Show j i 1 m i i i i mi mm 1 mm m It Seems To M Me Hy By Joseph Ii It n. Roberts Socialism failures COPYRIGHT 1977 Contemporary Features Syndicate Inc British economist Arthur Shenfield has written a hard hard- hitting analysis of the deplorable economic and political conditions of oC the British people after some thirty years ears aIS of socialism lie He offers the British ish experience as lessons lor for Americans and we would be wise Ise to listen Ills His essay originally a speech runs several thousand words so I can only touch the high points here Anyone desiring a copy free Cree of charge should write to the Center for Constructive Alternatives Hillsdale College Hillsdale Michigan 1 Shenfield identifies five principal causes for the British economy conomy being in shambles and its government on the verge of oC collapse TilE THE FIRST is the loss waste aste inefficiency and above all the absence of control caused by the nationalization of certain industries such as the railways and coal mining The Labor Party which first came into power after World War II told the voters that nationalization would enable the entire economy to be planned and it would give the not people control capitalists of their economic fut future re Unprecedented Unprecedented Unprecedented Un Un- prosperity would follow What followed was inflation not prosperity and public ownership was an illusion Ownership was simply transferred transferred transferred tran tran- from the capitalists to the bureaucrats who ho run them and the labor unions which run run the workers in them The people are arc left to pay take take-it- or-leave-it or prices imposes on on them and to pick pickup up up the tab when the losses have to be met Since one of the suggestions for solving our energy problem is isna na nationalization lIona lion of our oil industry industry in in- we should ponder the British experience The second cause is the awful power of labor unions run by pen en who ho offer offer mindless op 1 P- P position n creating to free enterprise The enormous cost of union power which serves not the best interest of the workers but its own power holders is a burden upon all the people including the rank and file members Shenfield says The essential truth is that the labor union is a power structure which first climbs on the workers worker's back and from that favored position climbs on the backs of the whole society It is destroying not only the British economy but its political system TilE THE THIRD 0 cause is National Health Service It is wasteful oppressive and destructive of the whole system of medicine and its bankruptcy is inevitable Shenfield cautions that before we permit Senator Kennedy and others to establish our own comprehensive national health plan we should consider the waste corruption and undermining undermining un un- un of professional standards by the British plan has caused and which we have already experienced to a certain certain tain Lain extent in Medicare and Medicaid The fourth cause has been intervention by the government into the affairs of oC private in in- Just as our regulatory agencies the CAB FCC FTC FMC FDA EPA OSHA and others Have done great harm to American industry and thus to American prosperity so have governmental authorities Shenfield ss Our interventions interventions in in- are a marvelous example of the blind the lame and the halt in inthe the shape of government Insisting on leading the sighted the swift and the hale in the form of successful private ind industry stry The fifth cause is excessive taxation It is the expression both of the excessive intrusion n of the state into the citizens citizen's affairs which is eating at the vitals of the free society and the redistribution of wealth and income demanded by the worship of the fetish of social justice which so far from being justice of any kind is only the serving self cry of the mentors en tors or political majorities with the power to rob political minorities If s the 11 it can ha happen to Jo us-and us in some cases it already dy has In the light of the British experience do we dare lure to continue to adopt socialist solutions to our economic economic problems |