Aesop's Fable of the goose that layed
golden eggs is an ancient metaphor for why Socialism cannot work. In
the fable, for those that cannot remember their Mother Goose days, a
man and his wife had a goose that layed eggs of gold. This made them
very wealthy, but as is the norm for humans, they were not satisfied.
The wife suggested that if they cut open the goose, they could have
all the eggs at once. Of course, there was not a hoard of golden
eggs in the goose, and the dead goose was done laying eggs.
The Capitalist Free Market (CFM) system
of economics is the real manifestation of the golden egg laying
goose. Those societies that have embraced it have enjoyed the
greatest increase in the standard of living of any in history.
Although it is inevitable that those capitalists that represent the
goose in a CFM system do enjoy relatively more 'eggs', their standard
of living is only incrementally better than the poorer members of the
society that are merely consuming the eggs. One need only visit the
typical Walmart to see that the rank and file are not only well
fed, well clothed and as healthy as their voluntary choice of
lifestyle permits, but they enjoy all the smartphones, TV's and other
toys that the wealthy do. The Welfare State is only possible because
of the eggs produced by CFM, not in spite of it.
The current mania of the populace
advocating for socialism is, relating back to Aesop's Fable, the
equivalent of the wife wanting to kill the goose to get all the eggs
at once. All schemes of taking from those, rich or not, that invest
savings in productive enterprise, are an attempt to kill the goose to
get all the eggs at once. Most of the 'wealth' that the
non-investing public covets is in fact the goose that they benefit
from, i.e., the capital of CFM. With a welfare system that consumes
most of the eggs CFM currently produces, it is a testimony to the
robustness of CFM that our standard of living is as great as it is.
Make no mistake though, if you take the last egg or kill the goose,
the good times end.
The fable of the goose is also a good
metaphor for a point made in my earlier post Socialism CANNOT
Succeed. Just as there were no eggs in the goose, there are no
hoards of desired goods and services in the Capitalist's pantry.
Appropriating the Capital that is the basis of CFM is the immediate
end of the great standard of living we currently enjoy.
