Alcohol is Like the Economy in Different Countries
Benjamin Powell compares the economies in different countries to alcohol. I believe he presents his beliefs in this way to reach a broader audience. Alcohol can vary in different tastes, prices, strength, and quality. These "subtle" changes can completely affect how consumers view and treat the product. Creating this analogy is helpful in showing the "subtle" but effective differences between a socialist and capitalist economy.
How Understanding the System Affects Views on Socialism
Benjamin Powell said that a majority of young adults that he has meet that identify as socialists back their beliefs based on the goals of socialism. Some of the major goals of socialism sound very appealing in a country that is currently lacking equality. Gender equality and race equality are two things that socialism promise to fix. The need to fix these issues is huge, but creating a socialist economy to do this may not be the most effective and safe way to do it. Powell responded to their reasoning with a question that asked them how they would feel if the stores were government owned and if the government could decide who get how much of what. Being part of this younger generation, I see where the young adults Powell talked about are coming from. I think that socialism sounds like an obvious way to fix these problem, until the actual method in doing such is considered. I think our generation is very media focused and because of that we never get the full story. Posts on social media promoting socialism would most likely focus on the vary appealing goals of socialism and not on the system that would need to be in place to reach that goals. I think that it is very hard to navigate the political side of social media when the full story is never provided.
Socialism Affecting Quality
One of Benjamin Powells major points against socialism was how the quality of products in a socialist society is much less than those of others. He used multiple examples of this. The first one that stood out to me was the comparison of private homes being offered for rental and a government run hotel. The government run hotel was very low quality... not a surprise considering that the workers have no incentive to bring back customers if the government is going to provide for them no matter the quality of work put in. In a true socialist society there would be no real private property and people that offered their own homes for rent would be able to operate. Giving private property increases the incentive to reinvest-it and this is exactly what the people who offered Powell a place to stay, at a price, were doing. The other point that stood out to me was when Powell went to go eat a restaurant. There beer options were few and the quality is very low. This is due to a lack of incentive and competition. Why would a socialist economy want to make better beer if they know their mediocre beer will sell anyway because it is the only option? Considering all of the points Powell had to offer, it seems that the actual system of socialism lessens the worth of the products and their individuals in hopes of creating a more even world.
Work Cited
Powell, Bejamin. "Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World." November, 2019. Lecture Link
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