| | | No, Spain was just a place we lived in for awhile. That's not the socialist country that took everything from us. I prefer not to talk about the country my family came from, because I don't want people to be able to know too much about me to connect the dots in my real life. Also, that country is still under a dictatorship. So I really have very little incentive to draw their ire in my direction. They've done enough to my family. As for Spain, yes, Franco was brutal and the aftermath in the 70s was not pretty, but at the same time, I don't remember it being so bad either. It certainly was a darned sight better than my family's homeland. I've gone back to Spain to visit many times over the years and it has never really managed to do much with itself. That is Socialism for you. It simply destroys the incentives for people to work hard and really achieve, because the bulk of the rewards of your achievements are taken from you to give to other people. It's a fundamental truth of human nature that people work for rewards. People simply are not altruistic. They can have moments of altruism and some people reach sainthood that way, but most people work for rewards. When they reach the point that work no longer pays rewards, they don't go any further. Socialism fails to recognize this fundamental fact of human nature. I've seen it in every socialist country I've ever visited and I've visited well over a hundred countries in my lifetime, including all of the Latin American countries who so love their socialism that many try to make their way, just like the hondurans and venezuelans to the US, if they can make it.
In addition, I've read hundreds of books on economics and have graduate level studies in economics and statistics. I know far more than most people about economic history. Then in my business career, I put most of those theories to the test in the real world and made a hell of a lot of money in tech.
So the bottom line is that I know far more about how socialism works than you will ever know, both from a government and people perspective, as well from an economic perspective. I know it from books and from living it. Your experiences can't come close to comparing. My conclusion, just like everyone else who has lived it, is that Socialism is evil. It is a force of destruction and misery. It never works to bring out the best in people...quite the opposite. And just like the devil himself, socialism is oh so alluring. It's wrapped in gold foil, with a viper hidden underneath. |
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