The Left Flunks Economics 101, Again

By Brian Coulter

F ailure and misery mark the history of socialism. Its earliest recorded manifestation on these shores was the Plymouth settlement in 1620. Gov. William Bradford wrote concerning the condition of their early collectivist colony:

"The experience that was had in this common course and condition … that the taking away of proprietie, and bringing in communitie into a comone wealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this comunitie … was found to breed much confusion and discontente, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite and comforte. For the yong-men … did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens wives and children, with out any recompense … And for mens wives to be commanded to doe service for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloaths, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery … "

Eventually, Bradford would cease the communal creation and sharing of goods and make each family responsible for their own property and necessities.

In this manner the colony flourished, and socialism should have forever been known as the failure it is.

Socialism, though, promises a society with the luster of perfection, the commercial without the caveat. And like any good advertisement offering claims of the failures of Brand X, capitalism, with its plentiful opportunities for success, but without any unrealistic guarantees for achieving it, seems a desperate gambit to those taken in by hype and false promises. For the progressive leftists who pledge the undeliverable within the secreted vehicle of socialism, the rules do not apply. In fact, leftists don't even understand basic economic realities.

A May study using a Zogby poll of 4,835 American adults indicates the more liberal the person, the less he understands economics. Eight basic questions were posed to the participants who were also asked to identify their political philosophies.

The results from the first of these questions reflected the percentage of conservatives answering incorrectly was 22.3 percent, very conservatives 17.6 percent and libertarians 15.7 percent. However, the percentage of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly was 67.6 percent and liberals 60.1 percent. There was no variance, since the other seven questions produced similar results.

All told, the ideological categories performed, best to worst, with an average number of incorrect responses from 0 to 8: Very conservative, 1.30; Libertarian, 1.38; Conservative, 1.67; Moderate, 3.67; Liberal, 4.69; Progressive/very liberal, 5.26.

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