Socialism is steadily eroding free market economies

The "something for nothing" ideology is attracting young voters

At least two generations of Americans, Canadians and British citizens have grown up with school systems that promote leftist ideology, with the narrative expanding from simply “inequality” to divisive policies like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), LGBTQ++ rights, claims of “racism” and “decolonization” programs. These young people have become “social justice warriors” bent upon bringing down capitalism and the free market system. The entire conceptual underpinning is that society owes everyone a living and the state will look after everyone’s needs - a “something for nonething” mentality that youth find hard to resist.

It is hard to blame them. Unaffordable housing, costs of living that keep rising, rampant crime, rapid growth in population not preceded by enough school, hospital, housing or economic infrastructure to support the number of people added to the population, and the breakdown in historical values such as independence, free speech, free markets, freedom of assembly, and the election of leaders that no longer espoused those values and protected them. It is tough to be a young person today.

The infectious nature of socialism (or its equally toxic sister Communism) has permeated society to an extent never imagined when I was a young RCAF officer flying high performance fighter aircraft and standing alert with armed aircraft based on the then prevailing concern that the aftermath of WWII might lead to a Communist expansion from Russia and Eastern Europe which might trigger a third world war. Fortunately, more by luck than good leadership, the wars that did ensue were local, limited and of little consequence to the day-to-day lives of Canadians.

I have friends who deny that socialism is on the rise or that our education system has become the source of radical left wing ideology. I wish they were right. But you only have to do a cursory review of the programs at our institutions of higher learning to see that the shift to the left is not only well underway but also ingrained. Here are a few clips from web pages of my alma mater, once named University of Western Ontario but now renamed just Western university.

You won’t find much in the way of programs at Western dedicated to free market capitalism, personal freedom, small government, low taxes or de-regulation. In a recent wide-ranging study, Erik Kaufman found widespread ideological biases at universities in United Kingdom, United States and Canada that led to career barriers, lack of access to research funding, lower grades and admission restraints on faculty and students who did not embrace the leftist ideology. The cover page of his study tells it all:

Kaufman is a graduate of Western University.

Socialism is not going to result from an armed uprising in Canada or the United States of America, it will result from a population so driven by the idea that wealth inequality is obscene and the solution is to destroy wealth creation and redistribute what is left to narrow the gap between rich and poor, even end it and achieve “equity”, who will vote for a leftist government that will enact policies directed at achievement of that goal, taking whatever steps are needed to succeed. Watch the left try to put an end to the independence of the Supreme Court in the U.S., censor free speech, raise taxes to a level where virtually everyone in society depends on government, attack the energy industry which is the foundation of the economy, and ultimately suspend constitutional rights and impose authoritarian rule.

Can’t happen? Has happened elsewhere. Venezuela was a Constitutional Democracy thirty years ago, and now is a Communist autocracy. Like the U.S. and Canada, Venezuela was blessed with massive oil & gas reserves but instead of letting free market develop these needed resources, Hugh Chavez and his successor Nicolas Meduro suspended the Constitution and imposed authoritarian rule and the population lives in poverty and chaos.

If Harris is elected in November, America will be one step closer to ruin. If Trudeau survives the 2025 election, Canada will keep marching left towards the same end.