The 2024 presidential election was not like past elections. It was a head-to-head battle between a self-made capitalist tycoon and a former prosecutor with socialist tendencies. This is unprecedented.
In Utah, there are approximately 1,796,819 active registered voters and over 200,000 college students. Students could constitute a critical voting block for either candidate.
These votes affect everyone. For voters to have taken Kamala Harris seriously as a candidate, they owed it to themselves and to society to thoroughly understand the trappings of socialist economic policy. Even now that the election is over, they still need to know what a vote for the Democratic Party (Harris being its leader) will mean pragmatically.
The University of Utah (as well as local high schools) can and should make mandatory curriculum and experiences that encourage students to think deeply about socialism, an economic system that has never succeeded even once. This is the only way to permanently put out the fire political upstarts (like William Jennings Bryan, Bernie Sanders and AOC) reliably spark decade after decade.
Through better education, the U can phase out what President-elect Trump has referred to as the “enemy within.”
A Professional Opinion
I gave these same questions to professor Alan Sandomir of the David Eccles School of Business. Sandomir has been an outstanding business professor for many years.
“[Capitalism], for me, can be defined [as] the private ownership of the factors of production,” Sandomir said. “It allows for the free play of what I think are our instincts, the primary instinct being self-interest.”
When asked to define socialism, Sandomir said that it is the “state ownership of the factors of production, meaning, if the state gets to determine what we would typically believe are phenomena of a market economy, the state gets to command those things. In other words, it puts the individual at a disadvantage, because now the individual has to compete within the dictates of the state rather than the dictates of the market.”
“Which is better, in your opinion?” I asked.
“Well, based on results,” Sandomir opined with a chuckle, “Capitalism is significantly better. I say better only in two senses … that it has lifted people out of poverty and into wealth, middle class and beyond, in a way that socialism just doesn’t do, except maybe those who are well-connected with the socialist environment. And I think [capitalism] is more successful too, because it has actually delimited the scope of our disputes, because we all pretty much know what to expect when we engage in a demand economy and in a competitive market, where in some sense, it’s a free for all. These are good things.”
The prevalence of the fact-free belief among students that socialism is great is shocking, considering that socialist societies are neither inclusive nor democratic. Socialism bludgeons the poet, chokes free enterprise and nullifies the voice of the common man.
Something seems to shield students from this fact.
The U has seen a recent proliferation of socialist propaganda (Mecha activism, presidential campaign promotions for socialist candidate Claudia De la Cruz, etc.). More can and should be done to educate students on the proven failures of socialism.
Kamala Harris’s Socialist Policies
Kamala Harris has verbally denied being a socialist, but some of her policies and statements call this into question.
Harris supported Bernie Sanders in his effort to fully socialize Medicare. She supports the study of redistributing federal funds to the descendants of slaves.
Harris’s policy platform — past and present — emphasizes the characteristics of a command economy, such as price controls.
Harris prioritizes economic functions over economic rights, including radical climate measures such as a fracking ban in 2019. She has since rescinded this position.
In 2019, she supported measures for the U.S. government to pay for sex change operations for prisoners and illegal aliens in detention. It is a position she has yet to clarify or rescind.
How Utah Can Counteract Socialist Propaganda
The only feasible deterrent against the rise of socialism in the U.S. would be for universities to invest in counter-educating students against the ills of this societal plague.
The U already provides several courses on political economy but leave much to the imagination in terms of execution. For instance, one course, ECON 6080, is titled “Marxian Economics.” Karl Marx is the intellectual father of communism, the apogee of socialism. Meanwhile, classes specific to David Ricardo, Adam Smith and other capitalist arch-philosophers are conspicuously absent, raising questions as to why only Marxian material is covered in-depth at the U. Further research into these courses and their syllabi are therefore certainly warranted.
A stronger study-abroad effort into failed socialist countries could be beneficial for the business school.
One need look no further than the Eastern Bloc country of Armenia for a real-world example of the rubble of nearly 70 years of uninterrupted socialism.
Some of the greatest artistic minds of the 20th century, who were brutalized and sometimes murdered, were Armenian. Examples include Aram Khachaturian, Paruyr Sevak, Yeghishe Charents, Sergei Parajanov and many others. Cultural motifs and traditions survived in spite of, not because of, communism.
It was in Armenia where a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in 1988 caused catastrophically disproportionate damage because of the weakness of socialist ideology failing to provide proper motivation and infrastructure.
Compare this to Chile, a former autocracy which was actually liberalized after the installation of capitalism — something which cannot be said of Armenia and its socialist experiment.
Students have difficulty internalizing these realities when they are so far removed from them.
Perhaps students would benefit from an up-close look at the aftermath of socialism. Mandatory political economy curriculum and expanded options for study abroad would help students better grasp their economic place in the world and the financial and ethical superiority of capitalism over socialism.
Now with the election over, the only thing standing between us and a radical socialist transformation of our country is Donald Trump’s presidency.
The U can and should do its part to stand up to socialism.
