Some of us think the best way to achieve security is to protect individual property and individual rights, while others think the best way is to join together into a communal entity which distributes out goods and services to us.  So which way actually works in real life?

If we want to see how the different systems work, we need only look around.  Look at Hong Kong as compared with Communist China.  Look at North Korea as compared with South Korea or Communist East Germany as compared with West Germany.  See how the government responded to the victims of Katrina versus how neighborhoods and churches responded.  See how the government protected the students at Virginia Tech versus how individual students protected themselves at the Appalachian Law School in Grundy, Virginia.  The differences are clear, and the contrasts are stark.  After looking at reality, there can be no doubt as to which system provides real security.

When individual property and individual rights are protected, most people work hard and earn enough money to pay for their own food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical care, and they buy insurance for emergency situations.  Individuals also put locks on their doors and have alarm systems, weapons, and other means to defend themselves against the bad guys.  Since people have an incentive to be productive, because they get to keep the fruits of their labor, the society is generally prosperous.  Those who cannot provide for themselves by working and earning their own livings often are cared for by family members or charities.  The society is wealthy enough that people can devote themselves to the arts, be concerned about the environment, create funds to “save the whales”, and so forth.  Still, it is not perfect; there are some people who fall through the cracks.

On the other hand, when we rely on a communal entity to take care of us, and we all get the same food, clothing and shelter whether we work hard or not, we do not have the same incentive to be productive.  Why struggle when the fruits of your labor will just be taken away and given to someone else who isn’t as productive?  I saw this lack of desire to work when I was a college student, studying in the Soviet Union in 1974.  At the time, I was surprised to see so many people wearing bandages and faking injuries so they did not have to work, and many others dragging their feet and doing as little work as possible, but now I understand.  (I also understand why so many people in the Soviet Union spent a good part of their lives drunk, trying to anesthetize themselves against the despair that is a part of a world in which there is no sense of gratification from striving to use one’s talents and achieving success.)

Of course, the result of this lack of incentive was that production was greatly reduced, so everyone was tied together in poverty.  And this experience has been repeated in communist countries all over the world.  It was even part of the American experience in Jamestown and the Plymouth Colony, with many people starving to death until private property rights were established and people became more productive.  Since productivity is so low in the communal system, the level and quality of food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care are poor for nearly everyone.  The situation may vary as to whether more people starve to death in the communal system (as they did in the Plymouth Colony) or in the individual rights system, but the communal system certainly provides the greatest misery for the greatest number of people, leaving nearly everyone helpless and dependent.

Neither system creates Utopia or a heaven on earth.  There always will be children whose parents do not take good care of them.  There always will be people who are mentally or physically disabled and need help from someone else.  However, there can be no doubt that the greatest level of security and prosperity is found in the societies that protect and respect private property and individual rights.

So why do middle class people continue to buy into the communal plan?  Why do they fall for Hillary’s “village” to raise children and provide health care?  Why do they want to depend on the government (the commune) to care for them in their old age?  Why do they allow their children to be enslaved in a government-controlled education system? 

Do they think they are going to get something for nothing?  Don’t they realize that they are going to be the ones paying for the communal system either through taxes or lost opportunities?  Have they never heard of buying insurance to protect against unplanned catastrophes or of saving money for a rainy day?  Do they really think they will be more secure by making themselves dependent on others rather than by taking care of themselves?  Do they really think the weakest members of society will be more secure in a communal system in which everyone else is barely keeping his head above water?

Or have they just not thought it through?  After twelve or more years of education in the government schools, have they been so dumbed down that they just accept the claims and promises of the politicians without question?  Are they so childlike that they put the same trust in the commune that a child puts in Santa Claus? Are they so afraid of personal responsibility that they are willing to make themselves dependent on strangers?  Do they really think that people who are too mentally or physically incapacitated to take care of themselves will be able to fill out all the government forms and jump through all the government hoops in order to be cared for by the government?  Do they really think the poor and downtrodden will be treated better by impersonal government agencies than by religious and other charities?

If they really have such faith in a communal system, why don’t they just move to a country that provides one instead of trying to convert the U.S. to such a system?  Let them move to Cuba or North Korea or join up with Chavez in Venezuela and leave the rest of us alone.  Why do they think so many people are willing to risk their lives to come to America rather than trying to get to North Korea, China, or Cuba?  Do they think the U.S. will continue to be the land of opportunity after they have their way with it?  History has given us the answer, if only we would pay attention.