Great post, HT. I grew up among Cuban refugees in Miami, Florida. (Venezuelan expat joke about Cubans: 'You know why Cubans like South Florida so much? It's so close to the U.S.')
My explanation for why Communism always immediately leads to the enrichment of the guys in control and the impoverishment of "the proletariat" is kind of backwards. It's based on my belief that capitalism is the only economic system unabashedly based upon self-interest being the sole motivator and determinant of human behavior. (Which simply means I'm a cynic, which is a word that is grossly misunderstood and used as a smear by people who don't know what it means.) To the extent Communism is based on the terribly wrong belief that people will act in the best interests of anyone else or some vaguely defined "community" or proletariat, it is doomed to abject failure. Because, the elect who invariably end up controlling the levers of power are acting in their best interests, and not in those of anyone else. See, eg., Bernie Sanders' wife having a no responsibility but highly compensated job at a college (and running it into the ground) and buying a house on Lake Champlain with somebody's money, maybe her parents' for all I know. But in any event, she purchased the house with ... wait for it ... CAPITAL. The house is not made available to any members of any local workers' committees. It's that simple.
Great post, HT. I grew up among Cuban refugees in Miami, Florida. (Venezuelan expat joke about Cubans: 'You know why Cubans like South Florida so much? It's so close to the U.S.')
My explanation for why Communism always immediately leads to the enrichment of the guys in control and the impoverishment of "the proletariat" is kind of backwards. It's based on my belief that capitalism is the only economic system unabashedly based upon self-interest being the sole motivator and determinant of human behavior. (Which simply means I'm a cynic, which is a word that is grossly misunderstood and used as a smear by people who don't know what it means.) To the extent Communism is based on the terribly wrong belief that people will act in the best interests of anyone else or some vaguely defined "community" or proletariat, it is doomed to abject failure. Because, the elect who invariably end up controlling the levers of power are acting in their best interests, and not in those of anyone else. See, eg., Bernie Sanders' wife having a no responsibility but highly compensated job at a college (and running it into the ground) and buying a house on Lake Champlain with somebody's money, maybe her parents' for all I know. But in any event, she purchased the house with ... wait for it ... CAPITAL. The house is not made available to any members of any local workers' committees. It's that simple.