Socialism (Is) For Dummies

Let’s talk about an issue that came up in the comments the other day. Leftists don’t understand why the private market is the only sane way to run an economy. In fact, they love the idea of pointy-headed experts "organizing" the economy. But does this make any sense? Let me ask a few questions and then you tell me.

Question 1: A hamburger is a fairly easy product to make, right? After all, it contains few ingredients, there are no hidden tricks, it requires no ultra complex high-tech equipment, and its appeal is well-known.

Question 2: Tell me everything that goes into making a hamburger.

Easy right? Beef, some mustard, some bread, maybe an onion and a little labor to put the whole thing together. Simple. But that’s not everything, is it? Where does the beef come from? That’s right, a cattle ranch. So a hamburger requires a cattle ranch. And of course, that means it needs farm labor. And they need cattle feed, which comes from somewhere too. They also need trucks to get the cows to the slaughterhouse.

Hmmm. . . trucks. Wow, what all goes into making a truck? Well, let’s skip that for now. To make the slaughterhouse, you need a building, which means construction equipment, which means a metal foundry, which means chemicals and raw minerals. Since those are usually overseas, that means ships, which means docks. I wonder how big the ships should be? And what's this I hear about mining equipment?

But back to the slaughterhouse. They use metal equipment, which means machine tools, and more minerals. It also mean electricity to keep those plants running. . . not everyone has Boiler Elves. And of course, they need refrigeration, which is another whole industry. And let’s not forget the labor to make these tools, dig the minerals, construct the ports, the roads, the farms, and design all of it.

Suddenly, a simple hamburger doesn't seem so simple does it? And we’ve only scratched the surface, haven’t we? Don’t forget that we never delved too deeply into secondary products like what it takes to make that pesky truck. . . what the heck is a solenoid anyways? Nor did we talk about how to price these goods or to make sure that there is labor at each step, or that the labor has homes and can get their hands on food and electricity and water and sanitation and health care and transportation and. . .

If it’s this difficult to get a simple hamburger into your hands, how hard do you think it will be to design an entire economy that provides for the needs of 300 million American citizens? What happens if you forget to carry the one somewhere in your equation of the American people? Is it any wonder that bread lines are a common symptom of socialist countries, i.e. "command economies"?

Hopefully, you see the point of this exercise. Just looking at the complexity of this seemingly simple product, it should be obvious that a panel of even the pointiest-headed experts could never be up to the task of "organizing" our economy. And they certainly couldn't do it as well as the 300 million Americans who make a trillion decisions every day about what resources to spend on what and at what price?

And if they aren't up to making a hamburger, why should we think they're any better at "organizing" something larger. . . like the health care system?