Communism and Socialism Suck--Here's Why

A transcript from a class on the United States Constitution by Michael Badnarik:

Communism: Is a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common.

It’s is not yours!

That’s why Communism is bad, that’s why we’re against Socialism. Not because they’ve got a red flag, or because they march funny, it’s because they’re taking all your property away. And when they take all your property away, they take away all of your rights! …

Winston Churchill said, “If you are twenty years old and you are not a Socialist, you have no heart. If you are forty years old and you are still a Socialist, you have no brain.”

Now what’s Churchill trying to tell us? Well, if you’re twenty years old and you’re listening to the advertising for Socialism. What does Socialism say? “We’re all going to have health care, we’re all going to have education, that we’re going to just live together, everybody’s just going to share everything, and we’re all going to sing ‘Kumbaya.’ Socialism is wonderful! How many people want to vote for wonderful socialism?

Well when your twenty, yeah, you’re idealistic “We just want everybody to love each other.” Isn’t that great?

Where’s all that healthcare coming from? Where’s all that free education coming from? Well, from the government. Where does [sic] they get the money from? Oh! I finally figured it out—forty years later. That’s not very much fun. So when you’re young and stupid, Socialism sounds like a great idea. When you finally grow up (hopefully not to late) Socialism sucks!

…somebody asked Karl Marx, “What would you need if you were going to start a Communist government from scratch?” … The Communist Manifesto is the answer. It’s not very long, basically just a term paper.

Read it. Why? Because a want you to be a Communist? No. I want you to know how they are attacking you. You have to understand the enemy.

The ten planks of The Communist Manifesto: Plank number one: abolition of private property. No property, no rights.

If I stand up on a soap box and I say, “I’m going to start a government where I’m going to take all your rights away.” How many people are going to volunteer? Nobody with half a brain!

So now Karl Marx stands on a box and says, “I’m going to start a new government and we’re going to take everybody’s property away.” They’re signing up like flies! … Basically the problem is they don’t understand that property and rights are related. If they take your property, you have no rights. And once you understand it, then you understand why Communism is evil. It’s not just a personal opinion, it’s evil: we’re taking your rights away.

Now, the other nine planks to The Communist Manifesto are basically just methods for doing the first thing. How are we going to take your property/rights away?

Well, number two is a heavy progressive income tax. A progressive income tax means that the more money you make, the higher the percentage. Do we have a progressive income tax in the United States? Yes! Can you say “I-R-S?” They don’t put the percentages, they change it and they convert it. If you make between 5,000 and 10,000 this is how much you pay. Between ten and fifteen this is how much you pay, and they give you the number. Well get your calculator and figure it out: the more money you make, the higher the percentage. What do you think [is] the highest percentage the IRS has ever collected? Right now I believe the top percentage is about 33%.What do you think the maximum was that the IRS has collected in history? Ninety-eight percent!

Between 1941 and 1942 during World War II, there were some people who were taxed 98%! That’s almost all! How come we didn’t have another American revolution? To hell with the Germans! I’m going to get my gun and start fighting here! You’re going to take ninety-eight percent of my stuff? You’re going to have to take it! If you think you are big enough to take it, come right on ahead! But I’m not going to give it up! That’s ridiculous.

[Plank Three:] abolition of all rights of inheritance. If your parents die, the government is going to take half. Why? What did they do to get half? They just want to make sure that they don’t leave you a million dollars so that you can get more and more money. It’s a lot easier to become a multi-millionaire if mom and dad leave you one [million] to start with! We don’t want that to happen!

[Plank Four:] confiscation of all property of immigrants and rebels. You ever fly internationally? You have to fill our a card, if you’re carrying more than 10,000 dollars they’ll take it! You want to leave the United States and go live someplace else? Goodbye! Leave all your money here! I have friends who want to move to New Zealand. They are trying to figure out a way to put their money in an offshore account so they can keep their money.

[Plank Five:] a central bank. We’re going to talk about the Federal Reserve.

We can go right on down the line. Ten out of ten items in The Communist Manifesto are here in the United States right now. Did you know that you live in a Communist country? Are you glad that you live in a Communist country?

What are you going to do about it? We’ve got to draw the line somewhere.