Socialism and unintended consequences



-Thomas Sowell

The banes of socialism are unintended consequences that trigger Newton’s third law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The idea is as applicable in politics and policy as it is physics. Laws, rules and jurisprudence that promote big government are dishonest and misleading because they are based on theory that looks good on paper but falls victim to the inevitable equal and opposite reaction.

King George III had depleted his treasury fighting the French and Indian War with little or nothing to show for it. Ignoring Newton’s third law, the king had parliament pass taxes on the American colonies so he could replenish his treasury, with the firm belief that he was entitled to a slice of their pie. Unfortunately, King George III neglected to anticipate the colonial reaction to him using their hard-earned money to refill his coffers.

Not only did the taxes fail to produce the desired revenue, it caused the king to spend more money in a vain attempt to enforce his taxes. The colonies refused to pay and when the king sent troops to enforce the collection of his taxes, instead of forcing compliance, the tax collectors received a revolution that cost the king his American colonies. In other words, the king fell victim to Newton’s third law through his belief that the people existed to serve government, not vise versa.


-Vladimir Lenin

The Mills administration and the Maine Legislature seem to have taken a page out of King George III’s playbook, and are presenting their policies in the language of Lenin.  The governor and legislature are spending money like a ship’s company after months at sea. In order to cover their spending, they are already searching for new ways to raise revenue (tax) while vilifying the producers who provide the capital that gives the governor and legislature something to tax. 

The governor and her merry band are ignoring Newton’s third law. Modern day revolutionaries won’t be storming the capitol with muskets and pitchforks, but there will be an equal and opposite reaction to all this taxation and spending.

For example, one such reaction to the outpouring of taxes, regulations and sweetheart labor deals could be a decrease in economic activity caused by the flight of capital, jobs and our most productive people to states where their prosperity is appreciated.


-Winston Churchill

Socialism’s inherent “equal sharing of miseries” are the following:

· The taking of money (taxes) from some people who work for it and giving it to others who don’t work for it; the redistribution of wealth on a grand scale.

· The vast expansion of freebies doled out by a central government in order to create and sustain dependence.

· Government protection of favored persons and corporations, permitting and aiding them to expand their fortunes without limit, regardless of what crimes they commit in the process.

· A government by and for those who are allowed to be wealthy, the political elites, who pretend to be servants of the masses.

· The gradual lowering of the standard of living for the overwhelming number of people.

As told by Jon Rappoport, socialism is a protection racket, a long con and a heartless system of elite control posing as the greatest good.

Free-market capitalism, not socialism, will empower people to eliminate poverty, build the middle class, protect property rights and promote law based on our written constitution.

About John MacGregor


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