John Steele Gordon | Socialism in American History
The idea of socialism is ancient. Organized socialist movements took form in Europe in the nineteenth century, and socialism emerged as a dominant political ideology in many places around the world by the twentieth century. This second CCA of the 2019-2020 academic year, co-sponsored by the Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series, will consider socialism, its practice over time, and its resurgence today.
John Steele Gordon was educated at Millbrook School and Vanderbilt University. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Forbes, National Review, Commentary, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a contributing editor at American Heritage, where he wrote the âBusiness of Americaâ column for many years, and currently writes âThe Long Viewâ column for Barronâs. He is the author of several books, including Hamiltonâs Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt, The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power, The Business of America: Tales from the MarketplaceâAmerican Enterprise from the Settling of New England to the Breakup of AT&T, and An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power.
source
The second Red Scare was began by FDR with the Smith "gag" Act trial and conviction of 18 leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and Minneapolis Teamsters Union. Trotskyists who had opposed entry into the Second Imperialist war.
Countries with parliaments (representative democracy) are in fact oligarchies (few lead). In order to be a true democracy, the decisions of the Parliament should be submitted to the approval of the citizens. The "fatigue" of democracy occurs when there is a big difference between the interests of those elected and the voters, so people lose confidence in the way society function. As a result, the poor and desperate citizens will vote with whoever promises them a lifeline, i.e. the populists or demagogues. The democratic aspect is a side effect in societies where economies have a strong competitive aspect, where the interests of those who hold economic power in society are divergent. Thus, those with money, and implicitly with political power in society, are supervising each other so that none of them have undeserved advantages due to politics. Because of this, countries with large mineral resources, like Russia and Venezuela (their share in GDP is large), do not have democratic aspects, because a small group of people can exploit these resources in their own interest. In poor countries, the main resource exploited may even be the state budget, as they have converging interests in benefiting, in their own interest, from this resource. This is what is observed in Romania, Bulgaria, when, no matter which party comes to power, the result is the same. The solution is modern direct democracy in which every citizen can vote, whenever he wants, over the head of the parliamentarian who represents him. He can even dismiss him if most of his voters consider that their interests are not right represented.
Those who think that democracy is when you choose someone to make decisions for you without him having to consult you, are either a fool or a scoundrel. It's like when you have to choose from several thieves who will steal from you. It's like when you have to build a house and you choose the site manager and the architect, but they don't have the duty to consult with you. The house will certainly not look the way you want it, but the way they want it, and even more surely you will be left without money and without the house. It is strange that outside of the political sphere, you will not find, in any economic or sports activity, someone elected to a leadership position and who has failure after failure and who is fired only after 4 years. We, the voters, must be consulted about the decisions and if they have negative effects we can dismiss them at any time, without to wait until the term to be fulfilled, because we pay, not them. In any company, the management team comes up with a plan approved by the shareholders. Any change in this plan must be re-approved by the shareholders and it is normal because the shareholders pay.
Free expressways and public libraries are "socialism."
The kind of socialism that is proposed by the likes of AOC and Sanders is not what is described here. It was a republican that refused the results of the last election. This behavior is repugnant to a citizen of the United States.
What is so appealing about what word Socialism to entitled youth of today and that is simple FREE.
Radical chic becomes radical freak!
Thanks much, John.
The guy that laughed at "one man killed and ate his wife" says all you need to know about the kind of people that take any good out of this drivel…
Americans do talk utter b*llocks about socialism!!
In Britain January 2022. Johnson is about to get his comeuppance. Sensible people NEVER trusted him, it is the people who didnât vote Conservative I feel sorry for, those that did vote conservative are getting their just deserts!!
For You Americans: donât be afraid of socialism, socialism is NOT communism! Americans, and conservative voting British, may not realise that virtually everything the working class have nowadays, came from the Labour Party. Including the NHS which was implemented by Labour against bitter opposition from Doctors and The Conservatives!! The conservatives have done NOTHING for the working class – compare that with what a socialist government did in 12 years in power!!!!
While that old witch Thatcher was saying âWhat is society, there is no such thing!!â Labour (between 1997 and 2010) was continuously in government and here are ONLY 50 of Labourâs achievements FOR THE PEOPLE during those years.
Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
Low mortgage rates.
Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to ÂŁ5.52.
Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
Employment is at its highest level ever.
Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
85,000 more nurses.
32,000 more doctors.
Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
Gift aid was worth ÂŁ828 million to charities last year.
Restored city-wide government to London.
Record number of students in higher education.
Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Childrenâs Centres.
Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
ÂŁ200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to ÂŁ300 for over-80s.
On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
Banned fox hunting.
Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
Free TV licences for over-75s.
Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
New Deal â helped over 1.8 million people into work.
Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
Free eye test for over 60s.
More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
Free entry to national museums and galleries.
Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
Socialism contaminate whatever it touches. There's been millions of people that starved to death under socialism. That's why the American farmer had to save their lives three different times with their grain.
Most successful economy in the world?? Try again
Yeah, nice words but the covid event has shown the real power of government and the nature of the people and how they truly view individual rights, personal choice and personal responsibility
This speaker is grossly undereducated and certainly NEVER read Das Kapital or Wealth of Nations
Thanks for the video but this guy's beliefs are a trash fire of anti socialist think tank produced talking points. Not a fan
I think he makes a substantial point when answering about a 'socialist' community of long standing. Its survival is a matter of limited scale and voluntary participation. The same, I think, might be said about 'democracy', of which we experience only a pale shadow through the arcane mechanics of representative government. In small communities a fuller measure of civic engagement may sometimes be possible, but inevitably 'democracy' shades into oligarchic plutocracy. The vote is as much a ritual to appease the masses as it is a means of determining the 'popular will'———–which I scarcely credit with existence anyway.
Both 'socialism' and modern 'democracy' are largely theoretical constructs of late Enlightenment vintage, though I suppose that classical antecedents could be arrayed in support.
It is noteworthy that the earliest Church in Jerusalem practised communal sharing of property. The motivation was practical and charitable rather than ideological, and the community was self-sustaining without reference to the Roman imperial State.
(Acts 4:32) 'And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.'
Marxists would call such an example 'primitive communism' because of its antiquity, but I disagree. I see the Jerusalem church as an ethical model to which very few have attained since. CHRIST and brotherly love were their guides, not the dreams of philosophers.
It seems to me that 'economic freedom' includes arrangements of this sort. There is nothing wrong with sharing goods; nor do I see State economic intervention expressly forbidden in Scripture. The patriarch Joseph bought up land and concentrated it in the hands of Pharaoh during the Egyptian famine (Genesis 47:20). The Western Allies imposed rationing during ww2 and told businesses what to produce for the war effort. However THEFT is not permissible.
I stopped at 38:12 when Gordon makes a homophobic remark, following a hostile and factually incorrect statement about Bernie Sanders and his wife.
Some of his points were good but I think it's a pretty shallow presentation overall, even besides his lapse in character.
On the off chance that anyone reads this, this is not socialism, this is a Cold War fantasy. Hmu if you want details.
Wait… based Hillsdale?
âSELF awareâ
Ah! Medicine! My wheelhouse! You ARE right about hospitals and insurance companies and their omertĂ . Not so with physician charges and collections. I would be happy to share with ANYONE our somewhat embarrassing fee schedules for office visits and procedures but that is illegal. It violates Stark laws as they apparently could be used perversely to âenticeâ patients (specifically Medicare and Medicaid patients). Insofar as there are now many MDs employed by the Hospital Industrial Complex, you are somewhat correct in assigning blame but the AMA is toothless if not colluding with government in its opposition to physicianâs best interests most times. Their membership roles continue to diminish as the AMA, like so many other advocacy organizations becomes âsell awareâ and advocates for its own bottom line.
It was mentioned that Trump is trying to get hospitals to post their prices for surgeries and such and it would save Americans billions per year. Another benefit includes that Doctors could take a huge step up from amateurs that are just "practicing" to professionals that do what these current bunch of amateurs don't do.
Without socialism you have no police department, army, social security, roads, sewers, fire department, public parks, god I could go on and on and on
The best government takes the best of all forms of government
We are not pure capitalism as we are right now
We have plenty of socialism already in our system
Since the early 1900 and even before
Yâall use socialism like a dirty work and shut it down
But itâs much more complicated than that
We have to realize capitalism as is, is a very exploitive system that separates the richest and the poorest
The rich get richer the poor get poorer
And itâs less and less their fault
Just a reminder that Jeffery Epstein didn't kill himself
Alex berenson | marijuana, mental health, violence
Why are the comments off? Wouldnât want any kind of open discussion about your propaganda now would we?
Seriously what problem could possibly arise from having comments on? Thereâs no reason thereâs no justification.
Itâs sad
Part of the problem is the definition of socialism. Socialism is the government owning the means of production. A young adult told me that definition is communism. The problem is they call Scandinavian countries socialist, when they are welfare states. The next problem is these people who want socialism, who actual want a welfare state, support socialist politicians who would take the means of productions. For example, senator Bernie Sanders Medicare for All outlaws private medical insurance on page 8, Sanders wants a monopoly, socialism, God forbid!
There is a lot to go through in this video but i'll just chip in at 35:00
– First how does a person make billions of dollars? I run a business as a sole proprietor and i only make $178k/yr and that's only if i overcharge customers.
if i add more workers to my business i can make even more money but only if i underpay the workers for the work they do. People like Jeff Bezos has hurt a lot of small businesses like myself as well since Amazon has monopolized the market. People can buy items for cheaper so for the consumers it's really nice to get cheaper goods but it comes at the expense of the people who work for the company you are purchasing from.
– Also, are we going to sit around and pretend that we can just keep printing money? If we allow people to accumulate absurd amounts of wealth then how is the economy going to hold out without printing money? Did we forget that printing money decreases the dollar value and inflates prices?
I think we need to stop pretending that these rich business owners make their wealth through hard work and acknowledge that their success is only due to the underpaid workers they hire to increase their profits.
Glad he touched on he evils of "rent seekers" and the effects of political capture by the wealthy (ref. the tax code); and in a way, how our current medical industry is NOT a free or fair market, lacking any price transparency (i would further add amongst its evil consumers and producers do not directly interact to agree on price and quantity, basic ingredient of a market). Wish he would have done a deep dive into those topics. I doubt our current form of mixed capitalism will solve these injustices. It takes a moral government accountable to the masses to fix these. I am sure he is schooled on the various forms of market failures that require astute intervention, but otherwise laissez-faire. The obvious problem with that is finding morally sound and smart politicians. The current rules for political process, derived from evolved convention, tradition and presidence, are legally corrupt. This, and stepping over dead bodies of the dispossessed, are why the young seek a fresh new version of society. No one sees how it was worse in ways in the past (except honest historians), and human nature drives us to expect better (a characteristic of human nature as sure as self-interest), hense the blind revisit of socialism.
Brilliant,
Thank You Sirđ