Socialism Makes People Selfish | 5 Minute Video — Transcript

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1. 0:02In the contemporary world, it’s taken as a given that capitalism, with its free market
2. 0:08and profit motive, is based on selfishness and produces selfishness,
3. 0:14while socialism is based on selflessness and produces selflessness.
4. 0:20Well, the opposite is true.
5. 0:24Whatever its intentions, socialism produces far more selfish individuals and a far more
6. 0:30selfish society than a free-market economy does. And once this widespread selfishness
7. 0:36catches on, it is almost impossible to undo it.
8. 0:41Here's an illustration: In 2010 the United States President, Barack Obama, addressed
9. 0:46a large audience of college students. At one point in his speech, he announced that young
10. 0:52people will now be able to remain on their parents' health insurance plan until age 26.
11. 0:59I don't ever recall hearing a louder, more thunderous, or more sustained applause
12. 1:06than I did then. Had the president announced that a cure for cancer had been discovered,
13. 1:12it is highly doubtful that the applause would have been as loud or as long.
14. 1:17But what were they so happy about? To be told that you can now remain dependent on your
15. 1:21parents until age 26 should strike a young person as demeaning, not liberating.
16. 1:29Throughout American history and, for that matter, all of Western history, the great
17. 1:34goal of young people was to become a mature adult – beginning with being independent
18. 1:39of Mom and Dad. Socialism and the welfare state destroy this aspiration.
19. 1:46In various European countries and now increasingly in the US, it is becoming common for young
20. 1:52people to live with their parents well into their 30s and not infrequently beyond.
21. 1:57And why not? In the welfare state, taking care of yourself is no longer a virtue.
22. 2:03Why? Because the government will take care of you.
23. 2:07Therefore: Socialism enables -- and as a result produces -- people whose preoccupations become
24. 2:15more and more self-centered:
25. 2:18How many benefits will I receive from the government?
26. 2:21Will the government pay for my education? Will the government pay for my health care?
27. 2:26What is the youngest age at which I can retire? How much paid vacation time can I get?
28. 2:32How many days can I call in sick and still get paid?
29. 2:35How many weeks of paid paternity or maternity leave am I entitled to?
30. 2:40The list gets longer with every election of a liberal or progressive or left-wing party.
31. 2:46And then each entitlement becomes a "right."
32. 2:51But we’re not done. There are even more destructive effects of Socialism.
33. 2:55Entitlements create citizens who lack a character trait that every human should have -- gratitude.
34. 3:03You cannot be happy if you are not grateful and you cannot be a good person if you are
35. 3:08not grateful. That’s why we constantly tell our children, “Say ’thank you.’"
36. 3:13But socialism undoes that. After all, why would a person be grateful for receiving an entitlement
37. 3:21– who’s going to be grateful for getting what they’re entitled to?
38. 3:25So, instead of "thank you," the citizen of the welfare state is taught to say, "What more am I entitled to?"
39. 3:32Yet the Left insists that it’s capitalism and the free market, not socialism,
40. 3:38that produces selfish people.
41. 3:40But the truth is that capitalism and the free market produce much less selfish people.
42. 3:46Teaching people to work hard and take care of themselves (and others) – and that they should earn
43. 3:52what they receive, produces less selfish, not more selfish, people.
44. 3:59Capitalism teaches people to work more; socialism teaches people to demand more.
45. 4:06Which attitude do you think will make a better society?
46. 4:11I’m Dennis Prager.