Warmth of the collective can suffocate

In his inaugural speech, Mayor Mamdani prophesied, "We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism." I criticized earlier his straw man (false) version of individualism, which came from socialists, not capitalists. Today I want to ask if collectivism is always warm? 

F.A. Hayek, a Nobel Prize winner and the second greatest economist of the 20th century behind Ludwig von Mises, wrote in his last book, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism, that we live in two worlds. One is the family, church, or tribe in which everyone knows everyone else, their needs, weaknesses and strengths. The other is the larger world of the nation in which few people know each other.

European free healthcare is no utopia

U.S. democratic socialists look to Europe as their utopia. So, when someone mentions the greater wealth of U.S. citizens, as I did recently, socialists across the world regurgitate the mantra that Europe is morally superior because it has free healthcare and college education. Yes, it has free healthcare, but is that the whole truth? 

Healthcare is a scarce resource that must be rationed. So if the state provides free healthcare, it must ration it in some manner. It's impossible to provide all the healthcare everyone wants when they want it. So, those socialist countries offering free healthcare ration it by long wait times and denial of services. In the U.S., people rage against insurance companies for denying services, but they are happy for the government to deny them. 

Poor in the U.S. are richer than the typical European

When Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, pro-capitalist commentators rushed to compare him to Stalin or Mao and the horrors their versions of socialism caused. But Mamdani doesn't want Soviet or Chinese style socialism. He, and most socialists in the U.S., want European style socialism, with Sweden as their idol. 

But do they know anything about European socialism? I say European rather than Swedish because Sweden is a tiny nation, 10.5 million people, smaller than most large U.S. cities. It's statistical malpractice to compare a tiny nation to a huge one like the U.S. with 340 million. Sound statistics require that sample sizes be similar so that sample size doesn't affect the analysis. 

Mamdani: the frigidity of rugged individualism, the warmth of collectivism

After Mamdani was sworn into the office of mayor of New York City, he said in his speech, "And if for too long these communities have existed as distinct from one another, we will draw this city closer together. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism."

The last was as beautiful propaganda line. It appeals to the emotions. Who wants to stay out in the cold when a warm fire is waiting inside? It evokes the novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John le Carré in which disillusioned British agent Alec Leamas "comes in from the cold" by exposing the brutal dishonesty of the espionage business. 

However, Mamdani exposes either his ignorance or dishonesty in calling individualism frigid. Based on his biography, I'm supposing ignorance. Here's why. There is nothing frigid about true individualism. Hayek explained the problem in his essay, "Individualism: True and False." 

What Catholic social thought misses

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provides a summary of Catholic social teaching in seven themes. They are,

1. Life and dignity of the human person.

2. Call to Family, Community, and Participation.

3. Rights and Responsibilities.

4. Option for the Poor and Vulnerable.

5. The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers.

6. Solidarity.

7. Care for God's Creation.

Capitalists are the worst enemies of capitalism

The headline will seem to be an oxymoron to most readers because they see capitalism as the system that benefits capitalists. Capitalism is what capitalists do after all. But that only emphasizes the poverty of public education and its capture by Marxists.

Why should we allow Marx to define capitalism when we don't accept his definition of Christianity as the opium of the people? Those who distilled the principles of capitalism, theologians at the University of Salamanca during the Reformation, and its most important proponents, such as Adam Smith, should define what capitalism means. According to them, capitalism is a system of government that enforces individual rights to life, liberty and property. Those require the rule of law, equality before the law and very limited government.

Nobel recognizes the second greatest event in history

The greatest event in history was the coming of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is the reason we divide time by his birth into BCE and CE, originally BC and AD. The second greatest was the Industrial Revolution because through it humans escaped millennia of mass starvation from famines. The Nobel committee summarized what it accomplished: 

Over the last two centuries, for the first time in history, the world has seen sustained economic growth. This has lifted vast numbers of people out of poverty and laid the foundation of our prosperity. This year’s laureates in economic sciences, Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, explain how innovation provides the impe­tus for further progress.