Socialism Always Ends in Tears
In these times, if it's a rational conversation on immigration you’re seeking, you'll be hard pressed to find willing participants.
On the one hand, if you dare question Joe Biden’s executive edicts in favor of open-ended, indiscriminate immigration, you’re branded a racist "xenophobe."
And if you go along with these open border policies, you’re forced to accept that the United States government --- while still responsible for its legal citizens’ minimum income, free healthcare, free education, etc., is now taking on that burden for all citizens of the world, legal or not.
Remember that the United States government uses your taxes to accomplish this in spite of the expressed opposition of at least half of the nation.
From the point-of-view of left politicians in search of more power, this is a good thing.
The Democratic Party ideologically believes in using the force of government to make everyone responsible for everyone else.
Of course, in practice this means those who are able and willing to produce income are responsible for those who are unable, or perhaps unwilling, to do the same.
The classic definition of socialism.
However, from the point-of-view of a free country which respects individual rights, it’s a whole different story. A moral and fair government recognizes the rights of individuals to be left alone, i.e., free from the initiation of force or fraud.
The moment government starts forcing some citizens to pay for the disability payments, corporate bailouts, college tuition, health insurance, grocery bills, or anything else for others is the moment you no longer live in a free country.
In the United States, the government has been doing this for decades.
What started out as a temporary or minimal "safety net" has turned into a thriving, coercive and self-evidently corrupt and bipartisan government industry.
Make no mistake, this is corporate statism, and it costs trillions and trillions of dollars.
Concurrently, our nation's debt rises every year with no end in sight.
As wrong and irrational as this is, it makes total sense for people like today’s Democrats and frankly complicit Republicans to extend it further.
If the federal government is responsible for the welfare and well-being of all its own citizens, then how can it not be responsible for the well-being and welfare of the rest of the world?
Look at the deductions from your next paycheck to see how.
The same faulty premise asks:
- How can you turn away Mexicans who came into the country illegally? They need the help.
- How can you prevent Mexicans or anyone else from entering the country? They need the help.
- What about Muslim activists, who are high risk candidates for launching acts of terrorism? Forget about it.
They are in need, and that’s all that matters.
In fact, anyone showing up at the border may be in need. If it’s the responsibility of the United States government not to protect its borders, but simply to meet needs, then open borders seem morally mandatory.
Need is the common thread and interminable issue.
According to ideological Marxism, the purpose of government is to provide "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." This is why so many people are angry about our open borders. It has nothing to do with race, or even immigration.
The injustice is a government redistributing wealth from those who produce it to those who did not produce it. This is not the proper function of a government.
Government never should have departed from its central and only justified purpose: protecting the rights of individuals, rather than violating them in this way.
Ultimately, any going into the business of wealth redistribution will gradually lose its legitimacy. That, my friends, is happening right now.
We should talk less about immigration and more about getting the government out of wealth redistribution in the first place. If we got rid of socialism, there would be nothing to fear from immigrants, other than those posing a danger to us.
Of course, we shouldn’t have open borders; but immigration would be a welcome attribute if we hadn’t morphed into a bankrupt socialist state.
We've created an aristocracy of need. That’s what socialism is. Whether done on the national or international level, it’s all the same.
Socialism always ends in tears.
And unless we reverse it quickly, 100% of history guarantees that it will end that way this time, too.
(A related column may be found here.)
Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Psychology. He is the author of "Grow Up America" and "Bad Therapy, Good Therapy," available exclusively at www.DrHurd.com. He has been quoted in and/or appeared on over 30 radio shows/podcasts (including Rush Limbaugh and Larry Elder), on Newsmax TV, and writes two self-help columns weekly. Dr. Hurd resides in Charleston, South Carolina. Read more of Dr. Hurd's reports — Here.