Socialism Is A Bad Thing!

I cannot believe I need to talk about this. I can’t believe I need to say it. Socialism is a bad thing!

How long have we Americans spent fighting against communism and socialism and all the other economic models? How long?

And now suddenly when someone markets the idea of college being free people just jump into the new boat? Really?

Like, I get it. I do get it. Capitalism is not a great system. It has a lot of flaws. In fact, it’s messed up in twisted, convoluted ways. But it’s also the best option we have.

The best system we have.

Yes: college is too expensive. Wealth inequality has horrible effects. Medical emergencies bankrupt people.

But you can’t just make things free. It doesn’t work that way. And even if we can find some workaround that makes it so socialistic taxes don’t either destroy lives or bring down some of the most successful citizens of America—there are still problems.

“Free” removes incentive. It removes quality. If all colleges have to only go off the money given by the government, then why would they even bother to try to outclass each other? Money breeds competition. And you can talk about honor driving it, but that does not last long when there’s no benefit.

If I may make a comparison: imagine this system anywhere else. Where you walk into a restaurant on Gulf to Bay, like Chipotle or Hungry Greek, and they give you free food. Now, that may sound good at first...but why would they ever serve food that was anything above just edible? They have no reason for doing so.

They have no reason to do a lot of things. No purpose for marketing. No reason for good employees. No reason for any benefits of service that capitalism enforces by its own existence and function.

And sure, you could say the government would regulate quality, and force everyone to not cut corners...but yeah, good luck with that.

Now, this may sound like I’m being dramatic. And to some degree I am. But, I guess I have to be dramatic to show the inherent flaws that come after the word “free” explodes inside the mind. It’s a good buzzword, but the quality of a product is as important as the marketing that pushes it along.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com.