Joseph Betz, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Villanova University, explains Bernie Sander's view of socialism: “Socialists like Bernie believe that every human has, by nature, the right to food, clothing, shelter, a job with a living wage, vacations, medical care, security in sickness and retirement and education. And each and every human has the justified claim to that amount of each of these which allows the full development of that person’s potentialities.” And who exactly does “every human” make that claim upon? The greater society in which they live? But what if everyone is claiming their right to a vacation or retirement, leaving the greater society without the means to provide such largess? Where does the money come from to cover the costs of these rights? Neither Bernie nor Professor Betz explain this side of the equation. Neither do they explain why “every human” does not include those who have not yet exited the womb?
The professor goes on to say, “A communist is also a socialist but is an autocratic socialist rather than a democratic one.” He then explains that we do not need to be concerned that Bernie’s brand of socialism would give us an autocrat like Stalin, explaining, “Yes, the USSR guaranteed everyone a job, an apartment, free medical care and good education. But the guarantor was a dictator like Josef Stalin, who ran roughshod over the democratic freedoms of religion, speech, the press, assembly, dissent and protections from arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and death.”
Returning to Bernie, Professor Betz asserts that it’s good that Bernie is a socialist, but the fact that he’s a “democratic socialist makes him even better.” This, he explains, is because “he would provide for disadvantaged people’s wants by working with them and their opposites, giving all of them the freedom to dissent, modify, even reject his means to his ends for them. A communist, in contrast, like Fidel Castro in Cuba, might provide jobs and education and medical care to an admirable degree. But the citizens who enjoy these benefits do so at the cost of losing their freedom to dissent or organize or seek an alternative government.”
These statements raise some serious questions. First, the professor says that Bernie would “give” the people the freedom to dissent, modify, or even reject his means to his ends for them. But what a man gives he can also take away. The professor seems to naively believe that an avowed socialist leader would complacently stand aside while the people he rules tear down his socialist utopia and replace it with a capitalist, free-market society. When in history have we ever seen such a compliant socialist leader?
Or in a more limited sense, what if the people decided merely to strip their society of the right to a job with a living wage and a justifiable amount of vacation time? Would any socialist leader be ok with that? Or what if his treasury simply did not have the funds to pay for medical care or retirement living for every human being under his rule? What if the funds were depleted due to a military necessity? Let’s face it, if Venezuela had to go to war today, the already impoverished population would face mass starvation. At any given moment there are only so many dollars.
What Professor Betz seems to be unaware of is that only an autocratic government can give everyone the bare necessities, and only a constitutional republic can protect everyone’s self-evident God-given rights. You can’t have it both ways. If we are free, we must take responsibility for providing for ourselves and pursuing our happiness as we are able. If we want to be provided for and have our happiness served up to us on a silver platter, we cannot be free, notwithstanding the hollow promises of Senator Bernie Sanders.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/joseph-betz-bernie-sanders-and-his-democratic-socialist-vision-for-america-have-my-support
