From Brexit to Donald Trump's election, the surge in populism this year has revealed that many voters believe something is wrong with the world's political and economic system. What is less clear is what exactly can be done to combat these problems. While voters in Italy recently rejected an effort to centralize the country's political system, the matter is never truly settled and we will continue to have to combat efforts to centralize political power and criminalize dissent.
And, no election will change this. While technological progress can indeed improve our daily lives, the ideological battle over government power will never fully go away, and the battle over ideology will continue so long as people have free will.
Indeed, the western media's fawning treatment of Fidel Castro demonstrates the enduring mystique of socialism — while recent Harvard and Rasmussen polls suggest that perhaps half of young Americans hold unfavorable attitudes toward capitalism. No matter how many millions perish in collectivist bloodbaths, the Left remains committed to its ideology of radical egalitarianism and enamored of murderous revolutionary figures like Che Guevara.
This week on Mises Weekends, our great friend Yuri Maltsev, a victim of Soviet totalitarianism in his youth, joins us to explain how and why westerners still don't understand what socialism really means. He recounts his many trips to Cuba, and demolishes the myths surrounding that country's vaunted "healthcare" and "education" systems. He explains how socialism actually produces a superclass of elites and a form of socio-economic apartheid, rather than egalitarian nirvana. And he reminds us that the romantic vision held by western elites is best defeated by those who have lived through the ravages of collectivism firsthand.
In case you missed any of then, here are this week's articles:
- The Petroleum Industry Saved the Whales by Bill Wirtz
- Will Europe's Labor Laws Kill the Gig Economy? by Ferghane Azihari
- Why Indian-Tribe Sovereignty Is Important by Ryan McMaken
- There Are Now So Many "Criminals" in America, Uber Wants to Hire Some by Ryan McMaken
- Inflation Is Not About Price Increases by Frank Shostak
- Why the Hysteria Over the Italian Referendum? by Bernardo Ferrero
- Lame-duck Congress Looking to Ban Online Gambling by Tho Bishop
- End Game for the Global Economy by James Rickards
- Taxation Isn't Only Theft, It's Destruction by Michael Rozeff
- Entrepreneurship in Cuba by Peter Klein
- The Good News They're Not Telling You by Thomas Woods
- Three Cheers for the Articles of Confederation by Bradley Birzer
- Keep the Federal Courts Out of the Electoral College by Ryan McMaken