ActRight

Socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that socialism turns out to be a big disappointment, if not a disaster. While throngs of young people are cheering loudly for avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, socialism has turned oil-rich Venezuela into a place where there are shortages of everything from toilet paper to beer, where electricity keeps shutting down, and where there are long lines of people hoping to get food, people complaining that they cannot feed their families. #ad#With national income going down, and prices going up under triple-digit inflation in Venezuela, these complaints are by no means frivolous. But it is doubtful if the young people cheering for Bernie Sanders have even heard of such things, whether in Venezuela or in other countries around the world that have turned their economies over to politicians and bureaucrats to run. The anti-capitalist policies in Venezuela have worked so well that the number of companies in Venezuela is now a fraction of what it once was. That should certainly reduce capitalist “exploitation,” shouldn’t it? But people who attribute income inequality to capitalists’ exploiting workers, as Karl Marx claimed, never seem to get around to testing that belief against facts — such as the fact that none of the Marxist regimes around the world has ever had as high a standard of living for working people as there is in many capitalist countries. Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the Left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated. When Senator Sanders cries, “The system is rigged!” no one asks, “Just what specifically does that mean?” or “What facts do you have to back that up?” Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the Left. In 2015, the 400 richest people in the world had net losses of $19 billion. If they had rigged the system, surely they could have rigged it better than that. But the very idea of subjecting their pet notions to the test of hard facts will probably not even occur to those who are cheering for socialism and for other bright ideas of the political Left. How many of the people who are demanding an increase in the minimum wage have ever bothered to check what actually happens when higher minimum wages are imposed? More often they just assume what is assumed by like-minded peers — sometimes known as “everybody,” with their assumptions being what “everybody knows.” Back in 1948, when inflation had rendered meaningless the minimum wage established a decade earlier, the unemployment rate among 16- to 17-year-old black males was under 10 percent. But after the minimum wage was raised repeatedly to keep up with inflation, the unemployment rate for black males that age was never under 30 percent for more than 20 consecutive years, from 1971 through 1994. In many of those years, the unemployment rate for black youngsters that age exceeded 40 percent and, for a couple of years, it exceeded 50 percent. The damage is even greater than these statistics might suggest. Most low-wage jobs are entry-level jobs that young people move up out of, after acquiring work experience and a track record that makes them eligible for better jobs. But you can’t move up the ladder if you don’t get on the ladder. The great promise of socialism is something for nothing. It is one of the signs of today’s dumbed-down education that so many college students seem to think that the cost of their education should — and will — be paid by raising taxes on “the rich.” Here again, just a little check of the facts would reveal that higher tax rates on upper-income earners do not automatically translate into more tax revenue coming in to the government. Often high tax rates have led to less revenue than lower tax rates. In a globalized economy, high tax rates may just lead investors to invest in other countries with lower tax rates. That means that jobs created by those investments will be overseas. None of this is rocket science. But you do have to stop and think — and that is what too many of our schools and colleges are failing to teach their students to do. — Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His website is tsowell.com. © 2016 Creators Syndicate Inc.

We have NEVER seen Trump do this...

“We cannot fool ourselves. There is an Islamic problem. Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, Boko Haram, all of them are killing by the name of Allah. They’re not killing by the name of Jesus. They’re not killing by the name of Jehovah. They’re not killing by the name of Mahavira, or the Buddha, or Lao Tzu,” said Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a religious leader of Hamas.  

The European Commission has announced that Facebook and Twitter have signed up to censor all “illegal hate speech” within 24 hours.

Uganda: Muslim kills Christian wife for leaving Islam Video: Robert Spencer on how to defeat the jihad

During the May 27th San Diego, CA Donald J. Trump Rally, Mr. Trump spoke about the terrible events that had transpired a month before at the Costa Mesa, CA T...

In this eighth segment of his Basics of Islam series, Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer discusses what the concept of jihad really means in Islamic theology.

Share on Facebook 1 1 SHARES The last and greatest hope for Trump boosters to convince #NeverTrump folks is to hold the specter of Supreme Court nominations over their head. The reasoning goes as follows: we already know/assume Trump will fill the vacancy filled by the death of the great Antonin Scalia, and there’s a good possibility that he will get one or two more. | Read More »

GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was back on the Twitter warpath, targeting the judge in the Trump University lawsuit on Monday evening.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is an advocate of open borders and increased immigration for the United States but sings a different ...

The ugly protest scenes outside Donald Trump’s rallies are doing more damage to the protesters than to Mr. Trump’s political chances, according to analysts who say the violence and anti-American sentiments are backfiring.

Professor: There's zero scientific evidence for scholarly claims of 'stereotype inaccuracy.'

Brett Sanders of Frisco, Texas believes he was unfairly given a $220 speeding ticket, so he made a dramatic video of him paying up in small change.

“New Hampshire General Election: Trump 44% (Tie) Clinton 44% Franklin Pierce/Boston Herald poll FYI: Obama won NH in 2012 by 6%”

Maniac who can't be trusted to run the presidency fortunately also can't be trusted to run a campaign.

“One Hell of an Amen” can be found on Brantley’s latest album JUST AS I AM PLATINUM EDITION: http://smarturl.it/JustAsIAmP

When I called for my fellow progressives to welcome conservative academics on campus, readers were in agreement that I was dead wrong.

Darrell Castle was there the day the Constitution Party was founded in 1992 in New Orleans. It would be another four years before the Federal Elections Commission would officially recognize the party, but Castle, who is the one of the only — if not the only — original founders...

Norah Jones sings 'American Anthem.' To learn more about "The War" visit: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

Even as Donald Trump and Republican Party bosses diligently work Capitol Hill in hopes of bringing the party together after a fractious primary, convention planners could still be looking at a block of empty seats in Cleveland.

The strength of America is rooted in her written Constitution, as well as the unwritten one carried within the hearts of her people.

Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol announced via Twitter Sunday that his plan to get an independent candidate to enter the race has finally come together.  "Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate — an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance," wrote Kristol.   

Share on Facebook 1 1 SHARES Isn’t it weird how Trump saves his most outlandish (and least truthful) attacks for other Republicans, even though he’s already the presumptive Republican nominee and has no need to run against Republicans at all? It’s almost the guy grew up as a liberal Democrat and still is one at heart, or something. Anyway, the latest Republican to make him | Read More »

A fellow Democrat posted a snapshot of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) apparently nodding off during a Memorial Day ceremony in California.

Politics 101: Bill Kristol Has History of Inaccurate Predictions