By Peter Pavarini
Commerce existed long before Karl Marx introduced his ideas about socialism and communism to the world.[i]Prior to the 19th Century, merchants didn’t know they were engaging in something called capitalism. They just traded goods and services and tried to make a living. Even now, most people only want to make ends meet – no matter what you call that.
Political platforms haven’t always been as ideological as they are today. Those who sought elected office only needed to say how they would ensure public safety, build and pay for things like roads and schools, or issue currency as a way to compensate people when bartering wasn’t enough. Office-seekers instinctively knew that taxation, which had been around since ancient times, only worked to a point. If a government taxed too much, commerce would go underground, and tax revenues would fall. Whenever a government did centralized planning, it was expected that people would engage in less individual problem-solving. If militaries got involved in too many wars, even the greatest empires would eventually collapse.
None of these issues were especially partisan. People simply wanted to know whether a proposed response to a problem had ever worked.
Living in Highly Politicized Times
Nowadays, nearly everything is politicized. For the past several years, I’ve avoided advocating for or against parties and candidates in these posts. Sometimes it’s hard to address a subject without revealing my personal beliefs. However, my objective has never been to persuade but rather to inform and let readers draw their own conclusions.
In contrast, both traditional and alternative media operate on a business model that requires driving traffic to their websites and other outlets. Hyperbole and sensationalism do a better job of that than presenting a reasoned analysis of any issue. As a result, most commentaries I see rarely say whether a proposed idea or policy has ever been proven effective at solving the problem in question.
Snake Oil Salesmen and Other Charlatans
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, snake oil was widely sold as a cure-all for various illnesses despite having no record of efficacy. Traveling medicine shows traversed the American landscape exploiting the hopes and fears of gullible people. This form of marketing gave rise to the common expression “snake oil salesman”. It seems easy to dismiss that sorry chapter in our history as a thing of the past, but you only need to watch a few hours of commercial television to see that pharmaceutical companies continue to use the same tactics as yesterday’s charlatans.
Is the average person that stupid? Sadly, the answer appears to be “yes”. Fear, vanity and wishful thinking are powerful incentives to fall for the lies and half-truths of those who make a living fooling the public. Misplaced compassion is another reason why people abandon common sense and open their wallets to shysters. The many fraudulent “Go Fund Me” campaigns of recent years should convince even the most simple-minded person to never send money to someone who posts an image of a sad-eyed child or emaciated puppy.
Stop Doing Stupid Stuff
A corollary of asking whether an idea works is to stop doing what we know doesn’t work. Consider the famous quote often attributed to Albert Einstein:
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”[ii]
If you’ve been alive longer than a nanosecond, you probably find yourself asking whether we’ve seen this show before. Historically high inflation, interest rates, crime statistics, and every scandal that ends with the suffix “gate” – we’ve been there and done all that. Why do we allow our leaders to repeat the mistakes of the past – and continue to re-elect them?
Admittedly, some problems will always be with us. So long as human beings remain sinful, error-prone creatures, we can expect some issues to persist no matter what we do. For example, it’s unlikely we will ever completely get rid of juvenile delinquency. Because the brains of immature humans take longer to develop than other species, youthful misbehavior has been around since Cain killed his brother Abel. Delinquency just needs to be better managed – not medicated.
But for all the other problems we face, can we simply stop rebranding ineffective social programs and throwing good money after bad?
A Pill for Every Problem
Another corollary of Einstein’s wise observation is: “How Many Dietary Supplements Are Enough?” The extraordinary number of unregulated, over-the-counter nostrums sold everywhere makes me question how I survived childhood taking a single One A Day multi-vitamin. Similarly, in the 1950s when I was a babe in my mother’s arms, there were only four pediatric vaccines available to the public[iii]. Today, the Centers for Disease Control recommends a childhood immunization schedule which includes 15 vaccines, some of which are formulated to protect against several diseases. Even though I’m not an anti-vaxxer[iv], I do have sympathy for parents faced with the overwhelming preconditions required to send their children to school.
Clearly, a nation as prosperous as the United States should have a citizenry that is healthier and happier than ours. The root causes of this problem are far too numerous for this blog, but suffice to say, I’m glad that Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and the MAHA movement have opened the eyes of Americans to the poor choices we regularly make regarding diet, exercise and lifestyle. Perhaps, if we got serious about those issues, we wouldn’t be so dependent on the legal and illegal drugs many people reasonably think are more harmful than the conditions they’re designed to treat.
Challenging the Status Quo
At least two major U.S. cities appear ready to install a socialist government this November. Imagining this through the eyes of a young person entering the workforce, it’s easy to see why this might be an attractive alternative to being burdened by student debt and living paycheck to paycheck. If someone has only experienced the risks and few of the rewards of capitalism, an idealized economic system seems a lot better than competing for an uncertain slice of the American Pie. On the other hand, as history clearly shows, every nation that has experimented with socialism (and its goal of communism) has eventually failed to meet the basic needs of its populace. There are simply no examples of Marxism having worked anywhere[v].
This is not to say the U.S. has ever tried a pure form of capitalism. When our government invests in public infrastructure, a form of socialism is at work. When it cuts taxes or regulations and gives the marketplace more room to innovate, a form of free market capitalism is at work. But admittedly, not all market activity is moral or good for the people. Every government has a legitimate role to play in curbing the excesses of any economic system.
Striking a Delicate Balance
Without proper constitutional guardrails, every political or economic ideology has the potential of being used by those in power to subvert the will of the powerless. Unless we strike a delicate balance between concentrated power and what undeniably works, there is always the risk that a governmental system will become authoritarian and unable or unwilling to serve the interests of its people. Moreover, when any ideology undermines the pillars of a society’s culture, traditions and beliefs, it inevitably breeds alienation and deep division.
As difficult as life can be sometimes, there’s never a good reason to make matters worse by doing things that have been proven not to work.
[i] Marx co-wrote the pamphlet The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1848 and his three-volume critique of capitalism Das Kapital (1867-1894).
[ii] This quote is also attributed to Rita Mae Brown’s novel Sudden Death published in 1983. It also appears to be a concept used in Al-Anon and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
[iii] Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and smallpox
[iv] Having traveled to dangerous parts of Africa and elsewhere, I’ve been inoculated against yellow fever, malaria and other tropical diseases.
[v] Phillip W. Magness, “Marxism is Back – But Marxists Cannot Shake Off the Soviet Legacy”, October 7, 2024 Independent Institute.
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