Socialism 101: It never ends well

It is important to know and understand the history of Socialism, as America is under siege today by a strong Marxist movement that is actively trying to fundamentally transform America. There is only one problem: Socialism has never worked and has only resulted in inflation, severe poverty, and loss of freedom. The famous Austrian economist, F.A. Hayek, wrote several outstanding books on this subject, including “The Road to Serfdom”, and his last book in 1988, “Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism”, in which he stated: “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
History has repeatedly proven the accuracy of the above statement. Look at China in the late 1950’s when it embarked on “The Great Leap Forward” to modernize itself under Chairman Mao Tse Tung and the communist party. China was at that time an agrarian society and Mao’s central planners forcefully took away from the masses their private plots of farmland and converted it into an industrial collective country focused on farming and steel manufacturing with backyard furnaces. Unfortunately, Mao and his central planners didn’t know what they were doing—the project was a total failure, and it was estimated some 50 million Chinese peasants died of starvation. In 1966 Mao changed course and embarked on the Cultural Revolution—which sadly also failed resulting in the deaths of millions more of Chinese peasants.
Socialism/Marxism/Communism also did not work in France in the late 1790’s (the French Revolution), nor in the Russian Revolution, Nazi Germany in WWII, the Soviet Union, Cuba, or more recently in Venezuela or Argentina. No matter where you tried it or what name you called it, totalitarianism was always the result.
Yet, the lure of Socialism remains strong. Here we are in 2022 with the global elite in America, Canada, Europe, and Australia planning on saving the world from Climate Change by rushing headfirst to shut down all oil and gas production, coal mines, and even nuclear power plants—so the world will start using clean green energy that could be available sometime in the next 25-50 years. Never mind that the greatest polluter of the globe, China, is still burning coal and buying all the Oil and Gas that Russia (and President Biden) will sell them.
Like Mao, the Global elite and their central planners don’t seem to be worried that we are already running out of diesel fuel—which you must have to plant, harvest, and deliver the crops that feed the people—and gas to heat the homes, cook the food, and run the factories. Why aren’t they worried? Is it “Fatal Conceit”?

Steve Gardes is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) with over 40 years of public accounting experience.