Every time someone gives me an example of how great socialism is, I just laugh, usually because they are famous for only telling half the story which is something the socialists are really good at - debating rhetoric and viewing the world from a linear perspective. The other day, a socialist acquaintance stated that he was much wiser than I because I only understood economics from participating in the free market as a business person and there was much more to central banking, macro-economics, taxation, and government than just running a business.
Well, I thought to myself; "No, really, yah think?" I mean duh, that goes without saying, but for anyone who thinks that the hijacking of production, labor, capital, and/or the flow of money from free-markets in a socialist motif is better than free-market capitalism, obviously has never run a business, and quite frankly doesn't know what they are talking about. However, let's listen to this latest argument of his as to why socialism is so great, as he pointed me to an article where there was an interesting attempt recently in the New York Times by Gretchen Dykstra to promote socialism in a piece titled; "Pragmatism on the Prairie," published on March 30, 2012. She writes;
"Republicans often accuse Democrats of being socialists. But in North Dakota, socialism has been thriving for decades. It is the only state with a state-owned bank and a profitable state-owned grain elevator and flour mill, both of which the good people of North Dakota, who mostly vote Republican in presidential elections, embrace and value. Both institutions began embroiled in controversy. With all the vitriol about socialism and radicalism in the national debate today, is there anything we can learn from North Dakota?"
The article goes on to discuss a program put forth in the early 1900s which is still going on in a similar form today. The author of this piece states that North Dakota re-invests in itself and had kept out corporate farms and large land-grabbers, and that the Bank of North Dakota has been liquid the entire time and it is successful. Now then the author of that piece asks if we can learn something from socialism in North Dakota based on her findings - well "yes we can" but first let's also consider some other facts;
North Dakota is a very protectionist state Most of the graduating kids leave North Dakota North Dakota has resources such as agriculture and fossil fuels
My experiences in North Dakota show it to be closed off in many regards. As a franchisor I noted that for such a small homogeneous agrarian population it was amazing that they had burdensome franchise registration rules. By the time a franchisor complied with all the rules, there was barely enough market potential to ever realize a profit, thus, we didn't enter the state we skipped it.
Now then, we did sell franchises to hardworking folks from North Dakota, albeit after they'd fled the state, as most young people do leave, which is the real reason N. Dakota has such a low unemployment rate, everyone who can; leaves.
If you talk to the people there, indeed, there is definitely a class divide. The reason the North Dakota Bank has done well is due to protectionism and an abundance of good agricultural land. But I would submit to you that if you head to Nebraska, things are much better and they've done extremely well there. Shouldn't we be comparing what N. Dakota is and what it could have been without the socialist motif - rather than using it as an example of a socialist win and victory for socialism on the score board? I think so. I would submit to you that much of N. Dakota is left in a time warp.
Thus, I would let me state that although the NYT author tries to tell us we could learn something from North Dakota suggesting somehow that socialism is good for America - what we should be taking away from the example here is how socialism denies a society of their true future potential. N. Dakota has yet to realize that potential, even with all the oil reserves it has. So, I have once again completely defeated the examples of how great socialism can be from one of their devout followers.
Socialism is bad for America. It's bad news!
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