Thread by @Doc_0

Desperate socialists always rail against banks, credit card companies, and investors because they're counting on their audience to underestimate the value of risk. This is also one reason their estimates of the costs of government programs are always catastrophically wrong.

From an ideological standpoint, communists and socialists believe valuing and profiting from risk is immoral and unnecessary. They think all-wise, all-knowing government planners can make all economic decisions, largely eliminating risk through scientific analysis.

Of course, they are absolutely wrong about that. Not only does the Left overestimate the competence and honesty of government planners to a comical degree, but there IS risk inherent in ALL economic activity, even giant government programs designed by "selfless experts."

Government "investments" don't always pan out. Its ability to choose "winners and losers" is highly suspect, as Obama demonstrated repeatedly. The cost of these risks is socialized - i.e. forced upon taxpayers who had no say in the "investments" - but it doesn't go away.

Another form of risk in government programs comes from corruption, abuse, and noncompliance. The staggering abuse of programs like food stamps and "Obamaphones" is essentially a failed risk taken by government that people and corporate partners would use the programs as intended.

When you attack the very notion of the private sector evaluating risk profiting from it - offering credit at various rates to people based on creditworthiness, selling insurance based on actuarial calculations - you embrace the socialist belief in political control of risk.

Worse, you threaten to strangle innovation by removing the incentive to take risks on marginal ideas and distressed individuals. That's one reason central planning tends toward intellectual stagnation. Nobody is out there betting their own money and rolling the dice on long odds.

It's hard to believe anyone could believe politicians are better at determining the value of risk than private individuals after the 2008 financial crisis, but of course the Left was careful to write the history of that debacle in a way that absolved lefty politicians of blame.

The Left's war on risk-taking also reflects its deep-rooted misunderstanding of economics as stagnant: the rich have always been rich, the poor have always been poor, private capital is just a stagnant pool of untapped money. Nothing changes unless government forces it to change.

In truth, rich people tend to get that way by taking risks and suffering losses. Socialism kills their incentives to take those risks, making it more logical to hoard wealth and shelter money from taxation - the same unproductive behavior socialists accuse the rich of preferring.

Making risk unprofitable does no favors to the poor, who tend to be the beneficiaries of private investment. They need jobs, better products at cheaper prices, and credit. They benefit from understanding and embracing behavior that lets then access credit at better rates.

Here's the dirty little secret of socialism: its devotees scheme to control ALL capital, including yours, no matter how rich or poor you are. If the rich cannot take risks with their capital in pursuit of profit, then neither can the poor, whose capital is their labor.

Everyone's capital becomes less valuable when risk cannot be taken freely for profit. That's as true of the entry-level worker as of the billionaire investor. No one should prefer a system where risk is seen as an evil to be minimized instead of an opportunity for profit.

It's easy for socialist gasbags to scream that other people should give away money without properly evaluating risk, covering the costs, and pursuing profit. Remember, they're not just attacking big capitalists they see as pinatas full of money. They're attacking YOU.

In the world envisioned by socialists, you will have fewer options for work and investment. There will be less competition to buy your labor and sell you goods. Fewer options inevitably means less value, just as a $5 coupon for a specific purchase is worth less than $5 cash. /end