Many times socialism has been mentioned as a viable solution for numerous issues in America, yet it has not been implemented into society. The question remains, will, or more importantly, should socialism be used in the United States? Simply the answer is no, yet some politicians argue that socialism would equalize the country and fix most, if not all of the poverty in the country. Others argue that they believe it to be theft and unfair to the working class. In order to help understand how socialism might work in the country, we can analyze current socialist countries such as Venezuela. It has been shown as a perfect role model for the possibilities of socialism.

To truly understand the issues occuring in Venezuela and the issues their socialist party has caused, the history of the country pre-Chaves, their current president, must be observed. The country had began as a small nation, but in 1914 they found oil and struck it rich. The country became increasingly industrialized and more modern. The influx of hard working immigrants arrived to increase this process thanks to the relatively free economy. Many left-activists grew acutely against this change and, with military support, overthrew the president and had brought in a new man who furthered the democracy in the country greatly. The new president, however, was an ex-communist who slowly but surely implemented many socialist ideals into the nation. There would be free healthcare and education all funded by the government and the oil they manufactured, only this wasn’t enough to fund all these things for their people.

According to Mises Institute article “Venezuela Before Chavez: A Prelude to Socialist Failure,” Venezuela currently has gone from a “First World country to a middle-tier developing country.” The downfall of the entire nation was completed through the use of socialism. The loss of the wealth given to the unworthy lower class, who wastes it on desired things, ruined the economy.

For example, one million dollars is of much more use to founder of SpaceX and chief executive of Tesla Elon Musk than to a homeless man on the streets of New York. This appears unethical and even nonsensical, yet when thought is put into the ideas they truly begin to be understood. The homeless man will likely get an apartment, get food, a car and begin to live comfortably. This is great, yet it only affects the one man. The same money given to Elon Musk could be the creation of a new sustainable planet for humans to live on and continue with population growth, affecting billions of people. Now what truly is unethical?

The true crux of socialism and why it should never be implemented into the American society is that it is theft. The government truly steals from people through extremely high taxes that harm the middle class the most. The idea is to take from the rich and give to the poor, yet the taxes apply to almost everyone hurting the poor middle class man while the upper class man has no issue paying these extremely high taxes. The idea hurts the economy extremely as well. The rich upper class, with the taxes ripping money out of their hands, don’t want to put the money back into the economy, where it will be taken by the government and given to the undeserving people who choose not to work and just get paid by the government. The entire economy is lost without the investors that socialism has removed.

Socialism also gives far more power to the federal government, removing the current checks and balances that our nation’s current government has. The government has the ability to remove many of the rights people are granted by The Constitution, such as freedom of speech, press and even religion. The likelihood of this happening if America ever did become a socialist nation is slim, yet with the removal of checks and balances there is on ability to regulate the power, permitting a easily corruptible government.

Clearly, socialism is not a viable solution for the numerous issues in America. Should our democracy ever explore this avenue? Simply, the answer is no.