Thoughts of socialism swirl about us these days. From young college kids to good ol’ Bernie Sanders. And various supporters in between. Nearly half the Democrats surveyed say they like socialism.

Socialism makes me think of horse manure. Wait! You are leaping to improper conclusions.

As a stroppy teen I worked a bit for Johnny. He was an old farmer noted for two things. He was stubborn as the Hoover Dam. And he was the last farmer in the region to use horses instead of tractors.

We did some hayin’ my first day. Johnny worked me into the ground.  Back in the barn I was exhausted. And desperate for drink and dinner. “Nope. You gotta tend to yer horses first.”  How about maybe after… “Nope. Yer horses come first.”

I had to relieve them of their harnesses, straps and trimmings. And sponge them down. And shovel and wheel away their manure from the barn’s gutters. I lay down fresh bedding for them. And hauled down hay for them. And gathered buckets of oats. And lugged in water for them.

“Yer horses, they always got to be at the top of your list.  You neglect yer horses and you ain’t gonna have much food on yer dinner table. You ain’t even gonna have no table. Yer horses got to come first.”

To me, today, the horses are capitalism. With his horses, Johnny plowed, cultivated, sowed, harvested. He produced wealth. If he neglected or mis-treated his horses, they would not perform so well. They would likely grow ill. Their sluggishness and illness would diminish the wealth of food he created.

In economies, capitalism produces wealth. When socialists have the reins, the horses – the capitalist side of the economy – usually get neglected.

Socialists want to share the wealth and spread it around. That is a worthy ideal. They want good housing and healthcare for all. Most worthy. But socialists usually forget who and what generates that wealth. They forget the horses. They burden the horses of capitalism with heavy taxes. With unreasonable labor costs and protections. With masses of regulations. With prohibitions. With restrictions. They think all the extra burdens won’t slow down the horses. If they think of the horses at all.

They make the health and well-being of the horses of capitalism a low priority. While they make the sharing of the wealth the first, second, third and fourth priority.

Our economy is a mix of capitalism and socialism. It is more capitalist than socialist.  We do give business and entrepreneurial activity priority. But we also share the wealth. Through countless anti-poverty programs. Through food stamps and housing and fuel benefits. Through unemployment and disability benefits. Through a thousand government programs at various levels of government.

Socialists want these activities to come first. To top the list of priorities. In making them so, extreme socialists push capitalism so far down the list it barely exists. Extreme socialists hate capitalism, despise capitalists. Cuba is a good example of such attitudes. As is Venezuela. As were the old communist countries.

The results were predictable. Their economies produced far less wealth than ours. They neglected their horses. They abused their horses. They ended up with less food on their tables. In many cases, in their poverty, they destroyed their tables.

Their ideals were admirable. They wished to share the wealth. But their idealism smothered the horses that would produce the wealth they wanted to share.

The ideals of capitalism are not so admirable. Not to the socialist, at least. Ahh, but capitalism will always produce more wealth than socialism. When it produces abundant wealth, there is more for the idealists to share.

Study the old communist and socialist countries. Especially China. And India. And the UK before Thatcher. When they finally reformed their economies they pushed capitalism higher and higher on the list of priorities. As they did, their economies radically increased the wealth. Which left the idealists more wealth to share. More wealth than they had during the era when they neglected the horses.

I fear that most extreme socialists don’t know one end of the horse from the other.

PS: You can buy my new novel on Amazon. THE LAST COLUMNIST.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Find Tom on Facebook. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com.