Narratio Today, I will throw out the word socialism a lot, so it would probably be good to define what exactly

socialism is. Socialism, dictionary definition is, a political theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. To unpack what all that means, Socialists believe that all a nations wealth and materials should be owned by everybody, because everyone is an equal. Now some of you are probably thinking why did I have such a bad connotation assigned to this harmless idea? In the year 1848, a German philosopher known as Karl Heinrich Marx published a small red book titled the Communist Manifesto. Its fairly safe to say, this man and his book are responsible for most of your negative vibes towards socialism. The Communist Manifesto outlined the basic tenants of Communism, and described socialism as a transitional state before the final overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism through anarchy1. Well, what exactly are capitalism and communism? Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. Innocuous at first,
1 Marx, Karl, Communist Manifesto, 1848.

but reading deeper we find that unfortunately instead of paying each according to his abilities and needs, every communist nation hitherto has either kept all the wealth within the government, kept all the wealth within the government, or collapsed because it kept all the wealth within the government. That said, why do all governments in the long run fail? A reason which we all know and can recite from memory is found in Romans 3:23- For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That explains all. Unless we have God as our king, nothing will ultimately work forever. As far as it goes, socialism can work just as well as any political system, if not better than some, but it will always be a finite government as long as we are finite people. That fact doesnt ever change. Divisio Socialism can be used to establish an economy in budding nations. There are three reasons the socialist design would work for a new struggling nation. First, power is spread throughout the government so it cant overstep itself. Second, there is a guaranteed standard of living for everyone, including jobs and housing. Third, everybody owns the wealth of the nation, so it will be put to good use by the people rather than wasted by government decision makers. Now, Im not saying that we should support full on communism,or that every nation radically institute socialism, or even that we should

never install democracy, but what I am saying is that new nations can use socialism for a set period of time while the young country develops. Confirmatio First, power is spread throughout the government so it cant overstep itself. Though this may seem like an obvious jump point, the importance of power distribution cannot be devalued. As I walk through a few different revolutions in the last few centuries, listen for the reason behind the rebels cause. One of our nations fore-fathers, Thomas Jefferson said Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. So, considering the American War for Independence first, what have we all heard was the driving motive for our break away from England and his royal Majesty King George III. Typical Americans would say taxation without representation, however, that grievance is but one in a list of 25 complaints against King George, in the Declaration of Independence. Besides taxation without representation, the founding fathers charged the King of England with refusing his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. As well as made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.2 What blatant common theme is found amongst all of these grievances? Abused power, overstepped boundaries, and hierarchical greed.
2 Declaration of Independence, In Congress July 4th, 1776

Now, Id like to turn for a moment to another upheaval, particularly, the French Revolution. However, before I say anything about this historic time, there is one disclaimer. I do not support, nor do I want it to sound like I support what the french people did in their tumultuous Reign of Terror. That aside, we again look at the time leading up to the revolution. What was happening? Why were the people angry? Where was the power? As of 1788, one year before the Revolutions start, France was an Absolute Monarchy under Loius XVI. Under Loius, a group of Aristocrats in a Feudal system would override any unappreciated laws passed down by their king. Essentially, this group of piggish nobles didnt care that half of their country starved while they lived in the lap of luxury, and they had the power to keep it that way.3 Again, looking at the cause of the revolution, we clearly see abused power, overstepped boundaries, and hierarchical greed. Last but not least, we can turn our attention to the most recent of my three examples, the Cuban Revolution. In this militant coup, Fidel Castro and a small band of guerrilla fighters overthrew Fulgencio Batista, the then President dictator of Cuba. In a stunning campaign, Castro started with 17 men with 12 guns amongst them, slowly chipping away at Batistas forces until his group garnered enough support from local peasants and political dissidents and took Havana from its dictator. Though Castro fought for
3 Encyclopedia Brittanica, French Revolution

Cuban freedom, he found no support from the United States because of his Communist alignment. Because of political party alone, the U.S. supported the Batista regime throughout the Cuban Revolution so that after Havana fell into revolutionary hands, Batista fled the country with an amassed US $300,000,000. Why was he so rich? Well, it sure wasnt from helping out his citizens of Cuba. More likely it was from, one more time, abused power, overstepped boundaries, and hierarchical greed. So what do we do? How do we avoid abused power, overstepped boundaries, and hierarchical greed? Simply by spreading the power like butter on warm toast. Look at America, the three-branched Tree of Freedom, or read about Rome, with its senate and consul system. So, how does a Socialist system divide power? Masterfully. By way of presidents, committees, assemblies, representation, and fair voting, a social state places all people at an equal status, but divides responsibility without the hierarchy imposed in other systems. Also, only one that deserves responsibility in the socialist government will receive it because, as a person is naturally qualified to fill a position, in the socialist scheme he will naturally rise to that position unopposed and fulfill that responsibility. Thus, an unqualified oaf could not run the country just as a successful leader would not have a job serving chicken at KFC.

Second, there is a guaranteed standard of living for everyone, including jobs and housing. Now that we know why tyrannical governments need to be replaced with a spread-power state, we need to look at how a system would appeal to and take care of its citizens. A socialist government promises its people a job, food, shelter, and not only shelter, but land to live and thrive on. When a new nation, fresh after foundation or revolution, decides how to set up its new way of governance, these are the kinds of things they have to either take control of or privatize. First of all food. It is true that everyone must eat. Also true, there is enough food in the world for everyone to eat, and to eat fairly nutritiously. The sad fact is, tens of millions die of hunger every year. In America nearly 30 million tons of food waste are thrown away every year. Imagine for a moment, if instead of buying, consuming, and wasting millions of tons of food, each of us ate three square meals a day, no more, no less. Keep imagining, the rest of our millions of tons of food we take and we export to other nations, charitably or for minimal cost-covering prices. Now imagine that our government paid for all of this with no monetary cost to you or me. In the same way, imagine all the houses in our nation being provided by the government, the only cost being our labor. You may say, What if I want to live in a bigger house for whatever reason, all youd have to do is work more, or at a better job.

Then, theres education. A socialist government would first and foremost pay for you to attend primary school and high school if you so desired, and again at no monetary cost to you or your family. However, social education doesnt stop there. If you want to attend college, within the social state that education will also be free. So, back to when you wanted a bigger house but needed a better job to get there, all you need to do is work hard and the government will reward you. (Refutation point about guaranteed welfare promoting laziness) My third point is that everybody owns the wealth of the nation, so it will be put to good use by the people rather than wasted by government decision makers. To expound a little, I mean that a government truly by the people, for the people should actually put the peoples wealth to use helping the people. Since Ive already told you how a socialist government does this and why the power needs to be spread so this can happen, but why or how is wealth being owned by everyone helpful? To understand why everyone needs control of their money, lets look at a nation that has high-paid officials deciding the best way to spend other peoples money. The U.S. budget plans and statistics are pretty easy to access. According to the Fiscal Budget for 2012, the estimated Deficit in spending this year will be $1.3 trillion, increasing our public debt to $20.4 trillion by 2013. If these numbers dont scare you than youre ei-

ther crazy or youre one of Americas debtors just waiting to be paid back. Honestly, it is stupid the amount of debt we have allowed our nation to spiral into. On that bombshell, how does socialism fix a problem like this? Well, first of all, since the governments primary concern in a socialist scheme is keeping you an I alive and working, it may be spending some on defense, but probably not upwards of $700 billion like the US. The more likely expenditures will be on things like healthcare, education, welfare, and national upkeep(<-REPHRASE). My only question is why wouldnt you want your hard earned wealth actually visibly working for you?