THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW
BY RUSSELL TURNER
20 YEARS
Our nation has been infected with a disease that has the potential to destroy our economy and the American way of life. That disease is called socialism. For many years our colleges and universities have hired liberal professors who have done a magnificent job of indoctrinating our young people into believing the failed policy of socialism. I read a recent Gallup poll about the views of our younger citizens; more younger Americans (18-29) now identify with Socialism than Capitalism – 51% vs. 45%. That's a 12-point decline in a positive view toward capitalism in just the past two years… back in 2010, 68% of young Americans viewed capitalism favorably. By some estimates there are now 40 socialists in Congress, including the infamous 29-year old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who think it's a great idea to centrally plan the economy, jack up tax rates to confiscatory levels, and even nationalize certain private industries. Miss Cortez is advocating an income tax rate of 70%; that percentage may sound good to the elite who are at the top of the food chain, but socialism is nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothes. All socialists have a common belief; they believe that the government could centrally plan prosperity-- that a tiny political elite could engineer wealth and efficient productivity while simultaneously providing an endless supply of free benefits to the constituents who keep them in power. Most American people get their news from the main stream media and they are, for the most part, socialists as well. They will report on all of the good intentions of a socialist state, but they fail to tell you that in every case socialism has failed; one classic example is the nation of Venezuela.
Venezuela is a country with vast natural resources, among them is their huge oil reserves. According to some estimates they are among the largest in the world. Venezuela should be an economic powerhouse. And decades ago it used to be. But today Venezuela is one of the world's most impoverished nations. What the heck happened that caused it to all go wrong? The answer is very simple - Hugo Chavez took control of Venezuela and engaged in radical economic and political reforms that awarded supreme power to the government (specifically to Chavez) while doling out crippling socialist programs that the country couldn't afford. In a time span of 20 years Venezuela's government went broke. The government of Venezuela nationalized businesses, private land, etc. But that made matters worse. Socialists cannot understand that when you take everything from the productive people those people will cease to be productive. If you do not allow a person to keep the fruits of his labor, he will stop producing those fruits. During the Reagan presidency he had an economic advisor named Art Laffer; Laffer created a famous graph called the Laffer Curve. Without going into detail, his conclusion was very simple; after a point, increasing taxes will cause a decrease in tax revenues.
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