Young socialists at Montclair State University have reason to rejoice, they now have their very own student club. This semester, Riley Fluharty, a sophomore history major at MSU, founded the Socialist Club, because she believes, “capitalism is inherently exploitative.”
What else does Fluharty believe about capitalism? “The way we conduct business [and] the way countries interact with each other is [by] all means exploitative and only works to serve those who are already in power,” she says.
Yes, Fluharty thinks capitalism is all about exploitation. Yet, strangely, she is under the assumption that socialism is immune from exploitation. I guess she hasn’t taken any history courses on the rampant exploitation that is central to all socialist regimes. I mean, what else could possibly explain her sheer ignorance on the direct connection between socialist governments and their exploitative nature (not to mention reliance on brute force and coercion) compared to capitalist economies, which rely upon voluntary transactions and freedom?
But, it gets even better. According to Fluharty, “Some policies popular with socialists include universal healthcare, universal work programs, an end to homelessness and massive drug and police reforms.” Of course, she fails to mention that these socialist policies are predicated on exploitation. For example, in a world with universal health care, hardworking Americans would be forced to foot the medical bills of the indolent, which is the essence of exploitation.
The club’s vice president also has an interesting take on socialism. “A lot of people have a very skewed perception [of socialism] and I think the most important thing you can do is to get out there and show people [that socialism] is not a scary thing,” said Conor Curtin. Actually, I would argue that most people have a very good idea of what socialism is, which is why Americans have rejected it for more than a century.
Unfortunately, young Americans like Curtin and Fluharty have grown up in an age in which government schools have indoctrinated them into believing that socialism is morally superior to capitalism. What these students have not learned about socialism is that it violates human nature, places power in the hands of a few, and has wrought misery and poverty everywhere it has been implemented.
PHOTO: Montclair State University. Photo by Adam Moss. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the editorial director and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute, as well as a researcher and contributing editor at StoppingSocialism.com.
