Many young people in America are “feeling the Bern” of the utopian image of “free” college and a vision of cradle-to-coffin government reliance. What Vladimir Lenin would have called his “useful idiots” are today’s confused and misguided socialist sympathizers. Feeling this Bern sounds like a nasty kind of rash nobody wants to have, with the symptoms being mass poverty, debt, and chaos. This is why I believe that the true wealth and power of the American economy is most successfully unleashed under capitalism.

America has become the single richest and most powerful civilization in the history of the world, all because of the capitalist system and the exchanges between private citizens. The principles of limited government and a free market economy have grown and matured to become the core of my beliefs. I will admit there was a time in my life during jr. high when I fell susceptible to leftist propaganda and blindly followed the grand illusion of socialism. My admiration and adoration of the Soviet Union was entirely misinformed and based on emotional appeals, not logic or reasoning. After years of increased learning and taking economics my convictions have turned 180 degrees to being socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I am proud to say that I have definitely become aware of the dangers and fallacies of “democratic socialism.”

The Cold War was essentially a war between two ideologies and systems of government, capitalism vs. socialism. Of course we know who won, but young Americans today are increasingly running far-left and wanting to turn America into the very same evil empire that crumbled by the end of the 20th century. The Russian Revolution of 1917 is not unlike that of what Bernie Sanders suggests by “a political revolution is coming.” The Soviet takeover was driven by mass poverty and the perceived solution to the “rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.” That saying is not contextually true, the American and world income has risen 49% over the last 20 years. The future of innovation and financial profits essentially died when the Bolsheviks overran the Winter Palace. The so-called workers’ revolution made everybody equally poor instead of allowing for equal opportunity at wealth. The Soviet failure serves as a historical lesson for Americans that socialism leads to an oppressive regime, mass poverty, and a lesser value of the individual. America’s history has defended the ultimate in individual freedoms, brought about the most influential figures, and created the richest overall population ever.

The Soviet Union was not the only country naïve enough to fall to socialist ruin, other disasters include: China, Cuba, North Korea, Eastern Europe, and most recently Venezuela. Besides America, the ideals of private enterprise have lifted millions out of poverty in places such as: Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel, Ireland, and Chile. I would much rather live in America than any place with less economic liberty. Having a truly comprehensive view of economics has forever affirmed my belief in America’s capitalist success.