Friday, November 22, 2019

Socialism is Economic Rape

Photo (C) Katarzyna Bialasiewicz photographee.eu / DepositPhotos.com

Tom Sheppard
11/22/2019

When a woman is raped, a man is forcibly taking something from her that she does not want to give him.   The rapist uses his cunning and superior strength to overpower his victim and do as he pleases with her, without any regard to her feelings, hopes, or wants. If she resists, and he is able, he will beat her and restrain her so that she will either be compliant, unconscious, or bound and unable to further resist.

Just like the rapist, a socialist government takes what it wants from its citizens without any regard to their feelings, hopes, or wants.  The socialist government uses the power of its police and military to forcibly take everything it wants and leave its citizens only with what it feels inclined to provide them.  Anyone who is foolish enough to resist the forcible rape is likely to end up in prison or dead.

If you don't believe that socialist governments work this way, then do just two things:

  1. Read (or listen to) The Gulag Archipelago by  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and 
  2. Look at what is happening in Venezuela right now as the populace suffers from scarcity brought about by their socialist government while controlling a land of abundance.

That should be enough to make my point, but if it isn't, you can read some history about

  • what Adolf Hitler, the head of the National Socialist German Workers (NAZI) party did.  
  • Or Pol Pot, the head of the communist Khmer Rouge who took over Cambodia.  
  • Or the history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics where Josef Stalin deliberately slaughtered millions of Russians who didn't embrace his plans with sufficient enthusiasm. 
  • Or. follow the adventures of the handsome and charismatic Che Guevara as he tortured and murdered his way across the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Africa trying to 'persuade' people to embrace communism.  Wikipedia notes that "... he murdered political opponents, eliminated the free press, and put homosexuals in forced labor camps."
  • Or, read about Che's good friend Fidel Castro and the prisons in Cuba he has filled with political prisoners who didn't agree with his communist/socialist ideas.

Image result for che guevara
Che Guevara

Communism and Socialism

Just as the puma and mountain lion are the same animal, so too are socialism and communism.  Both are rooted in the philosophy explained by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto.  The slight difference is that communism actively seeks to do away with all other economic and political orders and run the entire world, while socialism throws nationalism into the mix with the aim of making sure that the socialists from a particular country are all in charge of the world, or at least most of it.

Socialism Must Use Force

Socialism requires that all private resources become owned by or 100% aligned with the purposes of the state.  Very few people will willingly give all they have to government bureaucrats.  Even the leading socialists in the USA today won't do that.  They are hypocrites and liars who don't walk the talk.  That means that the soldiers and police will have to come in to force the compliance of anyone who fails to cooperate and behave as the bureaucrats direct.

When socialists come to power one of the first things they do is they use the coercive power of government to forcibly transfer ownership of many companies and even whole industries from shareholders and investors to the government.  The government doesn't pay for these companies.  This is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibiting the government from illegal searches and seizures.

To be clear about this, shareholders are not just a bunch of fat cats with wads of cash.  Most retirement funds (like yours) are invested in stocks and mutual funds (which also are invested in stocks).  So, when the government takes ownership of a company without paying for it, they are taking money right out of the retirement funds of millions of working-class people, helping to ensure that their Golden Years of retirement are hungry, cold, and poverty-stricken.

You, as the working class person hoping for a decent retirement someday, just got raped by the socialist government.

When socialists come to power, they immediately raise taxes and use the coercive powers of government to seize the property of anyone who fails to pay "their fair share" as defined by the very luxurious-living leaders of the socialist government.  Your wages and taxes are both set by a government bureaucrat who decides your wages based not on your wants or needs, or how well you do your job, or how demanding or dangerous your job might be. The socialist government bureaucrat sets your wages at what s/he feels you need in order to survive, because in this socialist utopia there is officially no such thing as "getting ahead."  Unless, of course, you become a socialist government bureaucrat and can manage to claw your way up the government hierarchy to a position where some other socialist government bureaucrat above you has decided that your contribution to society, through your amazing government service, is sufficient to warrant a slightly better lifestyle through things like access to the top-bureaucrats-only stores when you can get almost as much decent food as you want, almost whenever you want it.

So, you got raped again either by the tax man, or the some other socialist government bureaucrat who decided how much need to survive.

Of course, you can always live a bit better by becoming a criminal and buying what you can afford through the black market.  If you get caught with this contraband coffee or bread, you will likely lose your job, spend time in jail, perhaps even get sent to a re-education facility where you will be shown how much better it is to embrace socialism than to be beaten periodically and work as a slave laborer.

So, you got raped by the socialist law enforcement.  They may, in fact, physically rape you to help you realize how good you have it when you are playing by the official socialist rules.

On the other hand, the criminals will always be there.  Capitalists in socialist countries are, by definition criminals.  Some will be offering to meet legitimate needs for things like good food or decent appliances.  Others will be offering protection from the police or other thugs.  Either way, unless you throw in your lot with the criminal capitalists, you have no chance of enjoying a life that is any less miserable than all of your neighbors.

Of course, joining the criminal capitalists, you risk getting raped by them, and by the socialists.

The Politics of Envy is a Lie

Socialists build their support using the politics of envy.  They pit the 99% against the 1% and feed the 99% on dreams of living in some measure of the opulence of the 99% by taking it away from the 99% and giving a nice piece of it to them.  The reality plays our very differently.

When the socialist governments confiscate the property and money of the wealthy 1%, they don't distribute it to the masses.  Instead, they use if for themselves.  You don't believe me?  Consider this, when you take away a million dollar house from someone in a newly socialist state, who can buy it to give you the million dollars it is supposedly worth?  The answer is... no one can because no one own owns any personal property anymore so it all belongs to the government.  That means the real property of the rich and famous cannot be sold.  Instead, it must be used.  And who deserves that luxurious house more than the locally appointed government bureaucrat who is laboring so diligently to make sure that no one is holding back any personal property or money, or labor, from the state?

So, not only does the rich owner of the million dollar house get raped by the socialists, so do you.

What about our great jobs!  Well, in a socialist state, labor is optimized according to the wisdom of government bureaucrats.  You get the job where they think you will make the best contribution to the greater good.  And, your boss will be someone who is politically connected within the socialist party, without regard to who is best at the job.  You too will not get promoted until you get all the right political tickets punched.  And, in a truly socialist society your promotion won't get you any more pay, because you don't need it and giving one person more pay than another would antithetical to the egalitarian notions underpinning the entire socialist philosophy.

Once again, you got raped.

It Won't Work That Way for Us

This is another great lie of the socialists everywhere and in the US particularly.  All of them deny or ignore the lessons of the history of abusive socialist governments by treating themselves to the conceit that we are much smarter than all the socialists who have gone before and we will do it right, avoiding the errors and abuses of past efforts and failures.
To believe that we are so much smarter than any who have gone before is simply vanity and conceit. 
Just as the leopard cannot change its spots, humanity is powerless to change its nature.  You can change yourself, but when it comes to changing someone else, the only power you have to either 1) accept them, hoping they will change, or 2) kill them so that they cannot do or say anything to contradict the perfect socialist fantasy.  And that is exactly why socialist governments are renowned for killing millions of their own people before they ever go to war with outsiders.

On this point, about recognizing the flaws of human nature, the men who wrote the US Constitution expressly recognized and made provisions for the fact that human beings are not angels.  They even used that term in the Federalist Papers where they explained and made the case for the US Constitution.  They had already seen how badly people could behave under their Articles of Confederation and had no desire to repeat their former mistakes in setting up a suitable government for this nation.  Nope, I am not giving you that reference, because I want you to spend time sifting through The Federalist Papers to find it yourself and read some advice directly from our founding fathers a little along the way.

Conclusion

Nearly six thousand years of recorded human history, with its repetitive wars, conquests, and countless perfidies both personal and national provides everyone with one clear insight.  Human nature has not materially changed in all of recorded history.  While some people will act selflessly, there are always enough selfish, greedy people out there that we must build our societies, governments, and laws in ways that will protect us from the depredations of those who are willing to get what they want by taking it from others.

Accepting and supporting socialism is not social justice.  Socialism is  rape.

References
The Communist Manifesto
The Federalist Papers
The US Constitution and Bill of Rights
The Articles of Confederation of the United States of America (not to be confused with anything associated with the US Civil War or the Confederate States of America)

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). 
The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

(c) Copyright 2019 A+ Results LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

 Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.


Wealthy Socialists are Liars and Hypocrites

Tom Sheppard
11/22/2019

What do Bernie Sanders, George Soros, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Danny Devito, and Mark Ruffalo (AKA Bruce Banner) all have in common?

They all profess to embrace socialism, but they don't practice what they preach.  In other words, they are liars and hypocrites.

Unlike Mahatma Ghandi, who literally gave his all to live his beliefs, these wannabe-socialists don't walk the talk.  Not. At. All.

Granted, Elizabeth Warren claims to be "capitalist to the bone."  Notwithstanding her very public claim, the policies she proposes are decidedly socialist.  So, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, I am going to call it a duck, or in this case she walks and talks like a socialist, so I am calling her a socialist.

Here is the real test they should all take to see if they are really ready and willing to embrace socialism.  Let them give everything they own to charities for the poor (or the government) and make sure they work at least 40 hours per week while only getting an income of $45k per year, pretax.  This means they give up their bank accounts, investments, real estate, royalties, and all other sources of income except their job, which will never pay them any more than $45k per year.

Why $45k?  Because that is about the median pre-tax household income in the US.  In other words 50% of the people in the US live on that, or less.  The other 50% live on that, or more.  The actual median may be more or less than that, and we can agree to adjust the number to that, but the point is that they need to live by what ordinary, working-class people can expect to earn, and no more.

Did I mention this would be pre-tax?  Yes, taxes should be taken out of that gross pay.  Take the same amount of taxes out that anyone in that income bracket would usually pay.  That means their take-home pay is reduced by at least one-third, down to about $30k+ per year to actually live on.

Let them buy or rent a house, pay for their meals, cars, and transportation with this after-tax income.

Furthermore, regardless of what they do, contribute, invent, write, say, etc. limit their income to that $45k pre-tax ceiling.  Anything they get paid above that number goes to the state.  They never get to enjoy any fruits of their labor beyond what the $45k pre-tax income can buy.

"I wrote a best-selling book," Sanders told The New York Times in April. "If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too."
Bernie Sanders 

Bernie, that simply isn't true under socialism.  That is only true under capitalism.  Under socialism, you don't get to keep the fruits of your labors.  All the fruits of your labors go the government and the government bureaucrats give you back what they feel you need to live.  

A socialist government owns you, and all you produce.

Ann Schmidt reports that "after receiving pressure to release his tax returns during his presidential bid, Sanders released 10 years' worth of returns ... According to those returns, the independent Vermont senator's adjusted gross income was $561,293 in 2018 and he paid a 26 percent effective tax rate. In 2017, his adjusted gross income was $1,131,925."

So, Bernie would go from an annual income of anywhere from $500k or $1,132k down to just $45k per year.  On the low end, that means he would give up 90% of his income.  On the high-end, he would be giving up 96% of his current annual income. 

Given that his campaign workers had to go on strike just to get him to pay them $15 per hour, do you really think he would be happy to give up all that income and live on $45k per year?  I don't think so.

How much would they be giving up?

According to my research, what follows are the estimates of net worth of the folks I named above, in ascending order.
  • Bernie Sanders (Net worth estimate: $2 million)
  • Elizabeth Warren (Net worth estimate: $12 million)
  • Michael Moore (Net worth estimate: $50 million)
  • Susan Sarandon (Net worth estimate: $50 million)
  • Danny DeVito (Net worth estimate: $80 million)
  • Mark Ruffalo (Net worth estimate: $20 million)
  • George Soros (Net worth estimate: $8,300 million)
While this is a lot of money, net worth doesn't really tell the whole story of what they would give up if the USA embraced socialism, as these folks profess to want.  They would give up much more.

Net worth represents the total value of your assets less the debts associated with them.  So, if you have, as many of these folks do, a house worth $1 million and it has a mortgage of $500k, the net worth of that house is $500k.

Under socialism, you would not only get that $500k mortgage cancelled, you would also lose ownership of and the use of that million dollar home.  

All their private planes, mansions, luxury cars, fine foods, expensive clothes, etc. would be taken from them.  They would all become property of the state and they could only buy what they could afford on their $45k per year (less taxes) salary.

Does anyone really believe that these very wealthy people would be at all happy about giving up ALL that they have earned and ALL that they may yet earn, for any reason, ever?  No, they don't want to give that up.  

They want YOU to give up your opportunity to ever become wealthy like them. 

Capitalism = Opportunity

None of these people inherited their wealth.  They all earned it by their skills and ingenuity in a capitalist economy that lets people vote with their money for the most skillful and ingenious by paying for goods and services.  Under socialism, the economic mechanisms that allowed them to attain their wealth would not be available to them, or anyone else.

So, if they say they want socialism, and socialism would take away all that they have, and they don't want to give up all that they have, what is it that they really want?

Actors like Sarandon, Ruffalo, and DeVito would be paid by the government only what a bureaucrat decided was appropriate.  Likewise movie directors such as Michael Moore.  And, when their performances waned in value for the state, their privileges would be curtailed or revoked and they would soon find themselves living hand-to-mouth, like every other impoverished citizen. Oh, and when they produced a "block-buster movie" they would still only get paid their $45k per year, no matter what the show did at the box office or in video sales all over the world.  As good socialists, they would all be happy to see that their acting and directing efforts produced such a wonderful cash flow for the state.

In a socialist state, wealthy investors like George Soros would not exist, nor would they be allowed to exist.  Their very activities would be unlawful.  Soros himself would likely be killed outright, or arrested and convicted on trumped up charges of treason against the state. Regardless of the path of his fall, all his wealth would be confiscated, with selected holdings made available for use by social party loyalists and those in political power.

What do they really want?

I suggest that what these wealthy "socialists" want is not socialism.  What they want is a form of oligarchy where they are the aristocrats and no one else is allowed to enter their ranks, except through either birth to aristocracy or by power politics in the government.  

As aristocrats, they would retain their wealth and their privileges. Further, they would pass these on to their children in perpetuity.  As aristocrats, their children would have unequaled opportunities to rise to political power, along with all its perks.

In their world, aside from themselves, the government would be the sole vehicle for attaining the perks of wealth and privilege.  No other profession, outside of government, would control the spigots of wealth.  Those spigots would only open for those whom the power-elite and the aristocrats decide is worthy of living an abundant life.

Everyone else will need tighten their belts "for the greater good" and learn to live without.

References
L Maxim Lott, 30 April 2019, Lifestyles of the rich and socialist: American celebs who blast capitalism while making millions, Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-socialist-american-celebs-capitalism-millionaires

Ann Schmidt, 21 November 2019, What is Bernie Sanders' net worth?, Fox News, https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/bernie-sanders-net-worth

Anne Sraders, 21 May 2019, What Is Bernie Sanders' Net Worth?, The Street, https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/bernie-sanders-net-worth-14678955

Michela Tindera, 20 August 2019, How Elizabeth Warren Built A $12 Million Fortune, Forbes Magazine, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2019/08/20/how-elizabeth-warren-built-a-12-million-fortune/#1eecc607ab57

Taylor Nicole Rogers, 28 June 2019, What George Soros' life is really like: How the former hedge-fund manager built his $8.3 billion fortune, purchased a sprawling network of New York homes, and became the topic of international conspiracy theories, Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/george-soros-net-worth-wife-sons-news-house-career-2019-6



Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). 
The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

(c) Copyright 2019 A+ Results LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

 Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.