The beginning of the talk really resonated with me when Dr. Ben Powell said that there is a trend of college students believing that socialism is the best way to run our country as opposed to capitalism. That is very relatable to me as a lot of my peers lean on the side of thinking that universal healthcare and free education through college are important concepts that America needs to adopt immediately. I have also noticed a trend of defending these beliefs by saying that Canada is doing so much better than America when it comes to health because of universal healthcare, but that is far from the truth. The grass is always greener on the other side.
It is very interesting to hear about all of the failures of a system that sounds glamorous and promising. Socialism, in theory, sounds like it would solve all of America's biggest issues, but it really would be a door opening to government manipulation. As told by Dr. Powell multiple times in his talk about the lies and failures of different countries that were/are living under socialism. But, it is important to keep in mind his point that no country has ever done socialism perfectly, or capitalism either.
His point about entrepreneurship as a necessity versus a choice is something I have been aware of, but never truly paid attention to. I suppose this goes along with the name of this class, but the importance of entrepreneurship within life and having the opportunity to start a business and grow is what a large number of people immigrate to America in order to do. Our capitalistic society makes that possible.
I would be worried that if the United States ever went to a socialist structure, it would slowly transition into communism. The pendulum of extremes is always swinging, and I foresee that being an issue.
We talked about something in-class discussion with the electoral college and how America was never set up to be a true democracy because of it. This thought comes to my mind whenever I think about capitalism within our country. Would it take the course as a way to prove that the average citizen is incompetent and that the government needs to be in charge of all decisions and choices? This is one of the reasons I think it would slowly shift to communism. Our country was founded with the intention of holding decision power from average citizens because of a lack of trust that they will decide on the best option.
All in all, I think that socialism is a scary concept and I hope that I never see the day that it meets America, if that ever happens.