Socialism

The Soviet Union in 1991 was dissolved. Murray Rothbard explains how socialism and central planning led to the economic collapse.

Presented at Mises University 2021.

In the fall of 2016, I was a left communist. As any Marxist can tell you, ideology can blind one to the insights that might disrupt one’s political adhesions. Only it was Marxist ideology itself that blinded me.

It's fairly easy to destroy the spontaneously created institutions and groups that make up a well-functioning society. But it is nearly impossible to rebuild them once they're destroyed by central planners. 

Using an unbiased rubric to evaluate political doctrines reveals that spectrum polarization depends on three conditions: attitudes toward private property, individual freedom, and wealth redistribution.

Electing better planners won't make socialism work. Central planning fails because planning without the feedback mechanisms of the market is an impossible task.

Electing better planners won't make socialism work. Central planning fails because planning without the feedback mechanisms of the market is an impossible task.

The discontent and unrest that followed the 2020 presidential election was, at least in major part, one of the innumerable destructive consequences of an almost 250-year-old error in economic theory made by Adam Smith: namely, the belief that profits are a deduction from wages. 

Democrats want taxpayer funding for the families of those who died of covid. But, of course, there's no discussion of helping those who died as a result of covid lockdowns, such as those who were denied medical treatment for cancer.