What Socialist Influencers Get Wrong (Just About Everything) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Socialism.
2. 0:00Socialism.
3. 0:01Socialism is the way forward.
4. 0:03Socialism is popular!
5. 0:05In recent years, more than a third of American adults
6. 0:08said they view socialism positively.
7. 0:11Why?
8. 0:12Maybe because social media is filled with
9. 0:15economically illiterate people saying things like:
10. 0:18Socialism is working better than capitalism
11. 0:2093% of the time.
12. 0:2293% of the time?
13. 0:24Where does she get that?
14. 0:26Well, I asked Stossel TV producer
15. 0:27Kristin Tokarev to investigate.
16. 0:30She got it from this study published in the
17. 0:32Journal of Health Services 40 years ago.
18. 0:35But its Marxist authors conveniently exclude
19. 0:38high-income countries like the
20. 0:39U.S., Japan, Canada.
21. 0:42In fact, all the biggest capitalist countries.
22. 0:45They compare socialist countries to allegedly
23. 0:47capitalist countries like these,
24. 0:49some of which were at war.
25. 0:51Based on that, she says:
26. 0:53We have all the data showing
27. 0:54that socialism does work.
28. 0:56Madeline Pendleton is a TikTok star
29. 0:58with more than a million subscribers.
30. 1:00What do I like about communism?
31. 1:02She celebrates communism too!
32. 1:04Mostly the increased life expectancy.
33. 1:07But there’s no increased life expectancy.
34. 1:09People live longest in capitalist places
35. 1:12like Japan and South Korea.
36. 1:14Even in the United States, where more people
37. 1:17die young because we drive more.
38. 1:19[shouting]
39. 1:20[crash]
40. 1:20And so we have more car accidents.
41. 1:22We eat more and get fat.
42. 1:24Is that mac and cheese on your hamburger?
43. 1:26Yeah, it is mac and cheese.
44. 1:27[gun shots]
45. 1:29We shoot each other more often,
46. 1:30and we take more dangerous drugs.
47. 1:33Yet we still live longer than people in China.
48. 1:35But socialism is also better, says Pendleton, because of:
49. 1:39The 90-100% home-ownership rates.
50. 1:43100%? That’s just silly.
51. 1:46China, if you believe their statistics,
52. 1:48does have almost 90% homeownership.
53. 1:51But that only happened after China
54. 1:53terminated socialist housing.
55. 1:56Under socialism, just 20% of people owned homes.
56. 2:00In socialist Venezuela,
57. 2:02homeowners don’t even own their homes.
58. 2:04Dozens of people, squatting in this
59. 2:06abandoned office tower in central Caracas.
60. 2:09Yet Pendleton claims:
61. 2:10The commies want to
62. 2:11steal your house from your landlord
63. 2:13and give it straight to you.
64. 2:14Pendleton has plenty of company
65. 2:16praising socialism on social media.
66. 2:18This YouTuber with almost 2 million subscribers
67. 2:21tells people, “Why you should be a socialist.”
68. 2:24The guaranteed right to healthcare, food and shelter.
69. 2:26It’s true, socialism promises
70. 2:28free healthcare, food and shelter,
71. 2:31but that doesn’t mean what people get is any good.
72. 2:34Look at Cuba.
73. 2:43This socialist TikToker, with Karl Marx like hair,
74. 2:46has a hundred thousand subscribers.
75. 3:03Socialist theory does, but again and again,
76. 3:07what people get is misery.
77. 3:09You would be subjected to
78. 3:10back breaking labor, brutality, starvation.
79. 3:14Countless millions of deaths and the worst
80. 3:16manmade famine in human history.
81. 3:19Yet, a man calling himself “Spooky Scary Socialist”
82. 3:23gets almost 2 million views saying:
83. 3:25Communism did work.
84. 3:26It provided essential services like
85. 3:28full employment, rough income inequality.
86. 3:30How can these people be so deluded?
87. 3:32I’m eager to hear what they’ll say
88. 3:34when John interviews them.
89. 3:35They tell millions of people:
90. 3:37The central idea that unites all socialists
91. 3:40is maximizing freedom.
92. 3:41A more dignified life and the
93. 3:43democratization of power.
94. 3:44Democratization? Like in China?
95. 3:47[music]
96. 3:49Here there's just one party
97. 3:51and its leader made himself president for life.
98. 3:55[shouting]
99. 3:58Every socialist economy has failed.
100. 4:04Venezuela was once the
101. 4:06richest country in South America.
102. 4:08Now, there are food shortages.
103. 4:10More and more people reduced
104. 4:12to eating from the rubbish.
105. 4:14Socialism just doesn’t work.
106. 4:19So says this TikTok socialist.
107. 4:21But what finally worked in Vietnam
108. 4:24was free markets.
109. 4:25Before Vietnam embraced capitalism,
110. 4:28people went hungry.
111. 4:29The country depended on handouts.
112. 4:32[music]
113. 4:33Then Vietnam legalized capitalism
114. 4:35and freed the private sector.
115. 4:37The TikTokers make the same mistake about China.
116. 4:40Socialism worked in China.
117. 4:42China eradicated extreme poverty.
118. 4:45Wrong again.
119. 4:46When China banned capitalism, millions died.
120. 4:49Those who didn’t get on with the
121. 4:50leader of the production team or
122. 4:52those who disobeyed his orders
123. 4:53were starved to death.
124. 4:54It was only after:
125. 4:56Campaigns like the Great Leap Forward
126. 4:58and the Cultural Revolution had killed
127. 4:59tens of millions of people.
128. 5:01That China’s leaders reversed course.
129. 5:03Embracing capitalism and
130. 5:05encouraging private business.
131. 5:07Only then, did average incomes in China rise.
132. 5:10But Socialism’s promoters still say,
133. 5:12you don’t need capitalism or profit.
134. 5:15Innovation can flourish
135. 5:16even when people are not motivated by profit.
136. 5:18The USSR gave the world the anthrax vaccine,
137. 5:21artificial satellites, and one of
138. 5:23the earliest mobile phones.
139. 5:25That’s true.
140. 5:26But do any of you
141. 5:27have a socialist made phone today?
142. 5:30The West has just created so much more.
143. 5:32The socialists say:
144. 5:34Ownership should be collective.
145. 5:36But every attempt, anywhere,
146. 5:38at collective ownership has failed.
147. 5:41In America, people tried that 200 years ago.
148. 5:44In New Harmony, Indiana,
149. 5:46private property was abolished.
150. 5:48The result, as with similar attempts, was famine.
151. 5:51No matter how many views these propagandists get,
152. 5:55the fact is, socialism fails.
153. 5:58So, what do these popular socialists say
154. 6:00in response to these inconvenient facts?
155. 6:03Sadly, I can’t show you.
156. 6:05We invited them to come here
157. 6:07and make their points to you.
158. 6:09Not one would.
159. 6:10Socialism stays winning.
160. 6:12The bottom line is that incentives matter.
161. 6:15Nobody washes a rental car because
162. 6:17most people don’t care a lot about
163. 6:19what belongs to everyone.
164. 6:21It’s just human nature.
165. 6:23Capitalism isn’t perfect,
166. 6:25but if we really want a better future and freedom,
167. 6:28capitalism, not socialism,
168. 6:31is the way to get those things.
169. 6:32[swoosh]
170. 6:35Thanks for watching this video.
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172. 6:38please, click that button.
173. 6:40[music]