A Government Cannot Act for “the Good of Society” by Implementing Socialistic Policies; Socialism Merely Provides a Specific Cause to Which the Individual Is Supposed to Sacrifice Himself

Socialism is based on the altruist code of morality. Altruism says it is a virtue for the individual to sacrifice himself to others. Socialism merely provides a specific cause to which the individual is supposed to sacrifice himself. Under socialism, people are told to sacrifice themselves for the good of the state, the race, the nation, future generations, and so on. In practice, socialism has succeeded tremendously in sacrificing people. Literally hundreds-of-millions of people have been sacrificed on the altar of socialism. It has been estimated that almost one-hundred million people have starved, been murdered, or been worked to death in labor camps under socialist regimes that have existed, and still exist, around the world. This figure does not include the suffering of the hundreds-of-millions of people who have been forced to live in abject poverty and misery under socialist dictatorships. Based on this, it is clear that both in theory and in practice socialism is destructive to human life. . . .

Many people think that the mixed economy combines the best of the two economic extremes. They think it combines what they consider to be good about capitalism (such as the incentive to produce an abundance of wealth), but allows the government to intervene with socialistic policies (such as to redistribute income) to act for “the good of society.” Based on what has been said above, however, it should be apparent that this statement is completely false. There is nothing morally or economically good about socialism or socialistic elements in a mixed economy. When the government interferes in the market to, for instance, redistribute income or enact worker and product safety legislation, it violates individual rights and thus acts in a manner that is inconsistent with the requirements of human life.

The government cannot act for “the good of society” by implementing socialistic policies. When the government initiates physical force it benefits some members of society at the expense of others. For example, when the government redistributes income, it gives income to some people by taking it from others. When the government initiates force, someone is being sacrificed. Believing it is good for the government to initiate force to sacrifice some people to others is based on an acceptance of the validity of the morality of sacrifice. However, as was shown above, the morality of sacrifice, in any of its variations, is destructive because it stands in opposition to the requirements of human life. It does not matter whether a more virulent form of sacrifice is being implemented through socialism or a milder form is being implemented through the mixed economy. Either way it is destructive to human life.

--Brian P. Simpson, Markets Don't Fail! (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005), 22-24.