Welcome to Socialism

We hope you all have enjoyed the experience of living under socialism the past three months. America has tried an unprecedented experiment in total government power. 30 million are unemployed. And no one seems to like it.

The initial reason for the government-ordered shutdown was to "flatten the curve" - to not overwhelm America's medical institutions. But that objective was achieved six weeks ago, when the infection rates flattened, and hospital beds and ventilators went unused.. The medical learning curve - new medications and better treatments, and better data about vulnerability to the virus - have made the virus less lethal. That is why death rates have collapsed, even as 40% of downstate New Yorkers have now been exposed to Corona.

Instead, too many politicians - intoxicated with their newfound attention, and enjoying their power to control everything - want to continue the crisis. The rationale is now mutating to accommodate that power grab. No longer is it to "flatten the curve", but to "eradicate the virus" - or to quote NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo - "to defeat the Beast..." But as any student of "Lord of the Flies" can tell you, the Beast exists because it can never be defeated.

America's three month experiment in total government has seen all the distortions, petty tyranny, and incompetence of socialism: Rationing; Central economic planning; Government deciding who can work ("essential") or not ("non-essential); Cronyism; Hoarding; Arrests for "illegal meeting" and "profiteering" and "selfishness;" Religious services banned; Peaceful assembly banned; Government subsidies to decide which businesses survive or die; Property owners told they must keep non-paying tenants, but must still pay huge property taxes; Liquor stores are "essential" but construction to replace broken windows is not; Government prosecutors are "essential, but defense attorneys are not. Violent criminal felons released from prison, and honest hairdressers jailed for working. The Bill of Rights erased.

And although 75,000 Americans have died, a huge percentage of those deaths can be attributed to the illiterate diktats of government - and Governors - who ordered that sick Corona patients be sent back into nursing homes where they infected - and killed - tens of thousands of vulnerable seniors. Over 7,000 of New York's 17,000 deaths are due to Gov Cuomo ordering that nursing homes admit sick and dying Corona patients, a policy that ended - without admission or apology - only this week.

Socialism killed 100 million people in the 20th century. Killed because they were "collectively guilty" or inconvenient, or just because some incompetent bureaucrat took all their food. That is not just a number. It is a pile of dead people - women, men, children, seniors and babies - a pile of corpses 20 miles high. It is the natural consequence of total government power.

Those who trade their freedom, for a bit of perceived security, usually get neither.