Political Iatrogenics—Why Socialism Doesn’t Work

[GURPS]

Socialism is predicated on action.

When socialists see problems, they want to do something about them. They want to take action. Starving children? Give them food. Poor people? Give them money. Climate change? Invest in solar panels.

The solution is always to add something. Add food, add money, add technology and the problem will go away—just like how taking penicillin will cure your infection.

And if the solution fails?

Try again.

Send more food. Spend more money. Invent new stuff (just like you would take more penicillin). The underlying assumption is that there is a solution for every problem, that politics is an equation that can be solved, a ledger that can be balanced.

And the bigger the problem, the bigger the solution must be.

But what socialists fail to realize is that by doing something, they often make it worse.

This is why socialism doesn’t work.

Political Iatrogenics & the Disruption of Complex Systems

Iatrogenics is not a common word, so let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.

Iatrogenics is a term that evolved in the medical context that describes (unexpected) harm caused by a physician’s treatment of a patient—it’s when the remedy makes the ailment worse (or creates a new, bigger problem).


Political Iatrogenics—Why Socialism Doesn’t Work

 

[Bird Dog]

Socialism is predicated on action.

When socialists see problems, they want to do something about them. They want to take action. Starving children? Give them food. Poor people? Give them money. Climate change? Invest in solar panels.

The solution is always to add something. Add food, add money, add technology and the problem will go away—just like how taking penicillin will cure your infection.

And if the solution fails?

Try again.

Send more food. Spend more money. Invent new stuff (just like you would take more penicillin). The underlying assumption is that there is a solution for every problem, that politics is an equation that can be solved, a ledger that can be balanced.

And the bigger the problem, the bigger the solution must be.

But what socialists fail to realize is that by doing something, they often make it worse.

This is why socialism doesn’t work.

Political Iatrogenics & the Disruption of Complex Systems

Iatrogenics is not a common word, so let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.

Iatrogenics is a term that evolved in the medical context that describes (unexpected) harm caused by a physician’s treatment of a patient—it’s when the remedy makes the ailment worse (or creates a new, bigger problem).


Political Iatrogenics—Why Socialism Doesn’t Work

Does Venezuela come to mind?

 

[SamSpade]

I do know that from analyses I've read, GIVING stuff away has consequences further down the road. For example, one article I read some time back said that food giveaways in Africa tended to increase starvation in the long run, because local farmers were discouraged from producing food. After all, how can a farmer working all day and all night compete with a rich nation stepping in and GIVING FOOD AWAY? We already observe when you give money to people or businesses, it tends to decrease their own efforts to do the same on their own. Sometime back in the early Obama administration, when support for solar was going around, some small startups started to fail - because if the government was going to drop money on THIS or THAT solar company - how can it be profitable to compete against a company like that?

Dropping money or food into a situation does not solve the problem. Give a man a fish and all that.
If you spend money to take care of people, you DISCOURAGE them from doing it for themselves.