Kerby Anderson

A Pew survey from last year found that a significant number of Americans believe that socialism “gives all people an equal opportunity to be successful.” A quarter (23%) agree with this statement with another quarter (29%) agreeing with it somewhat.

Vance Ginn, writing in the Washington Examiner, is alarmed “that most people who favor socialism don’t understand it or its negative consequences.” They may be motivated by emotional appeals to fairness and equality but are unaware of the miserable history of the failed socialist experiments.

In my booklet on A Biblical View on Socialism, I quote from a recent book by Dinesh D’Souza. He lists the 25 countries that have tried socialism and all failed.

Vance Ginn uses a glass ceiling analogy to illustrate the problem with socialism. “People in socialist economies work under a glass ceiling that they can never break. They surrender so much of their resources to the government that it contributes to a forced mediocrity.” Contrast that with capitalist economies where the ceiling is much higher. “People have more potential to prosper because the means of capital and labor are owned by them personally, not by politicians.”

He argues that “greater economic freedom under capitalism tends to yield higher life expectancies, higher incomes, greater per capita GDP, and less poverty.” In my video presentations on capitalism and socialism, I display a slide with a graph that shows the correlation between GDP and economic freedom. Capitalism provides both freedom and economic success.

We need to get these economic facts to the younger generation, especially before the next election.