In a college class this writer once observed, the professor asked his students for the definition of utilitarianism. The greatest good for the greatest number, they collectively responded. The professor next asked what would be the greatest good for the greatest number here in America. “Socialism,” one student in her mid-twenties predictably blurted out, “would be best for everyone because everything is equally shared. You can’t get any better than that.”
Actually you can get much better than equally-shared misery, yet the professor failed to point this out in his sad attempt to defend capitalism. Of all the myriad arguments for the immorality and inferiority of socialism, perhaps the professor should have chosen this one simple point.
Socialism is immoral because it necessarily involves stealing.
Every individual with a functioning conscious knows that stealing is intrinsically wrong. This is a simple truth upon which all reasonable people can agree. If it can be proved, then, that socialism necessarily involves stealing, the system has to be entirely discredited. Can this be done?
In order for something to be stolen, that thing has to first belong to someone. This implies that private ownership of property is the natural method in which society is intended to function. God Himself indicated that fact when He gave us the Seventh Commandment against stealing. If property could not be privately held, it could not possibly be stolen. Socialism, however, with its abolition of private property is diametrically opposed to to that concept. It is oxymoronic to say one can steal what they already own through the establishment of public property. Therefore it is quite clear that God intends the ownership of private property.
Does socialism rebel against private property? Necessarily. Socialism by its very nature is the opposite of private property. In order for anything to be equally distributed, that thing has to be taken from those who have more. That is nothing more than stealing, and that is exactly what socialism aims for.
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