10Oct 2015

Democratic Socialism

Posted in Q & A

Q: How do you evaluate social democracies?

A: I think most people take a social democracy to mean, “A democratic
welfare state that incorporates both capitalist and socialist practices.”

If you have a garden and your neighbour steals carrots from it, most people
have no problem condemning this as theft, as immoral. But if people vote
through their government to take your carrots, most people see this as no
problem – they do not see it as stealing or as an immoral act – they see
no contradiction or see it as an “acceptable” contradiction.

The forcible confiscation of property by anyone no matter how great their
numbers, no matter how noble their cause, is wrong, it’s immoral, and in
my opinion the nature of reality will resolve what is a blatant contradiction –
pure capitalism and freedom or a social democracy that eventually collapses
into a dictatorship. In the long run it’s one or the other – you can’t have both.

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