Offering something to those who have nothing is a powerful political tool. It’s how demagogues or communists gain power among frustrated the masses, especially in desperate times. To those with no shoes, even flip-flops look good.
How do demagogues pay for these offerings? Usually through taxes (or government debt, essentially, deferred taxes), which promote “wealth distribution.” Like modern-day Robin Hoods, they finance their utopian dreams by making the rich pay “their fair share.” But wealth distribution is no substitute for wealth creation. Even Robin Hood could only steal so much. Eventually, the rich will either run out of money or have moved away, and the poor will have consumed what little was given to them, (and those in power will have embezzled/mismanaged the rest), leaving everybody worse off. .
What do demagogues ask from the masses in return? The “authority” to enact the laws to promote their grandiose dreams. It’s the Huey Long “share the wealth” approach to government, which ultimately leads to authoritarianism and corruption. The poor are willing to give away their useless freedoms for the shoes they need to survive. It’s a story repeated time and again, in countries like Cuba, or Venezuela, to terrifying results.
So yes, free shoes, even flip-flops, sound great to those with no shoes at all. But they must understand that their flip-flops come at the expense of selling the shoe factory, an unsustainable economic model that eventually will leave everybody shoeless again.
The shoeless must be helped.. But the secret to lifting up the poor is not finding new means of income redistribution, it’s finding new means of income generation: jobs, small and large businesses, etc. That’s something socialism can’t create.
In the words of Calvin Coolidge: “Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”
