Why Nothing is Good about Collectivism:
Imagine an ideology that’s premised on taking from the successful, hard-working members of society and giving it to the lazy and incompetent. Oh, and that ideology rewards people not for producing the most or taking the most risk, but rather for having the greatest “need” (in other words, for placing the greatest burden on everyone around them). That system would always fail and lead to a decayed society of losers and moochers rather than a productive society of winners and producers. In short, that’s why nothing is good about collectivism.
It doesn’t take much reading or study of history to see that nothing is good about collectivism. Socialism, collectivism’s most widely accepted form of governance, always fails. And not only does it always fail, it is usually responsible for huge numbers of deaths and immense amounts of misery.
That’s because socialism and collectivism are, in the words of Winston Churchill, ideologies of envy. Since the envious are in charge, they use force and compulsion to take what they want. Atlas Shrugged shows that collectivist compulsion to tyrannically take everything the productive members of society produce quite well. For those that don’t know, that’s how wealth redistribution works; it’s the use of force and compulsion to steal from the successful.
The Alternative to Collectivism
The alternative to collectivism is capitalism. Rather than being based on envy, compulsion, and tyranny, capitalism is a virtuous system based on consent and freedom. Free markets and free people go hand in hand, as Milton Friedman so excellently describes in Capitalism and Freedom.
And because capitalism rewards those who try the hardest, it tends to lead to immense prosperity for everyone under it.
Conclusion
Once you compare capitalism and collectivism, it’s not hard to see that there is nothing good about collectivism. It’s a failed ideology that leads only to misery, whatever form it’s in. Free college and Medicare for all are the two main forms of collectivism that are rising in America.
Because there is nothing good about collectivism, we need to start standing up to those that preach its supposed benefits. For one, we should demand the government enact no new entitlements. Entitlements are collectivism at its worst and are far too expensive for our economy to support. Instead, we should cut taxes and incentivize those that produce to continue doing so. Otherwise, our economy will end up no better than that of Venezuela or Cuba.
By: Gen Z Conservative
