Socialism Revealed

Why Socialism's Issues Have Never Permitted Success In A Real Economy

Phillip J. Bryson

• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781648950513
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Politique

Socialism Revealed summarizes the history of socialist thought and socialist economic theories. It also reviews the attempts to develop socialist economies in the Soviet Union and the bloc countries, China, India, and in West European democratic countries. Finally, it reviews the economic implications of policies under discussion by democrats and socialist activists in today's politics. Previously, Professor Bryson combined a detailed three-volume treaty on socialist and Marxist theories, central economic planning in several countries, and the Obama-era efforts to "transform" our economy into a single, encyclopedic, comprehensive work. That book is entitled Socialism: Origins, Expansion, Decline, and the Attempted Revival in the United States. This current brief sequel, Socialism Revealed, summarizes and updates the previously long and detailed book.

Phillip J. Bryson was a professor of economics emeritus, having retired from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He also taught at the University of Arizona and at Ohio State University, where he received a PhD in economics. In a career extending beyond forty years, he published well over one hundred academic papers and ten books. His publications have almost exclusively focused on issues of socialist economic theories and economies. He and his wife, Pat, live near McKinney, Texas, when it's cold and in Provo, Utah, when it's warm. They spend time with their seven children, twenty-five grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren.

Chapter 1

Socialism Grows Out of Capitalism

Issue 1: The Origins of Socialism

Early Ideas

Long before the days of Adam Smith, idealist philosophers had been seeking an egalitarian economic system that would relieve the plight of the poor. Even then, they were looking for a way to achieve the ideals of what later came to be known as socialism. In fact, the search for early socialist ideas goes back to ancient times. In the Bible, Israel’s God, Jehovah, revealed to Moses a law that was designed inter alia to care for the poor. This encouraged a positive response to an inherent, ongoing social problem. Some Christians feel that response was implanted in the basic nature of people by their Creator.

Social concern was also shown by the Greeks in their distrust of commerce and the use of usury to “make money with money.” That concern was passed forward through Thomas Aquinas and other Church fathers, down through the Middle Ages.

Thomas More and the Beginnings of Modern Socialism

The more modern history of socialist concerns began with the publication of Sir Thomas More’s famous work, Utopia, in 1516. More attempted to describe a way of life and commerce in an optimal, utopian society. Utopia became the conceptual blueprint of ideal socialism long before Adam Smith’s day. Utopia criticized the inequality that capitalism was alleged to engender.

After reading Thomas More, socialists concluded that markets and corporations produce little more than social abuse by greedy capitalists. Early on, socialists began to call for the elimination of capitalism because it was tainted with that greed. With equal invalidity, one might conclude that religion, politics, education, and other institutions designed to achieve our values should likewise be eliminated since some people are also willing to abuse these other social institutions in pursuit of their own greedy interests.

Some of the famous, early French philosophers also found evil in the institution of private property and in the inequality produced by market activity. Other Frenchmen, such as Voltaire and the èconomistes Francois Quesnay, Richard Cantillon, and Jacques Turgot, with whom Adam Smith consulted in Paris, were very positive about what came to be known as capitalism. Like Adam Smith, they were all critical of mercantilism, which at that time was one of the forerunners of socialism. It was the attempt to manipulate market activity and, through foreign trade, to attract gold to the king’s coffers.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) was the intellectual father of the radical component of the French Revolution. He stressed the principle of community in The Social Contract, his chief work. His writings on social questions were imbued with a quality of moral fervor. The notion of social equality and a conviction that serious corrupting effects were the result of the system of private property also saturated his writings; his ideas were found useful in developing views on communism.

Market Economics as the Wealth of Nations

It will be necessary to devote more time to Adam Smith’s views of capitalism and markets. The term capitalism was originally used as an epithet in the socialist derision of the market system. Socialism basically grew out of capitalism. It was a protest against the capitalism of early industrialization, seen as a system designed to exploit the worker. The alleged results of the market system were inequality, terrible working conditions, and poverty. Adam Smith developed a less ideological perspective of the potential of the market system to produce a much better life for people. Writers interested in what came to be known as political economy or, later, economics had pointed out some important characteristics of the life they were observing in the age of mercantilism, but it was left to Smith to systematize thinking about the great advantages of the market system.

Socialists could not, however, see beyond some of the problems that were a part of life as capitalism was developing. Today, they are inclined to ignore the amazing benefits and possibilities of free minds and free markets. We will talk about them just enough to show that life has been much better under a system of free enterprise than under any alternative economic system.

Smith wanted people to understand that the real “wealth of nations” were the goods and services a nation produced to enhance the material lives of its citizens. People are highly motivated, Smith believed, to work hard and build a good life because of their natural “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange.” When people are free to pursue their own interest, they can use their freedom to conduct the ordinary business of life to their own advantage and people tend to prosper. It is only bad economic policy that stands in the way of social success.

In Smith’s day, bad policy was mostly supported by the mercantilists. The fondest objective of these people was to make alchemists obsolete. The latter, of course, thought they could get gold by transforming radishes, mud, or any other matter into the coveted substance. The mercantilists had a more sure way to accumulate gold—in your country’s foreign trade, you simply outlaw all imports and promote lots of exports. When the foreign customers pay in bullion, the sovereign becomes wealthy quickly. The only problem was that all the European countries wanted to pursue this wisdom. As a result, there were no foreigners willing to purchase any given country’s exports since the potential customer nations wanted to eliminate their imports as well. When nobody buys, there is nobody to whom one can sell, so trade is dead in its tracks. But if individuals followed Adam Smith’s vision, they would be engaging enthusiastically in market transactions in the pursuit of their own self-interest, buying and selling to their hearts’ content the growing abundance of goods and services produced by people of free minds and free markets.

Marxian theories of worker exploitation were easy to sell in this earlier era of the industrial revolution. The workers were underpaid by capitalists who apparently wanted only to make a profit. They felt they could not do so if workers were treated more generously. It was not until Robert Own, a British textile industrialist, set up a model plant in Scotland without any child labor. The children were kept busy in schools; and with fully acceptable labor conditions that it was demonstrated that workers could be fairly compensated and profits could still be generated. From that time on, capitalism moved steadily toward better working conditions, better wages, and better lives.

Closer to our own time, those who believed that the capitalist class should be eliminated and that the socialist state must establish a dictatorship of the proletariat to promote socialism actually came to power. Tragically, their efforts led to the loss of the lives of millions of enemies of the “vanguard of the party,” who were determined not to turn over to the party their farmlands, their animals, their businesses, and ultimately their freedom as the socialists imposed their will with grim determination.

Utopian and Scientific Socialism

We begin with Utopian and pre-Marxian socialism, which were both an uncertain collection of diverse conceptions and aspirations motivated by love for mankind and a desire to ameliorate man’s social condition. “Real” socialism historically began when Karl Marx proposed his own brand of socialism, which he dubbed “scientific” socialism. It was alleged not to be based on wishful thinking; it was in fact based on a thirst for revenge.

Before Marxism surfaced, Utopian socialism had been an expression of love in economic theory and organization. It offered people the opportunity to become a part of a socialistic organization probably best described as a commune. Communitarian living arrangements were characteristic of the many, many proposed socialist arrangements designed strictly for the private sector. The heroes of the movement were the theoreticians who suggested people should leave the harshness of secular society and live a communal lifestyle with their property held in common, as had been done by the early Christians in New Testament times (see Acts, chapter 4).

Theories were propagated in England by Robert Owen, the successful textile factory owner who showed the world that a firm could run profitably without exploitative, long hours, child labor, or unhealthy work conditions. He ultimately went to America to establish and fund a commune of his own. In France, theories were propagated by Saint-Simon as well as by Charles Fourier. A discussion of these interesting and somewhat strange personalities and their economic and social views is available in my book Socialism for any desiring greater detail. It is sufficient to note here, however, that Utopian and communitarian socialism had the virtue of being voluntary. Today’s socialists, either through violence or ballot-box victory, would force everyone in society into the socialist tent. If you are on the wrong side of the revolution, or if your views are defeated by socialists at the ballot box, you are forced to submit to the economic, social, and political preferences of the socialists. Under Utopian socialism, the people favoring socialist organization of their particular brand go off on their own and establish a small community consisting only of those who freely choose to participate. They need no Siberian prison camps to inter the individuals whose preferences differ from their own and are loathe to submit to socialist regulations.

Marx transformed socialism to a movement of hatred. Capitalism was to be punished for every act of greed and exploitation that characterizes every capitalist and enters into every market transaction. Capitalism would be punished by a proletarian revolution that would expropriate the expropriators. The dictatorship of the proletariat would consolidate power and prevent any return to power of capitalist sympathizers.

After it was no longer ne...