On July 6, I tweeted,
“Socialists do not realize that capitalism’s privately owned means of production benefit everyone who buys the products of those means of production. Thus privately owned auto plants, steel mills, and iron mines benefit the buyers of automobiles. Likewise for all other products.”
One of the replies I got to this tweet was this:
“You are wrong, Mr. Reisman. This is exactly what socialists realize. They do not seek the betterment of all people. They seek total control over other people’s lives. This is what you economics focused types do not grasp.” (http://bit.ly/2YQlVNt)
The writer and several others seem to believe that the socialists know what I accuse them of not knowing, i.e., that the capitalists’ means of production serve everyone.
They allegedly know this despite the fact that they demonstrate their ignorance of it every time they discuss such things as taxes or economic inequality.
I think it’s less likely that socialist leaders know this than Democratic voters, and none of them seems to know it.
In any case, it’s apparently supposed to be an error on my part to name this ignorance because what the socialists are after is power, as though I would ever deny that.
There is a simple reconciliation. Socialists can be both ignorant to the point of exhibiting mental retardation and be sadistic power lusters, deriving pleasure from others’ suffering.
If they had any intelligence, they would know that being able to exercise despotic power over their fellow citizens is economically worthless. Most of the rulers of socialism are poorer than the lower middle class of capitalism, as Soviet Russia and its satellites showed.
Ultimately, as socialism ended up in a reversion to feudalism, even its supreme leaders would live at a level below that of the average worker of capitalism today, just as kings and emperors of past ages did.
Not only are the rulers of socialism relatively poor and grow poorer as time passes, they have to live in a state of chronic terror for fear of being killed as the result of the sheer hatred they generate in their victims.
Socialism is a philosophy for sociopaths, which is why I titled my essay on Marxism/Socialism as I did.
Something to keep in mind about the mentality of socialists:
Just because they’re ignorant and stupid doesn’t mean they can’t be vicious.
