People long for a perfect society, but socialism and communism do not succeed. A system of government that denies God, human nature, creativity, responsibility, and the way work “works” will always fail. Why?
Dr. Anne Bradley is an economist. She studies how people create, use, and distribute goods. She is also vice president of economic initiatives at The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics (www.tifwe.org). Dr. Bradley says that humans are economists in every area of life. It’s good and useful that God made people to “maximize our benefits and minimize our costs.” In Proverbs, this pattern applies to stewarding material goods as well as managing relationships. It’s part of wisdom.
In her publication Be Fruitful and Multiply, Dr. Bradley says, “Economic systems should enable us to use our gifts, encourage us to serve others, and allow us to flourish, not destroy us…. When societies deny their citizens the freedom to pursue their God-given callings, suffering, poverty, hopelessness, despair, and oppression result…. Lives are destroyed.”
Dr. Bradley visited the former Soviet Union. She saw what life under communism was like. It had failed individuals, and it had failed the collective. In the 21st century, the same results are playing out now as they were then. Consider the similarities between the former Soviet Union and Venezuela today.
Then: The Soviet Union
In the early 1900s, Vladimir Lenin led Russia’s transition to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). He brought his own interpretation to Marxism. Achieving communism was key, whatever it required. That included prosecuting those who stood in his way. But it was Lenin’s successor, Joseph Stalin, who took that philosophy to gruesome ends.
Forcing people to give up their individuality, creativity, and personal property proved difficult. Stalin became a tyrant. He murdered citizens and created famine conditions to starve them off their land. He executed much of his opposition and exiled thousands.
Stalin tried to force economic growth by requiring more manufacturing and industrialization. But there was not enough demand to sustain sales. Other areas—including food production—suffered. So Stalin ordered the take-over of farms. The state joined farms together and forced poor peasants to work them. Farm produce was redistributed, leaving workers undernourished. Millions of peasants in Ukraine died by starvation—further reducing the food supply they would have produced.
When met with opposition, Stalin launched a purge against his opponents. This period in the 1930s was called The Great Terror. It left the entire population in fear of death by starvation or death by the power of the state.
The USSR clung to communism until the late 1980s. By then, its failures became too obvious to ignore.
Soviet Parliament member Boris Yeltsin visited the United States. He was amazed and dismayed by the fully stocked shelves of a typical American grocery store. What America considered common looked like luxury to the Soviet leader. He realized then that the entire collective genius of the USSR’s leadership would never produce such prosperity artificially in his home country.
Now: Venezuela
Just 20 years ago, oil-rich Venezuela was a prosperous South American nation. But in 1998, Hugo Chavez led a socialist revolution. He made promises for an even better society. The oil wealth would fund educational improvements and price-fixing on food.
But before long, oil prices worldwide dropped. Venezuela’s security and prosperity evaporated with the profits. Current President Nicolas Madura pushed ahead with Chavez’s plans despite the lost income. He raised the minimum wage multiple times while production across industries buckled. Venezuela’s currency is almost valueless.
Food is rationed. Citizens stand in lines for hours, hoping for meager groceries to stay alive. Schools are vacant. Violence abounds as people steal to survive and sell goods on the black market. Shopkeepers who do have a few food items to sell don’t count customers’ money. They pile it on a scale to weigh it because it takes so many bills to complete even a small purchase. There are almost no medicines. Even a scraped knee can turn into a life-threatening infection because of the absence of antibiotics. (See WORLDteen, Sept/Oct 2016 for more about Venezuela.)
