Martin Michelot (“Socialist blues,” Oct. 27) fails to consider the reasons why many Americans dislike or are even fearful of socialism. Our country was founded on ideals that directly conflict with socialist ones, namely the right to liberty and property. Michelot states that “there is no loss of freedom at stake” in a socialist society, which ignores completely the idea of economic freedom, since in order to provide all of the services of a socialist government, money must be taken by force from others. This not only violates our right to property, but also reduces incentives for innovation and hard work since the government will simply steal the fruits of your labor. Michelot also claims that government will provide a service “of better quality” than the private sector. You only need to look as far as the DMV to understand that the government is extremely inefficient in just about everything it does. Now, I don’t think that Obama is a socialist in the true sense of the word, but he is pretty darn close, and I think Americans have every right to be fearful of a system that would strip away ideals such as liberty that are the foundation of our country.
Megan Stiles
CLAS III
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