The subject came up on this thread. This was my answer:
I used to be a socialist. Until I figured out that the incentives were all wrong. In a static system – not too bad. In an advancing system you want the greatest rewards going to those making the greatest advances. And preferably you want some relatively unbiased system to handle the rewarding. The market system does that tolerably well. Commissars are subject to bias and bribery.
“Well aren’t markets subject to such bribery?” Yes. But you have a lot more people to bribe.
Keep this in mind, “Not everyone is altruistic as I am.”
And don’t forget – popularity is neither a sign of wisdom nor a sign of a lack thereof. Take the great rush to Alcohol Prohibition in the US. High minded, well meaning, and a total disaster.
The most glaring defect of socialism is the conceit, “There is no limit to the good you can do with other people’s labor.” Which runs up against, “Until other people decide to stop contributing their labor.”
Comments
8 responses to “Why I’m Not A Socialist”
I disagree. The most glaring defect of socialism is “I know better than you do what are your means and your needs.”
I believe your point and mine are congruent.
Indeed they are. Good post.
I tend to agree with Margaret Thatcher: “I would much prefer to bring them down as soon as possible. I think they’ve made the biggest financial mess that any government’s ever made in this country for a very long time, and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”
The quote above is often misquoted as: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money” – which, it seems to me is a reasonable summation of the problem, albeit, not what she actually said.
They are at least parallel, if not congruent.
“It is not a virtue to be generous with other people’s money.” – filbert
Neil,
I buy that.
filbert, may I quote that elsewhere? It’s a truism, but I don’t think I’ve seen it expressed quite so, um, politely bluntly, before.