Shlaes on Hayek

I wrote the following letter to Ms. Shlaes regarding her article on Bloomberg today:

Ms. Shlaes,

I enjoyed your article in Bloomberg today, but disagree with your last point, that Americans will not embrace socialism.

A significant portion of Americans will resist, but an even greater portion will not. When half the US population pays no income tax today, socialism has already set in. Getting something for nothing and having the minority haves pay for the majority have-nots is socialism. Having government bureaucrats decide winners and losers in the economy is socialism.

Socialism sounds like a great panacea in rhetoric and we have a man in the Presidency that is one of the best at rhetoric. Unfortunately socialism's failures take time. It took the Soviet Union decades to fail. It won't be until the standard of living drops to unconscionable levels will there be a revolution to unseat the socialist movement. It is easy to sell the majority of the masses on the rob Peter to pay Paul economy without them giving consideration to the long-term ramifications.

The utopia that Socialism seems to be on paper is one thing, the reality is quite another. Hayek had perfect clarity to this fact.

Respectfully submitted,