OPINION:
Several people have become enamored with socialism’s promise of “free stuff.” However, those so seduced do not see the picture clearly. “Free” is not synonymous with “quality.”
Democratic socialists promise free health care for all. As has been demonstrated in the U.K., Canada and the U.S. with the Department of Veterans Affairs, such free care entails long lines, rationing of treatment or no treatment at all.
Public housing is free, or nearly so, but no one of means would choose to live there. Similarly, there are free homeless shelters — but the conditions are such that the homeless often prefer to sleep on the streets, even in bad weather.
There is so-called public education, K-12. Yet parents who can enroll their children elsewhere. Free college would result in an even greater perversion of higher education than exists now.
Unemployment and welfare income are free, yet neither provides disposable income. As a result, some recipients work “off the books” or engage in other illegal activities to supplement their financial allotment.
Socialists claim that all people have unspecified rights that must be respected. The litmus test for a “right” is whether it requires redistribution of assets. If so, it is not a right but rather extortion, taxation of which is government-sanctioned.
When that extortion becomes excessive, individuals of means move to other places. Next, their financially dependent counterparts leave because as the source of funds is gone. As Margaret Thatcher famously said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
HESSIE L. HARRIS
Silver Spring, Md.
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