Is America sliding into socialism?
There is a lot of rhetoric especially since January 20. 2009 that this country is sliding into socialism. You hear it all the time from Hannity, Beck and the others that oppose the current President.
I would say to you, don’t listen to these political commentators and instead go right to the expert.
In 1848, Karl Marx wrote the infamous Communist Manifesto. In this thesis, Marx describes the ten steps necessary to destroy a free enterprise system and replace it with a system of omnipotent government power, so as to affect a communist socialist state. These are known as the 10 planks.
Let’s take a look at what Marx said and decide for yourself:
- Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
What have we done: the Bureau of Land Management, zoning laws
- A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
What have we done: 16th amendment, Social Security Act
- Abolition of all rights of inheritance
What have we done: Federal and State Estate Taxes
- Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
What have we done: Tax liens, IRS confiscation of property
- Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
What have we done: the Federal Reserve
- Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State.
What have we done: FCC, DOT, FAA
- Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
What have we done: Dept of Agriculture and probably numerous agencies I can’t recall or even know of.
- Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
What have we done: Minimum wage laws, Dept of Labor
- Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country.
What have we done: Planning Reorganization act of 1949, zoning laws
- Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
Speaks for itself.
I’m not personally saying that we are there or will be soon, nor am I pointing the finger at the right or the left because they are equally responsible.
You be the Judge…
