Ayn Rand Used To Be “A Thing”
Here, are two readers’ comments on the meme here; my responses are beneath each.Scott Kozel: Socialism killed over 100 million people in Europe in the 20th Century.
What happened in the USSR and other countries was horrible, but it had little to nothing to do with socialism as a form of government. Rather, it was totalitarianism in which the entire populations of people were systematically crushed by cruel tyrants. Democratic socialism as it exists in Europe today has no resemblance to that whatsoever.
Scott may be among the many people who know this very well, but carry on this misrepresentation anyway. Not very laudable, IMO.
(2GreenEnergy supporter) Gary Tulie: The British under capitalism were responsible for around 10 million deaths from famine in India, and a million in Ireland – all dead because of political decisions rather than any inherent unavoidable natural catastrophe. Many more died because of the transatlantic slave trade, and around 10 million died under the brutal capitalism of king Leopold of Belgium in the Congo. If you look at total deaths arising from colonial capitalism, it’s quite possible the numbers exceed those who died under communism.
In addition to what I wrote in response to Scott, I would point out that pure, free-market capitalism as envisioned by Rand exists nowhere on the planet. In the United States, for example, we have the Federal Reserve, and numerous entities that regulate Wall Street, and the entire world of banking.
In the absence of such intervention, the collapse of the entire economic system, e.g., what happened in 2008, would be commonplace. When Ayn Rand was popularly accepted 75 years ago, this may not have been widely understood, but it certainly is today.
Moreover, all Americans receive a bounty of valuable services that are paid for by their tax dollars:
Infrastructure, police, fire fighting, criminal justice, national defense, public education, labor laws, auto and food safety standards, air traffic control, TSA, libraries, emergency medical care, environmental regulation, social security, Medicare, the National Archives, national parks, bank regulations and deposit insurance, copyright and patent laws, federal dams to provide electrical power, flood control, the Weather Service, the Federal Housing Authority, consulates and embassies, FEMA, veterans affairs, public water systems, monitoring of all international cargo, NASA, border protection, and the National Institutes of Health.
