Why People Continue to Believe in Socialism

Socialism’s historical record includes well over 100 million civilians killed by socialist regimes over the past century, yet the ideology has seen a resurgence in popularity, particularly among recent college graduates. Its persistence and appeal lies in exploiting contempt, envy, and a fear of personal responsibility rather than in any coherent economic case against private ownership.

The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

In a previous article about socialism, I outlined the basic reasons why profit-seeking capitalists are essential to the productivity and income of workers and to satisfying the desires of consumers, why increasing government controls over the economy plays into the hands of exploitative corporatist elites, and why socialization of the means of production ultimately requires central planning to coordinate production and preserve a division of labor, which in turn necessitates the evils of totalitarian tyranny in spite of the democratic aspirations of many well-meaning socialists. In brief, ordinary people cannot gain a greater voice and a freer life through curtailment of private ownership; socialism necessarily leads to the mass poverty and mass regimentation of totalitarian tyranny.

Such a characterization of socialism is far from being new, and of course there has been ample historical experience of numerous socialist states over a little more than a century that dramatically illustrates just how horrible socialist-induced mass poverty and mass regimentation can get in practice. In spite of all that has been learned about socialism over the past century (including well over 100,000,000 civilians murdered by socialist regimes), socialist ideas have had an increase in popularity lately, especially among recent college graduates who, if they had ever gotten a real education, ought to know better. So what’s up with that? Why does anyone still take socialism seriously?…