Capitalism vs Socialism/Democratic Socialism

Capitalism: an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. Furthermore, characteristics central to capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, wage labor, voluntary exchange, a price system, and competitive markets.

Socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. In Marxist theory, socialism is a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of Communism.

Democratic Socialism: a political philosophy that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some form of a decentralized planned socialist economy. This is from Wikipedia so the definition is suspect. The definitions of Capitalism and Socialism were from Google dictionary.

Take a good, hard, long look at these definitions; especially that of 'democratic' socialism. The first thing a person needs to understand there is that Wikipedia is not an accepted source of information at any university. Anyone can change anything in an entry on that website. I included it here as a reference to what Bernie Sanders calls himself.

This nation was built on capitalism. Each and every man that helped this country grow from a British colony to the greatest nation in world (in less than 250 years, no less) took pride in what he did, was compensated fairly for what he produced, and capitalism drove men to innovation and excellence. Without the incentive to achieve greater and greater things, men, the economy, and the country stagnate. Capitalism keeps the waters flowing hard and fast instead of pooling and turning sour.

When the people control the market, control the economy, control innovation, great things happen. The electric light bulb, the telephone, the telegraph, X-rays, the Polio vaccine, and innumerable other great inventions and discoveries would not have happened as soon as they did, if ever, without capitalism and the free market. In other words, all you millennials would be listening to your rap music and watching Game of Thrones in the dark without speakers while lying in an iron lung or having leeches bleed you out. Facebook would not be around. Cell phones wouldn't even be thought of. OMG! Instagram wouldn't exist.

In today's world, all you little snot-nosed, whiny, liberal, wanna-be socialists have it pretty darn good because of CAPITALISM! Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, etc. all are, are you ready for this, capitalists! Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Aeropostale, etc.; yep, capitalists. Every athlete, every entertainer, every YouTuber... capitalists. They are all out there doing what they do for, you got it, MONEY! Socialism would take all that away. The State, the government, would control all that. The State would control what you did, when you did it, how much you got paid, when you got paid, where you live, how you live... all of it. Socialism destroys economies. Just look at Venezuela. Once the richest country in South America, now one of the poorest; all because of socialism.

Don't think that all these failed socialist countries failed because they didn't do it right. There is no right way to do socialism. There is only a state-controlled economy. If the government was given control over the Sahara Desert within ten years there would be a sand shortage. Government is not the answer. Government is the problem.

During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Founding Fathers debated over what kind of government would rule over this brand new nation. They didn't want a monarchy such as the one that they had just fought a war to get away from. They didn't want one man to rule over the many as too much power would make that one corrupt. They decided on three branches of government: the Executive to administer and uphold the law, the Legislative to make the law, and the Judicial to enforce the law. They wanted the people to have their say so the Executive and Legislative branches would be filled with representatives voted for by the people.

Why do I bring this up in a study about Capitalism and Socialism? Because it is exactly our form of government that makes capitalism work, and work well. When the government controls the economy, that economy does not prosper as well, or as fast, as when the people, the market, control it. We became the greatest nation on Earth in less than 200 years. The world came to us, the United States of America, when it was in need. We became the richest nation in the world faster than any other country or empire in history. It took centuries for Rome, England, the Greeks, to become what this nation did in less than two centuries. That is capitalism.

If you really need to see what happens to a country that changed from capitalism to socialism take a look at Venezuela. Once one of the richest countries of South America it is now one of the poorest. While the people of Venezuela starve, the elites live in luxury. While the socialist government controls everything, the people live like animals, and when they object they are shot in the streets. When the Bolsheviks revolted in Russia against Czar Nicholas, it was because the elite was living in luxury and the people were impoverished. What the people didn't understand was that the communist regime that took over would be no better. After the fall of the monarchy, the Leninists created their own regime of socialism/communism. The USSR, even though it became a world power, did not prosper. The people still starved and were told what to do and how to do it. It took Ronald Reagan telling Mikhail Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall' for the Russian people to see the advantages of capitalism. It is sad that the Russian government is a corrupt, and power-hungry, entity.

Our government, which is to be by, and for, the people, has become a corrupt entity. What the founders envisioned was not the socialistic leaning body that we have in Washington, DC. What was to be a small, people controlled government has become a large, people controlling monstrosity that is much more socialistic than democratic. With that in mind, look where our nation is heading. Many of our states are bankrupt, or close to it; our national debt is in the trillions. This is a far cry from the capitalist nation that grew so fast and so wealthy. The representatives that we elect are more interested in their own wealth and power than what the people want. It is much more socialistic than what a lot of Americans realize. The Constitution is meant to curtail government, not control the people.

Federalizing everything is socializing. The Constitution states that what is not specifically enumerated to the federal government is to be delegated to the individual states. What has happened over the years is that the states have abdicated their authority to the federal government. We became a soft socialistic nation. Our individual rights have been whittled away so as not to be noticed. Now, the socialists aren't hiding their agenda. They are screaming socialism from the rooftops and the House floor. Facebook, Twitter, the mainstream media are all filled with the socialist campaign against capitalism and control by the people; and we are suffering for it. Little by little the federal government is taking over and destroying our once great nation. Regulating, wasteful spending, taxation to the point of poverty, taking from those that work and giving to those that are able but unwilling to work, opening our borders to whoever wants to enter, and giving those people the same rights as if they were natural born citizens.

The ones that scream the loudest for socialism are the elites (which won't be affected because they have millions of dollars) and the ones that aren't contributing in any way at all now. Once everyone is on the wagon of government handouts, who will pull it? Government has already proven it does not have economic sense. All government knows is tax and spend. Washington, DC can't even come up with a budget, and if they do, they can't stick with it. If a private business was run like the government (federal, state, and local) that business wouldn't survive. Why does the government? The government survives because it will tax more and more and there is not a thing a private citizen can do. The government is all powerful. Ask the IRS if you can skip paying your taxes this year. Sure you can but you have to realize that your tax debt supersedes all others, and the interest and penalties of not paying your taxes will bury you. You can lose your wages, your property, your business, everything, if you refuse to pay the government what it demands.

That, my friends, is socialism. Welcome to the New World Order and the dystopian world of politics.