Why Socialism Always Fails

Socialism. It's created some of the worst tyrannies known to the history of man. The USSR. North Korea. China. Cuba. Vietnam. Hundreds of millions of human beings dead, all in the name of an ideology which claims to value the common man.

When one points this out to liberals, they invariably whine that socialism in itself is a good idea and that the governments in question weren't/aren't not socialist. Such is an example of what's known as the "No True Scotsman" Fallacy. The individuals who founded the governments in questions believed in socialist principles in every way. I actually believe that they meant well and were honest in their overall intentions. Unfortunately, the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

Lenin was an honest man. Stalin was probably an honest man. Mao and Ho Chi Mihn were probably honest men. They believed in what they were preaching. The fact of the matter is that what they preached simply didn't and couldn't ever work. The totalitarianism found in traditionally socialist societies was the direct result of trying to address the problems that arose as a direct result of socialism.

Socialism is borne out of egalitarianism. It strives to make everyone equal. The fundamental problem is that everyone isn't equal -- some of us are better than others. Some people are willing to put in serious effort while others play. It's the old fable of the ant and the grasshopper.

Individuals with the drive to get things done are somewhat rare. Given the option, most people would prefer to kick back and relax. It's individuals who get things done who motivate those people to actually make something of themselves. When everyone is made equal and the fruits of motivated labor are simply given to those that don't work, stagnancy will inevitably set in.

Socialism prevents people from having that hustling drive. There is no benefit in doing so; your reward is exactly the same as the person who doesn't hustle. More importantly, however, those with hustle aren't permitted to leverage the talents of those who don't hustle. You wind up with those whom are willing to work supporting those who don't want to work. It doesn't work.

A purely socialist society attaches no benefit to leveraging other people. Sure, your talents enable more to be accomplished within a certain period of time, but you're not compensated for this. Instead, you're expected to accept it as your reward that you simply fulfilled your social duty. That doesn't mesh with human nature. The result is that individuals with the talent for leveraging others do not apply that talent. There's simply no reward for doing so.

Thus nothing gets done. Now, you have to understand that the socialist revolutionaries, whatever you might believe about them, had hustle. They had beliefs. They risked themselves as leaders of men who organized themselves around those beliefs. Where others talked, they acted. They applied the concepts of leverage in order to use the talents of others to bring the greatest successes. Their biggest mistake was that they were wrong.

That's where totalitarianism arose. Socialist policies completely ruined the societies in which they were applied. In order to salvage things, socialist leaders applied far more leverage than should ever be applied by any human being. It's not a surprise that they did -- they had no competition that could stop them in any meaningful manner. So they leveraged their people, expecting out of them more talent than they could ever hope to display given the circumstances. The people who were supposed to benefit most from the revolutions suffered the hardest.

This is why socialism always fails wherever it is tried and why, in revolutionary societies, it leads to totalitarian dictatorship. When policies do not work and the alternative is dire suffering, people sometimes impose the harshest measures to get the results they see as necessary. Some men are better at this than others -- revolutions build men who can hustle and apply leverage better than anything else. Give them an awful situation where there situation is ruined beyond all belief, however, and they will go overboard trying to fix the situation.

The Art of Leverage

I'm going to tell you a little secret. Pay close attention; this secret is vital to your success.

You can't get wealthy without other people.

Let's face it. None of us lives in a vacuum. We live in societies and are defined by the relationships we build with others. Sure, you could go out and live in the woods all by yourself, not depending upon a single soul. Are you taking any supplies with you? No, that's cheating -- most of those supplies were only made possible by others. Even if you grow your own food and sow your own clothes, the tools you used in doing so were provided by other people.

The fact is that we depend upon others to survive and even the most capable of mountain men would fail were he to accept the challenge of living entirely independently in the woods without help from nary a soul. Mere survival is absolutely dependent on social cooperation of some sort. Why is it, then, that people believe that they can become wealthy and successful entirely on their own?

Leverage. Leverage is one of the main tools that set the winners apart from the losers. Leverage is the ability to use the people around you and their resources to further your goals. I'm not, of course, talking about taking advantage of people. That'll only get you so far and you'll meet with failure long before you meet with success. Instead, you must learn the art of making mutually beneficial arrangements where both sides profit in the end.

Why bother with mundane tasks which you hate to do, aren't good at, and just eat up your time? Find ways to outsource such activities to others who are better at them and more efficient than you. Make it well worth their time. Do you lack the resources to pay them in money? Pay them in trade of services. Even better, build up the value of your own services by taking the time to develop your skills and allow others to leverage your talents towards their goals. Far from there being any shame in that, it is actually how you become successful in the first place! No one in the history of humanity has ever become wealthy or successful without offering some sort of service of a value highly perceived by the society around them. The more you have to offer, the more you will receive.

Leveraging utilizes networks. When you use the services of a person to complete a project, what you are actually tapping into is that person's network. When others use your services, they are tapping into yours. If you want to utilize an effective leveraging system, learn to recognize those that know how to leverage the talents of others in their own efforts. The cumulative effect on your own success will be exponential.

Leveraging others to take care of less-important activities which eat up your time frees you up to perfect your particular skill set. The other part of success is knowing how to hustle when it comes to the activities which you don't leverage. When I say hustle, by the way, I'm not talking about anything illegal -- this article at The Art of Manliness sums it up best -- The World Belongs to Those Who Hustle.

Hustle when it comes to what you're good at. Leverage individuals who have hustle and know how to leverage when it comes to things you're not good at. The abilities to leverage and hustle are what set successful individuals apart from those who are simply ordinary.