What’s so bad about Socialism anyways?

It seems that lately you can’t walk past a newsstand or turn on the television without someone accusing this country of heading down a “dangerous” path toward socialism.  Are we indeed marching away from the foundations that have made our country great to a yet to be discovered social euphoria?  If so, is that really all that bad, and should we care?  If you’re like most people in this country you haven’t really considered what the consequences of being a socialist nation might be, for that matter you may not truly know what it means to be a socialist in the first place.  To answer the question as to whether or not we are heading towards socialism let’s start with the basics: the definition.

Merriam Websters Dictionary gives 3 definitions.  I think they all work so choose one that suits you.  (I’ll choose number 3)

1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

The common denominator among the three is: the administration of the unequal distribution of production, goods, and pay.  Another term commonly associated with socialism is “redistribution of wealth.”  Let’s take a listen to our current leaders and hear if they are discussing anything like this currently.

The practical way in which you redistribute wealth is through taxing some and giving it to others. Listen:

Based on the above definitions and comparing them to not only what has been said but policies that have been enacted or are underway, I would have to agree that we are heading in the direction of socialism, how far we march is yet to be seen.  At first glance the socialist agenda sounds great.  The government is going to take care of poor little old you and me.  What a deal!  Someone to take care of us and make sure nothing bad happens.  Can’t afford insurance?  No problem, the government has us covered.  Can’t pay our mortgage?  Again Uncle Sam will talk to our bank and “encourage” them to allow us to stay in our home.  Better yet, maybe we can just get a loan through the government directly.  Why stop with the mortgage?  With the passage of the new health care bill we can now get student loans from the government too!  Why shouldn’t all these “blessings” be bestowed on us?  After all, evil rich people get all of those things and more.  They fly around in their jets making money off of all of us commoners.  Isn’t it only fair that we get a portion of all that money rich people have?  Do they really need that much money anyways?

If you can’t hear it in my tone by now let me be clear, I am being sarcastic.  I am absolutely opposed  to the notion of socialism and yes, I do believe it is bad for our country and ultimately bad for us as individuals.  In the coming days I will be posting a series of reasons as to why I feel that socialism is bad.  I’ll start today with reason number one.

1)  Socialism Punishes Success
One of the things that has made our nation distinguishable from other nations of the world is the concept of “The American Dream”.  Which is the thought that if you work hard and use a little creativity your dreams can be realized and that anything is possible.  Historically we’ve been a nation that celebrates success. We love the stories of those who start with nothing and in the end achieve greatness.  Think of just a few of the people who have succeeded despite the odds; Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Donald Trump, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Bill Gates, and yes Barack Obama himself.  I recognize that many of these people are left leaning in their politics however their success was realized in a capitalist, free enterprise nation.  These people and many like them (most of them lesser known), had freedom to pursue their dreams.  Not only did they have freedom but also incentive, knowing that if they worked hard and didn’t quit they would be rewarded.  Incentive can not be underestimated in terms of propelling people to stick with their dream.  Imagine the many obstacles and hurdles all of the above mentioned people must have encountered along the way.  I believe incentive was one of the forces that kept all of them plugging along.  It takes great effort to create something out of nothing, whether that be an invention, a business, a service, or even an industry.  When incentive is taken away, drive and determination are often taken with it.  So why is it so important that we have people with drive?  Maybe you’re saying “I don’t want to start a business, or invent anything, so why should I care”.  I would argue you should care more than anyone, because if you are an employee, you get paid because someone had drive and incentive to start the organization that pays you.  When incentive and drive vanish, jobs are close behind.  When did we start looking at profit as a bad thing?  Isn’t it only an indication of value that has been provided to society?  If Steve Jobs hadn’t sold any ipods, iphones, or computers, would he be wealthy?  He became wealthy not because he was evil but because he looked inside and asked “What can I contribute?”  Who cares if he’s wealthy?  His innovation makes my life easier.  I’m typing this blog on one of his machines even now.  The myth is that when someone else succeeds then somehow we are diminished.  I believe when someone succeeds we are better off.  So the question is, why after someone has worked for years to overcome obstacles in order to achieve their dream, would we take from their profits and give it to others who have not worked as hard?  That would be like an Olympian training their whole life for the gold and upon finally winning, the judges taking that gold medal cutting it into pieces and distributing it to all of those sitting in the crowd.  At some point future Olympians are going to say “Why train and work hard to get a gold medal, when I can just go sit in the crowd and walk away with the same thing?”.

I love technology

What a world we live in. I think we often fail to realize just how amazing the times that we live in are. Five minutes ago I thought ” I wonder if there is an app that will allow me to update my website with both pictures and text from my iPhone?”. A quick search on my google tool bar and I was reading about blogwriter. One more click had me at the AppStore where I was able to download and install, using no cords or wires, a brand new app on my phone giving it a host of new features. I quickly entered my login info and here I am on my couch updating my site all while enjoying a bowl of popcorn on my couch! What technology do you love the most? Tell us why?

Are you living?

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”  – Helen Keller

When was your last real adventure?  What was the last risk you took?  When was the last time you did something even though you were afraid to do it?  If it’s hard to come up with an answer, you’re not alone. Unfortunately we live in a world today where playing it safe, staying inside the lines, and the false comfort of “guarantees” are often valued over; freedom, adventure, and risk. In fact most people view the word “risk” as inherently negative. I believe however that to truly live we must risk, not for risks sake, but because there are some things that are simply worth risking. Many people shy away from risk because of what they stand to lose, but how different life might be if they focused instead on what they stood to gain?

I think back in my own life at times I’ve chosen to risk.
- The night Christa and I had “the talk”.
- Making my first sales pitch to a vendor for an idea that would eventually bring in over $10,000 in value to pay for our wedding.
- Our first year of marriage when we both quit our full time jobs and I took a job waiting tables at night so we could work on building Go International.tv during the day.
- Signing a contract to procure a 10,000 seat stadium for our very first international youth concert.
- Floating down the Amazon in a thatched roof wooden boat (at night, in a massive storm) in order to share Christ with a tribe.
- Turning down a $75,000 annual salary when I was only making $17,000 annually at the time.
- Accepting an invitation to speak before thousands when I was only 19 and had never spoken to near that amount of people before.
- Traveling to India with just me and my friend Matt for 3 weeks when we were just teenagers.
- Launching Go Internship.tv
- Moving the ministry into offices
- Most recently:  Deciding to have our first child.

This list goes on and on.  I write it not to glory in my past, but rather to highlight the fact that almost all of my favorite memories in life had some level of risk involved in order to experience them.  It’s easy to list now but at the time those risks were very real with true human emotion attached to them.  When we decided to start Go International and quit our jobs immediately after marrying, you better believe there were some doubts and worries:  “What if we fail?”  “What if we can’t pay our bills?”  “What if we’re not capable?”  All of those were questions we asked ourselves. I am just glad that we didn’t let those questions stop us.  In fact, we started asking ourselves new questions:  “What if we succeed?”  “What if this works?”  “What if we truly can live our dream?”  It is these latter questions that spurred us onward.

What is it that’s in your heart?  What dreams do you possess?  Who are the people that you love?  It is my contention that your answer to those questions are indeed worth the risk.  I often say this to our interns: “We only get one life, this is not a dress rehearsal.”  Comfort and security are not worth the death of your dreams.  Now is the time to live your life.  Risking is the difference between existing and living.

What about you?  Comment below and tell me about some of the risks you’re glad you’ve taken in life.