Socialism is Bad

Land of the Free… But what does that actually mean?

I came to America with my grandparents, my parents and my sister when I was 5. I attended elementary school, and every morning we would stand, take our right hand (I often had to peek at the other kids as it took me a while to learn the difference between left and right), put it over our heart and, without full recognition of the words we were saying, we would recite:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...”

Had you asked me to define “allegiance” in first grade, I would have giggled bashfully and run away. I had no idea what it meant, let alone why I was pledging it to a pretty pattern of stars and stripes on a rectangle of fabric.

Like many other kids, I didn’t love studying History. There were a few cool stories, but I couldn’t bring myself to memorize “important” dates of “important” wars. It was all so unimportant to me. I remembered enough to pass the tests, but then the trivia flew out of my head to make space for stories about dragons. Far more interesting.

Growing up, I started paying more and more attention to history, politics and economics and formulated some firm opinions on the subjects. Opinions which (ask anybody close to me) I kept very thoroughly to myself. Politics had a tendency to be such a divisive subject, so I thought it safer to avoid the conversations altogether.

I’ve come to love the United States of America. I’ve always admired it, and been grateful that my parents brought me here, but it was only very recently that I realized how much I took for granted.

A couple of definitions, to be sure we're all on the same page:

Communism: A utopian economic theory in which all property is owned by the collective community, all labor is organized for the common advantage of all members, and goods are owned in common and available to all as needed. It holds the ideal of a society where production and consumption reach an equilibrium, as Karl Marx described, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”.

Socialism: the crude and unpleasant stepping stone toward an unattainable communist utopia.

I've been growing ever more concerned that my beloved United States is gradually embracing the socialist ideology. This has to stop.

In the words of Soviet politician Nikita Khrushchev "You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept communism outright, but we'll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you'll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won't have to fight you. We'll so weaken your economy until you'll fall like overripe fruit into our hands."

Russia never achieved true Communism. But the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) made a real effort in the direction.

We could dive into the history of the Soviet Union and all that it entailed, but my interest was not in the governmental structure or the economic system. My interest was, “what was it like for the average human being to live under a Socialist government?”

So on a warm summer afternoon, my husband and I invited my parents over, grilled some salmon and home-grown zucchini for lunch, and sat down to learn about their lives growing up in Soviet Russia. 

Here’s what I learned:

Motivation dies. Innovation dies.

There is no drive to innovate when there is no reward for innovation. There’s no point in working hard when your hard work won’t pay off.

In eighth grade, my dad took a trade class in metalworking. After the class, the students are assigned to go to a factory to do a sort of “apprenticeship” in working the metal lathe. My dad arrives with his classmates. Nobody is there! It’s an hour after the place opens, and nobody is there. They look around, the place is empty!

Finally they find the breakroom. All employees are there, sitting around, smoking, drinking. Gradually, they get up and start to help the kids for a bit. But an hour before the designated lunch time, they’re all back in the breakroom, playing cards. Why work hard? The pay is the same regardless of your actions. You could work your butt off or you could drink and relax. In fact, the mentality was such that the guy who works his butt off is shunned! He makes the rest of the “workers” look bad!

On the surface, this looks great! You get paid for just showing up - it’s like the ultimate participation prize.

But this is so toxic on so many levels - ultimately resulting in a civilization that goes nowhere. 

On a personal level, working hard results in achievements, and personal achievements result in personal pride, a key factor in one’s level of happiness. Happy people make for better spouses and parents. Happy, productive parents create happy, productive children. A society of happy and productive people creates a community of compassion, motivation, innovation and results.

This kind of society gets smothered and eventually extinguished in a socialist environment.

It’s not what you know, but who you know.

Businesses in Soviet Russia were owned by the government. Capitalism was strictly illegal. The closest thing to being a "business owner" was being a "director" of a store or business. 

The value (or appeal) of moving up to the position of director was access and connections.

Connections, I learned, were practically a currency unto themselves. Your value was not in how wealthy you were, but in your connections.

My dad's family was, in this sense, very well off. My grandfather was a military engineer, my grandmother was also an engineer. They were not affluent, by any stretch, but certainly not lacking. Grandpa had lots of connections and he'd barter with his friends. There was always plenty of food in the house.

My mother chimed in at this point to show some contrast. Her family was a class down from my dad's. In their house, there was no waste. They had a "dacha", a second home outside the city with a dense food garden.

"Here, gardening is a hobby" my mom said, gesturing to our backyard where my husband's zucchini and tomato plants were making an effort to take over the world. "But our garden in Russia was a necessity. The whole family worked on it, and it was very deliberate. You planted only the things that could be counted on to get the whole family through the year."

She described a typical grocery store. As she spoke, the image I conjured up in my mind frighteningly resembled something out of George Orwell's "1984": "There was always bread. There was a shelf filled with vodka. A shelf of some canned foods, pickled green tomatoes, that kind of thing. Sometimes there was fish, but you couldn't count on that. If something more interesting showed up on the shelves you snatched it up and told your friends because you didn't know when it would come around again."

But the selection we have available to us here? A shelf (let alone an entire aisle) filled with every type of candy imaginable? Unheard of. My mom adds, "I never knew what steak was until we came to the States." I thought I heard her wrong. She assured me I didn't.

I laughed, "...and here I am, spoiled enough to be able to have a favorite brand of toilet paper". My parents chuckle in agreement.

But moving up in class was not something one considered. My mom explained that she wasn't particularly unhappy with her lot in life, she just didn't think about it much. The trick was not to think too much into the future. I’m not gonna lie, hearing her say that gave me a slightly uncomfortable feeling. A feeling that I definitely take my freedom for granted - even if that’s only the simple freedom to imagine a better future for myself and my loved ones. 

On education

My dad says, "In terms of getting a job, I had never heard of a resume or a job interview until I came to America." Again, it all depended exclusively on who you knew. If you didn't know somebody you didn't get a job let alone a promotion. Education? Experience? Completely irrelevant. 

My husband chimes in, "but at least the education is free, right?" My parents look at each other. My dad asks, in return, "here in America, is it true that anybody, given a bit of effort, can get into college?" We nod. "So that's the thing," he says, "yes, the education was free. But a very small percentage of the population was able to get in. Maybe one percent. Here's how it works: there is a university and every geographical sector has a quota of people that are allowed to be admitted into that college. so you may have a large quantity of the most brilliant minds in one geographical area, and some of them get selected, but if their quota was fulfilled that was it. Nobody else could get in, even if they passed the qualification exams." The quotas were there to create equality, but the end result is a glaring inequality.

So much for that benefit…

Free healthcare. That's gotta be a plus… right?

My mom laughs a little, "I got root canals there. Then we got to America and I got them re-done. Only this time I found the best dentist, paid good money, and I got them done right."

What I said before about motivation and innovation dying? That's a very dangerous thing, when it comes to medicine. 

See, there's no competition. So there's no reason for anyone to try to be the best, or even try to be good. Quality in any product is important. Quality in health care is essential.

At this point it strikes me. Thank God it was only a root canal that she needed. What if it was something more serious, or life-threatening, even? I shudder to think…

You really do get what you pay for. Or in this case, what you don't.

I'm an optimist. There's gotta be something, anything, that's good about socialism.

I ask the question. The silence draws on for an awkwardly long time while they both dig through their memories to scrape up an honest answer. 

Finally, my dad answers, "the people were good. But that's no testament to socialism. People are basically good, no matter where you go."

My mom nods in agreement and adds, "maybe a good thing is that people, out of necessity, were more creative. Sewing clothes for their families, finding a purpose and a use for every scrap, since waste was not an option."

My dad looks at us and, in closing, states the obvious: "socialism is bad."

In closing

They told us many, many more stories than I recounted here. Perhaps I'll write "part two" and elaborate.

But what I took away from this experience was that I live, today, in what truly is the Land of the Free. I am eternally grateful to my family for providing me the opportunity to have so many freedoms. Freedoms that I didn't fully realize I had. Freedoms I took for granted. 

I can't bear to think of these freedoms being taken away, or handed away, by the insidious and increasing acceptance of socialism by the good people of this country.

So today, with full recognition, understanding and awareness, with my right hand placed over my very humble and grateful heart, I pledge allegiance to this beautiful flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.