FDR's Great Depression Proves Socialism Does Not Work!

Some things have really been poking me in the eye lately, and it's time we face the facts head-on! Stay tuned as this will be a series of posts since the material comes from comments I see posted around social media that range from misinformed, to execrably stupid. Unfortunately, the material is abundantly plentiful.

How about we start off with a little bit of Bernie Sanders's so-called “democratic socialism” … as if that in itself doesn't provide enough material to fill an entire book. With that in mind, let's begin with this quote: “President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used socialist systems to fix the social problems he saw in America.” Okay, now let's see how that worked out for America.

FDR's ballooned the national debt by 11.5 times taking it from $22.5 billion to $258.5 billion. Even when allowing a major chunk of that for the cost of World War Two, nearly $90 billion, or four times the national debt when he entered office, was caused by FDR's socialist program failures.

In 1933 FDR shut down all of the banks and forced Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Act, which gave the government police-state powers over all American banks and double-down on the socialist Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) created by FDR, forced the already economically destitute taxpayers to bail out the banks. The result of this socialist plan drove inflation through printing more devalued paper money, and reducing the buying power of the few American who were still working.

FDR's Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) of 1934 was essentially rooted on the same central-command ideals as the 1933 national-socialist Nazi Reich Entailed Farm Law, as well as similar programs in Russia and China. The failed idea was to increases taxes on people who were already taxed into poverty to support a bunch of new bureaucrats who would give a small portion of the tax monies to farmers who destroyed crops and animals while many of their fellow Americans were literally starving to death.

Contrary to what was claimed in the sales pitch, Roosevelt's socialist programs such as Civil Works Administration, National Industrial Recovery Act, and Works Progress Administration caused the prolonged stifling of the American economy, and subsequently the prolonged suffering of the American people. While the world felt the effects of the 1929 Stock Market crash, only the American people suffered the extended ravages of the Roosevelt-Socialist “Great” depression. Like all socialist programs, what sounds great in the sales pitch, will most assuredly leave you with buyer's remorse. Just as the 1934 AAA increased taxes on, and reduced the amount of food available to starving people, the so-called “works” programs removed the ability of the private sector to generate wealth.

To follow this, one must understand that government has no wealth, and government has means of generating wealth. Therefore, everyone employed, or otherwise funded, by government is a consumer of wealth. In order for government to support its employees (bureaucrats and politicians) and dependents, government must confiscate money from the people who actually generate wealth. All wealth originates solely through the efforts of wealth generators; the people who actually make or grow things, and the people who assist the people who make and grow things by providing necessary services. In fairness, we must exclude from the “bureaucrat” label, all those government employees who fall into the “wealth-neutral” category such as the military, fire and police because they provide the services that benefit all of society.

Thus, for the purposes of discussing the mythical utopia that's being called “democratic socialism”, let's see what we've learned over the years from Roosevelt and other US presidents. The more government sticks its nose fingers into wealth-generation, less wealth is generated. FDR's Great Depression should not only be a learning tool, but the visible results should scare the crap out of anyone who thinks government is the answer to anything!

The top five points:

1. Government can only survive if there is sufficient private sector wealth-generation.

2. Government work/job programs hinder private sector wealth-generation.

3. Government wage and price mandates cause inflation.

4. Increasing taxes on wealth-generators hurts the overall economy.

5. Reducing government's consumption of wealth, benefits the economy.

In closing, the next time you encounter someone who thinks college and other things should be provided for “free”, please take the opportunity to remind them that government doesn't have any money until they confiscate it from someone who is working. Ask them to demonstrate their conviction to the cause by giving the government 88% of their pay so it can be redistributed to others. Yes, that's right folks, when one calculates the total tax burden on working people in socialist countries, it averages 78%! Compare that to how many complain now about the United State average of just 38%. Putting numbers to it, the median average household income of a working Americans is $51,900; under the alleged democratic socialism being proposed by Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party as a whole, you're income after taxes will decrease from $32,178 to $11,418 Oh, yes … kinda hurts when you put the numbers on it, eh?