I hesitate to link this essay of L. Neil Smith because, if it influences you without his consent, you are guilty of stealing from him. Maybe you think that you have his implicit consent because he has posted it online. He doesn’t see it that way.
July 25 marks the 1902 birth of Eric Hoffer, known as the “longshoreman philosopher” for the manual labor he performed for most of his life. In eleven books, beginning with The True Believer, the Presidential Medal of Freedom winner focused on the allure of a seemingly ennobling collective cause, and the often tyrannically employed coercive power that goes with it, to those who are discontented, particularly intellectuals. He also focused on fulfilled, creative individuals, who can only flourish under freedom.
According to the Socialist Party USA website, “In socialism, full employment is realized for everyone who wants to work,” because, “In a socialist system the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically controlled public agencies, cooperatives, or other collective groups.
Governments seem to use “market-like” solutions to obvious commons-problems. Consider the cases of Stockholm and Singapore, hardly the same kind of cities or cultures or problems. But the same sort of solutions.
According to the Socialist Party USA website, “In socialism, full employment is realized for everyone who wants to work,” because, “In a socialist system the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically controlled public agencies, cooperatives, or other collective groups. The primary goal of economic activity is to provide the necessities of life, including food, shelter, health care, education, child care, cultural opportunities, and social services.”
Here are some basic principles of bizarro economics in the 21st century:
1. Actual human beings do not matter. Spaces bounded by latitude, longitude, and natural barriers do.
2. Actual human beings do not matter. Political abstractions like nation-states do.
3. The country with the biggest GDP wins.
4. Societies exist so they can fight wars.
5. Trade is a kind of war.
6. Their wealth will cause our poverty. They can only get richer if we get poorer.
