Leftists have a storied history of embracing society’s worst ideas, turning them loose in society, and wondering why everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Again. And again. And again.
When anyone objects, suggesting that there have been enough past examples of this idea failing that maybe (just maybe) they’ve been proven wrong? That’s easy, they tell us. This time it will be different. This time, it will work.
It’s almost as though some of these nations, cities and institutions have volunteered to be the lab rats in which these strains of ideas are injected. And so, we get to see how virulent they are, and what their symptoms are.
We can look to examples like France if we want to see what happens to nations.
France decided it didn’t want to learn from watching the failures of its neighbours. (England watched the exodus of their rock stars fleeing for tax havens. East Germany lived miserably behind the Iron Curtain.)
Nope. Au contraire! France has doubled down. And what happened? Exactly what you might expect. France’s wealthy are jumping ship. They go to places like Dubai. France just lost 10,000 Millionaires. That was last year.
Time for some quick math — are France’s coffers suddenly flush with the taxes paid by the rich? No, the richest French saw the writing on the wall and left to other places with more modest rates. France now has the same national expenses spread over fewer people with lower total wealth. Did France’s “eat the rich” plan work out in anyone’s favour? Of course not.
But if it doesn’t work at the national level, maybe it could work at the city level. We can at least try, right?
Fine. Try it at the city level. Have a look at Chicago. Or Baltimore. Or Detroit. Some American cities have only had Democrats in office since Hitler was on the cover of Time. And they are hurting.
While not explicitly socialist, places like Chicago carry many of the same hallmarks. Expensive, unaccountable, bloated government, trading promises of government programs in exchange for perpetual power.
What eventually happens? Politicians over-promise and under-deliver. The bloated government becomes bloated budget. There are fights over cutbacks or tax hikes, and those with the means mobility to relocate with their money will do so. Families who can’t afford to just pick up and go somewhere else are the ones stuck holding the bag, paying for yesterday’s bills, with no real payoff for the taxpayers of today. (See: Detroit)
Which city is losing more millionaires than any other American city? That would be Chicago. Contrast that against Austin, Texas, with an annual growth of 1.69%. Those who can afford to are fleeing Chicago, and moving to Austin. And they’re taking their money with them.
But that’s just looking at government, and cities. At the micro level, you can manage it better and it won’t spin out of control. Like a school campus.
What about universities? Obviously, Universities don’t levy taxes. But they do charge tuition. And those prices climbing steeply. No wonder people wasting their time in gender studies programs want Bernie to give them a free education. That worthless paper will be costing them a gold mine.
So what are the students getting for these increased tuition prices? They’re getting safe spaces, and whimpering about names written in chalk. They are getting protests where Deans are being held accountable, even fired, for something said by a student (?) on campus. You are getting schools where conferring an ideology to the students is more important than education.
In each case you are trading for a more expensive delivery system with an inferior end result.
That what Socialism gets you. That’s how it works. Every time it is tried.
