“There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as “caring” and “sensitive” because he wants to expand the government’s charitable programs is merely saying that he’s willing to try to do good with other people’s money. Well, who isn’t? And a voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he’ll do good with his own money — if a gun is held to his head.”
-- P.J. O’Rourke
This is also why socialism is un-Christian.
4 comments:
Yeah, but where do you see any socialist governments in action that are praised in any way. North Korea? No one is offering socialism as the way to go in any industrialized first world nation. China and Russia are about as close as you get ... and their economic prowess is nothing to criticize at this point.
What you see operating in Europe and the Americas is mixed-market capitalism. It comes in varying degrees, but it's capitalism in heart and soul. In fact, countries like Germany, Denmark, and Sweden seem to be doing it the best right now.
The "socialism" bogeyman makes for nice commercials ... but that's about it.
By the way, ORourke doesn't actually mention socialism ... because he's not talking about socialism.
Burkean conservatism, maybe? Classical liberalism? Sure.
Socialism? Someone needs a dictionary.
The quote remains accurate, as does my commentary.
Our selection of communist governments is seriously diminished so there's less to choose from when lefties decide to point to exciting examples of communist success.
Of course there's Cuba which is certainly praised by Micheal Moore in "Sicko".
But as far as praising socialist governments, that's common currency. I'm daily precipitated upon by reminders of how wonderful mass transit is - all the cool, European countries have mass transit - and socialized medicine - all the cool, European government have mass trans...uh, socialized medicine - and welfare and wind/solar power and every other half-baked policy idea that's slowly, but surely, being proven ineffective, counterproductive or just, plain stupid.
Oh, and no one needs a dictionary. What someone needs is to see to the standards they set for themselves for evidence of brilliance. Espousing authoritarianism, even authoritarianism that must necessarily labor under the shackles of democracy is certainly a difficult chore but it isn't evidence of intelligence. It's evidence of bad judgment.
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