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Overview
Just thirty years ago, socialism seemed utterly discredited.
An economic, moral, and political failure, socialism had rightly been thrown on the ash heap of history after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Unfortunately, bad ideas never truly go away—and socialism has come back with a vengeance.
A generation of young people who don’t remember the misery that socialism inflicted on Russia and Eastern Europe is embracing it all over again. Oblivious to the unexampled prosperity capitalism has showered upon them, they are demanding utopia.
In his provocative new book, The Socialist Temptation, Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains:
- Why the socialist temptation is suddenly so powerful among young people
- That even when socialism doesn’t usher in a bloody tyranny (as, for example, in the Soviet Union, China, and Venezuela), it still makes everyone poor and miserable
- Why under the relatively benign democractic socialism of Murray's youth in pre-Thatcher Britain, he had to do his homework by candlelight
- That the Scandinavian economies are not really socialist at all
- The inconsistencies in socialist thought that prevent it from ever working in practice
- How we can show young people the sorry truth about socialism and turn the tide of history against this destructive pipe dream
Sprightly, convincing, and original, The Socialist Temptation is a powerful warning that the resurgence of socialism could rob us of our freedom and prosperity.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781684510603 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Skyhorse Publishing |
| Publication date: | 07/28/2020 |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 1,109,126 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
A former civil servant in the United Kingdom, where he helped to privatize the railroad industry, Murray has lived in the United States since 1997 but remains a British citizen. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of London and an M.A. from the University of Oxford.
Table of Contents
Foreword xv
Trigger Warning xxi
Part 1 Socialism: A Myth That Refuses to Die 1
Chapter 1 A Twenty-First-Century Buzzword 3
Chapter 2 What Is This Socialism Thing, Anyway? 7
Chapter 3 Socialism in American History 13
Chapter 4 What Do the Polls Tell Us? 23
Chapter 5 Socialism on Campus 31
Chapter 6 Cultural Cognition and American Values 37
Part 2 Can Socialism Deliver a Fair Society? 47
Chapter 7 The Socialist Position 49
Chapter 8 The Gentleman in Washington, D.C., Knows Best 53
Chapter 9 Democratic Socialism in Action 57
Chapter 10 The Socialist Death Toll 63
Chapter 11 Socialized Medicine and the NHS 69
Chapter 12 The Bureaucrat 73
Chapter 13 George Orwell, Public Choice, and Doublethink 79
Chapter 14 Has Real Socialism Never Been Tried? 83
Chapter 15 But Isn't Inequality a Real Problem? 89
Chapter 16 Radical Equality and Doublethink 99
Part 3 Does Socialism Free the Individual? 103
Chapter 17 Freedom: The Socialists' Case 105
Chapter 18 The Individual and the Collective 109
Chapter 19 Positive and Negative Rights 113
Chapter 20 Free Stuff, or Free People? 117
Chapter 21 Alienation Nation 121
Chapter 22 Property Rights and Economic Freedom 125
Chapter 23 Regulation, Not Calculation 129
Chapter 24 Socialism and the Corporation: A Love-Hate Relationship 133
Chapter 25 Free Speech and the Socialist Commonwealth 137
Chapter 26 Liberty for Its Own Sake-and for Our Health 143
Part 4 Can Socialism Sustain Communities? 147
Chapter 27 The Socialists' Case 149
Chapter 28 Socialism and the Divine 151
Chapter 29 How Socialism Discourages Virtuous Behavior 155
Chapter 30 Transnationalism and Nationalism 161
Chapter 31 Watermelon Environmentalism 165
Chapter 32 How Regulation and Taxation Create Carnage 173
Chapter 33 Business and Civil Society 179
Chapter 34 Woke Capitalism 185
Part 5 Socialism: A Temptation America Can't Afford to Indulge 189
Chapter 35 Tocqueville's Warning 191
Chapter 36 You Can't Beat Government with Government 197
Chapter 37 America's Immunity to Socialism 201
Chapter 38 Is It Different This Time? 207
Chapter 39 Conservative Infighting 211
Chapter 40 Reagan's Challenge 215
Chapter 41 The Powell Memorandum 217
Chapter 42 Meeting Reagan's Challenge 221
Chapter 43 Heightening the Contradictions 225
Chapter 44 Corbynism Routed 229
Afterword 233
Acknowledgements 237
Notes 239
Index 259