This is a research report I wrote for school this year.
There is no doubt that socialism is consequential to virtually every nation in the world. It is often unacknowledged and unrealized, hidden in the recesses of national decisions, but has unceasingly influenced governments for centuries. Is there any basis for believing socialistic government will provide aid and bring improvement? William Lund stated, “We study the past to understand the present; we understand the present to guide the future.” Therefore, we should consider history to accurately determine the answer to the above presented question.
America was established upon the principles of free enterprise. Capitalism is the sole reason America has so long endured and become a prosperous, mighty nation. We are shown by history that the rejection of personal responsibility and dependence on the state is a surety to disaster. Without the ability to seek one’s own happiness and pursue a chosen career, America ceases to be the land of opportunity.
As English civilization was being established in America during the 17th century, those in authority believed a communal system of provision would be beneficial. However, the history of our country clearly shows us that the opposite was true and that only a man’s freedom to personal enterprise will promote success.
In the year 1607, the first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, was settled in a low-lying land. Due to much hardship involving malaria, contaminated river water, and a lack of laboring initiative in the settlers, half of the people died by the end of the first winter. The main cause of Jamestown’s demise was its common-store system, required by the colony’s royal charter by the English king, James I.
Because of this system, the fruit of every man’s labor was placed in a common storehouse and all were entitled to receive food and supplies according to their personal need. Quintessentially, the welfare of the idle was secured by the labor of the industrious workers. Everyone was gratified by the common storehouse but few rendered to it and, therefore, the food supply was soon exhausted. Thus, America’s earliest attempt at Communism ended in great failure.
The distressed colony of Jamestown was delivered by Captain John Smith. He initiated a policy, Biblical in principle (2 Thess. 3:10), denying food to any man who refused to labor. This enforced rule was not only fearsome to the lazy, but an encouraging relief to the hard-working. As historian David Henry Montgomery rehearsed of this colony, “Those who tried to live without working soon found that they must also try that harder thing--to live without eating.”
D. H. Montgomery also said of Jamestown, “Considering this discouraging start, the wonder is that the colony not only lived, but lived to lay the foundation of a prosperous, powerful, and independent State.” The communal storehouse system was, in time, thoroughly overcome by a will to work and personal responsibility, the only way for any prosperous country to operate. These principles laid the foundation for a mighty nation, rising through the combined vision and effort of earnest men.
Capitalism is an economic system in which each man possesses the free will to pursue economic gain as he believes right. It is the only economic system compatible with personal liberty and responsibility, rights secured by our Constitution. Capitalism is referred to as free enterprise because it makes one free to improve his life as he has the enterprise (energy and initiative) to make possible. A nation holds true liberty when its citizens assume the obligation for their own welfare. When the people yield their duty to the state by necessitating government services and regulations, the nation unwittingly rejects its freedom.
Socialism is the exact opposite of capitalism. Socialism is the belief that all economic, political, and social life must be planned, controlled, and regulated by the state to insure “the greatest good for the greatest number.” According to the socialists, all goods and services should be redistributed “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need.”
The elementary method of socialism attempted in our country centuries in the past failed simply because there was not enough work being accomplished to provide for all men, but success arose when the principles of capitalism were followed.
The ill effects of socialism are currently evident in countries where such government is in control. We can see the same results in these countries as were present in the initial failure of colonial Jamestown.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned America of socialism’s destruction of great nations, advising that America learn from Russia’s history of struggle with Communism. Putin said, “In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated. Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded… There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”
Americans should do as Putin advised: consider the effects that socialism has brought to his country, Russia. We would do well to weigh the effects of vital decisions before such drastic measures are taken.
During the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was in a national crisis of a failing economy and starvation caused by World War I. Russia executed a socialist government in 1917 when the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew the Provisional Government, a recently-established form of democracy, and replaced it with a Communist totalitarian state. Russia, controlled by Nikolai Lenin, became the first Communist country in history. The first thing Lenin did upon taking control of Russia was end its involvement in World War I. By March 1918, he had accomplished this goal by making peace with Germany.
As Lenin further tightened the Bolshevik grip on Russia by his totalitarian regime and socialist force, freedoms of every form were crushed, including freedom of personal enterprise. One of Lenin's goals, which he pursued from 1918 to 1920, was to achieve complete economic control of Russia. However, in 1921, the nation's agriculture and industry was in dire failure. Facing the possibility of mass starvation and economic ruin, Lenin was forced to adopt a new form of state capitalism which allowed a small amount private enterprise to take place. One year later, however, once the nation's economy was stabilized, Lenin created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which centralized a permanent Communist regime.
In later years of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin claimed leadership of the nation. While building up state-controlled industries during Russia's Five Year Plain, Stalin ordered that Russian agriculture be collectivized, forcing small, private farms to band together into large collective farms supervised by appointed managers. The government took control of the famers' lands and livestock and demanded that all crops be yielded to the government for distribution throughout the country.
We know that this same attempt was made during the establishment of the first American colony, and we know that it did not flourish. We can clearly see how Communism has been desperately unsuccessful in Russia. As Putin said, “There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”
Every man is born with rights, bestowed by God, to freedom and the pursuit of his own happiness. These rights are accompanied by obligations. Every man, woman, and child is responsible for his own development and success and is free to put forth his effort towards every opportunity he is given. Each person is accountable for his chosen deeds and one day shall stand before God, the righteous Judge, to answer for what he has done in his life. Because we are sinners, we are in need of a Savior. The offer of salvation, provided by the finished work on the cross by Jesus Christ, is extended to all. Only the Lamb of God, if we take Him as our sin-sacrifice, can take the responsibility of sins we have committed and are personally accountable for, therefore making peace with God.
Because the all-wise Creator has ordained human rights, no man or government should have the ability to enslave the lives of men, whether willingly or not. God has ordained government to enforce righteous laws and bring order to nations, but government is also contained by laws.
Compulsion is "force employed to make people work without reward," defined Russell Kirk. Compulsion opposes free enterprise, yet it befriends socialism for this is the only possible way for human provision by this system. "A society without economic competition either falls into dismal decay, because there are not enough unselfish people to do the world's work, or else it falls into slavery, the degradation of human nature and civilization. ...When the Russians swept away economic competition and abolished all the old motives to ordinary integrity, they found themselves to resort to severe punishment in order to get work done at all. The slave-labor camps of the Soviet Union, the industrial spies and informers, the rigid production quotas for factories and individuals, the enslavement of a whole nation, are the manifest consequences of abolishing competition."
Equality is the goal of socialism and, indeed, equality is what is achieved. It is an equality of poverty, a distribution of fear, a unity of stunted growth in a nation with the potential of prosperity and the rewards of initiative. The only way to bring about these beneficial expectations is by the respectful acknowledgment of human freedom, the careful cultivation of individual responsibility to provision and gain.
In the closing of his book, D. H. Montgomery expressed,
There truly is no reason to believe that governmental provision and authoritarian control will better any country’s social, economic, or political situations. Free enterprise is being eroded, as Vladimir Putin stated, and only personal decision will resolve this factor. God has given each one the right and responsibility to do so.
Works cited:
There is no doubt that socialism is consequential to virtually every nation in the world. It is often unacknowledged and unrealized, hidden in the recesses of national decisions, but has unceasingly influenced governments for centuries. Is there any basis for believing socialistic government will provide aid and bring improvement? William Lund stated, “We study the past to understand the present; we understand the present to guide the future.” Therefore, we should consider history to accurately determine the answer to the above presented question.
America was established upon the principles of free enterprise. Capitalism is the sole reason America has so long endured and become a prosperous, mighty nation. We are shown by history that the rejection of personal responsibility and dependence on the state is a surety to disaster. Without the ability to seek one’s own happiness and pursue a chosen career, America ceases to be the land of opportunity.
As English civilization was being established in America during the 17th century, those in authority believed a communal system of provision would be beneficial. However, the history of our country clearly shows us that the opposite was true and that only a man’s freedom to personal enterprise will promote success.
In the year 1607, the first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, was settled in a low-lying land. Due to much hardship involving malaria, contaminated river water, and a lack of laboring initiative in the settlers, half of the people died by the end of the first winter. The main cause of Jamestown’s demise was its common-store system, required by the colony’s royal charter by the English king, James I.
Because of this system, the fruit of every man’s labor was placed in a common storehouse and all were entitled to receive food and supplies according to their personal need. Quintessentially, the welfare of the idle was secured by the labor of the industrious workers. Everyone was gratified by the common storehouse but few rendered to it and, therefore, the food supply was soon exhausted. Thus, America’s earliest attempt at Communism ended in great failure.
The distressed colony of Jamestown was delivered by Captain John Smith. He initiated a policy, Biblical in principle (2 Thess. 3:10), denying food to any man who refused to labor. This enforced rule was not only fearsome to the lazy, but an encouraging relief to the hard-working. As historian David Henry Montgomery rehearsed of this colony, “Those who tried to live without working soon found that they must also try that harder thing--to live without eating.”
D. H. Montgomery also said of Jamestown, “Considering this discouraging start, the wonder is that the colony not only lived, but lived to lay the foundation of a prosperous, powerful, and independent State.” The communal storehouse system was, in time, thoroughly overcome by a will to work and personal responsibility, the only way for any prosperous country to operate. These principles laid the foundation for a mighty nation, rising through the combined vision and effort of earnest men.
Capitalism is an economic system in which each man possesses the free will to pursue economic gain as he believes right. It is the only economic system compatible with personal liberty and responsibility, rights secured by our Constitution. Capitalism is referred to as free enterprise because it makes one free to improve his life as he has the enterprise (energy and initiative) to make possible. A nation holds true liberty when its citizens assume the obligation for their own welfare. When the people yield their duty to the state by necessitating government services and regulations, the nation unwittingly rejects its freedom.
Socialism is the exact opposite of capitalism. Socialism is the belief that all economic, political, and social life must be planned, controlled, and regulated by the state to insure “the greatest good for the greatest number.” According to the socialists, all goods and services should be redistributed “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need.”
The elementary method of socialism attempted in our country centuries in the past failed simply because there was not enough work being accomplished to provide for all men, but success arose when the principles of capitalism were followed.
The ill effects of socialism are currently evident in countries where such government is in control. We can see the same results in these countries as were present in the initial failure of colonial Jamestown.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned America of socialism’s destruction of great nations, advising that America learn from Russia’s history of struggle with Communism. Putin said, “In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated. Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded… There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”
Americans should do as Putin advised: consider the effects that socialism has brought to his country, Russia. We would do well to weigh the effects of vital decisions before such drastic measures are taken.
During the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was in a national crisis of a failing economy and starvation caused by World War I. Russia executed a socialist government in 1917 when the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew the Provisional Government, a recently-established form of democracy, and replaced it with a Communist totalitarian state. Russia, controlled by Nikolai Lenin, became the first Communist country in history. The first thing Lenin did upon taking control of Russia was end its involvement in World War I. By March 1918, he had accomplished this goal by making peace with Germany.
As Lenin further tightened the Bolshevik grip on Russia by his totalitarian regime and socialist force, freedoms of every form were crushed, including freedom of personal enterprise. One of Lenin's goals, which he pursued from 1918 to 1920, was to achieve complete economic control of Russia. However, in 1921, the nation's agriculture and industry was in dire failure. Facing the possibility of mass starvation and economic ruin, Lenin was forced to adopt a new form of state capitalism which allowed a small amount private enterprise to take place. One year later, however, once the nation's economy was stabilized, Lenin created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which centralized a permanent Communist regime.
In later years of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin claimed leadership of the nation. While building up state-controlled industries during Russia's Five Year Plain, Stalin ordered that Russian agriculture be collectivized, forcing small, private farms to band together into large collective farms supervised by appointed managers. The government took control of the famers' lands and livestock and demanded that all crops be yielded to the government for distribution throughout the country.
We know that this same attempt was made during the establishment of the first American colony, and we know that it did not flourish. We can clearly see how Communism has been desperately unsuccessful in Russia. As Putin said, “There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”
Every man is born with rights, bestowed by God, to freedom and the pursuit of his own happiness. These rights are accompanied by obligations. Every man, woman, and child is responsible for his own development and success and is free to put forth his effort towards every opportunity he is given. Each person is accountable for his chosen deeds and one day shall stand before God, the righteous Judge, to answer for what he has done in his life. Because we are sinners, we are in need of a Savior. The offer of salvation, provided by the finished work on the cross by Jesus Christ, is extended to all. Only the Lamb of God, if we take Him as our sin-sacrifice, can take the responsibility of sins we have committed and are personally accountable for, therefore making peace with God.
Because the all-wise Creator has ordained human rights, no man or government should have the ability to enslave the lives of men, whether willingly or not. God has ordained government to enforce righteous laws and bring order to nations, but government is also contained by laws.
Compulsion is "force employed to make people work without reward," defined Russell Kirk. Compulsion opposes free enterprise, yet it befriends socialism for this is the only possible way for human provision by this system. "A society without economic competition either falls into dismal decay, because there are not enough unselfish people to do the world's work, or else it falls into slavery, the degradation of human nature and civilization. ...When the Russians swept away economic competition and abolished all the old motives to ordinary integrity, they found themselves to resort to severe punishment in order to get work done at all. The slave-labor camps of the Soviet Union, the industrial spies and informers, the rigid production quotas for factories and individuals, the enslavement of a whole nation, are the manifest consequences of abolishing competition."
Equality is the goal of socialism and, indeed, equality is what is achieved. It is an equality of poverty, a distribution of fear, a unity of stunted growth in a nation with the potential of prosperity and the rewards of initiative. The only way to bring about these beneficial expectations is by the respectful acknowledgment of human freedom, the careful cultivation of individual responsibility to provision and gain.
In the closing of his book, D. H. Montgomery expressed,
- “We have seen it [America] grow from a few feeble colonies gathered on the edge of the Atlantic to a group of thirteen independent states. We have followed the development of those states into a great, prosperous, and powerful nation... extending across the continent from ocean to ocean. The American Republic now embraces the largest portion of the earth's surface controlled by any one government on any one grand division of the globe, with the single exception of Russia in Asia.
“Here every advantage is open. Education is absolutely free; millions of acres of Western land are free. Here, and here only, among the leading civilized nations, no immense standing-army eats up the daily earnings of the people. Here every law springs directly from the will of the majority.
“These facts… show that America means Opportunity. ...Can we do better than ask, each one of himself, What use do I intend to make of this opportunity? The whole future of the republic, for good or ill, for growth or decay, for glory or shame, depends on the way in which we individually answer that question.”
There truly is no reason to believe that governmental provision and authoritarian control will better any country’s social, economic, or political situations. Free enterprise is being eroded, as Vladimir Putin stated, and only personal decision will resolve this factor. God has given each one the right and responsibility to do so.
Works cited:
- 1) Kirk, Russell. "Competition and Human Nature," 2-3
- 2) Lowman, Michael R.; Thompson, George; and Grussendorf, Kurt. United States History: Heritage of Freedom, (A Beka books: Pensacola Christian College, 1996), 27, 362, 478.
3) Montgomery, David Henry. The Leading Facts of American History, (New York: Ginn and Company), 52-53, 359.
4) Thompson, George and Combee, Jerry. World History and Cultures, (A Beka books: Pensacola Christian College, 1997), 432-438.
5) The Wall Street Journal. "Putin Speaks at Davos" [A transcript of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.]
1 comment:
I'm so sorry, but I just realized that blogger was set to publish comments without my prior approval! I didn't even know that you had left a comment until today!
Thank you for offering to help with the directory! That button is beautiful and I would love to use it! Could you e-mail the code to me, or the picture so that I could create a code for it? (virtuous_daughters@sbcglobal.net) Thanks so much!
~Becca
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