43. Socialism In Action

The ideal socialist society was described by Karl Marx thus:

>>  "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

        -- Communist Manifesto (1848)

How does that work out in the real world?  Marx had no idea.  Lenin and Stalin put Marx's dream into action to create the socialist paradise in Russia, and killed millions of people.  Socialism in action is the opposite of paradise.

Here is an intensely realistic (but fictional) description of socialism in practice:

>>   "Well, there was something that happened at that plant where I worked for twenty years... the Twentieth Century Motor Co., Starnesville, Wisconsin.... The plan was that everybody in the factory would work according to his ability, but would be paid according to his need....

>>   "They told us that this plan would achieve a noble ideal....  We voted for the plan at a big meeting....  None of us knew just how the plan would work.... 

>>   "Do you know how it worked, that plan,  and what it did to people?...  We're all one big family, they told us, we're all in this together.  But you don't all stand working an acetylene torch ten hours a day -- together, and you don't all get a bellyache -- together...."

     -- Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"
               page 660 (hc); 616 (pb)
        "For The New Intellectual"
               page 121 (hc); 101 (pb)

And then, for twelve gripping, fascinating pages, Rand lays out, in excruciating and heart-breaking detail, just exactly what socialism means in the lives of the people who are forced to live by this "ideal" of altruism in action.

This is perhaps the most powerful indictment of socialism/altruism in practice, carried to its  ultimate extreme.  It is an utterly chilling picture of our own future, if Obama-Democrat collectivism prevails.

If you value your life, read these twelve pages.

Ayn Rand