of night, during the holidays, twisting arms, making back room deals, using obscene bribery, without lawmakers reading and debating such an important piece of legislation that affects one fifth of our economy, and now, we are finding out how disastrous it will be for our nation. It is so long and convoluted, it includes a 15-member board charged with rationing of care and many unrelated items such as taxes on sales of homes. It is not about healthcare, it is about total government control of the population.
