Antifa-Communists-Portland
Communism has a marketing problem — not simply because its record is unknown by young Americans, but because too many people have been taught to simply ignore it. Let's go through some of Communism’s lies one by one.
The first and most common is that communism has never been properly implemented. In reality, the Soviet Union, Maoist China, Cuba, Cambodia, and North Korea all implemented Marxist theory exactly as written — total state ownership, central planning, one party, no opposition. The results were production collapse, engineered famines, and systematic repression. The failure isn't accidental. Economist Ludwig von Mises [MEE-ziz] explained it in the 1920s — without market prices, there is no way to rationally allocate resources. The math doesn't work. It never has.
The second lie is that socialist revolution brings equality. What it actually delivers is a new ruling class. While ordinary citizens stood in rationing lines, the party elite shopped at exclusive stores, received top-tier medical care, and lived in luxury apartments. The state's total control of production gave communist bureaucrats more concentrated power than any capitalist owner in a free society ever dreamed of.
The third lie is that socialism defends workers. In every communist system, independent unions were abolished and replaced with state organs designed to enforce production discipline. Strikes were treated as sabotage. Workers had one employer — the state — and no ability to negotiate, quit, or object without risking imprisonment.
The fourth lie is that without the radical left, workers would still be toiling fourteen-hour days with no protections. In reality, the first major labor reforms — England's Factory Acts and Bismarck's welfare programs — arose in liberal and conservative contexts, before Marxist regimes existed. Working conditions improved because capitalist innovation made production more efficient, not because of revolution.
The fifth lie is the one with the longest body count. Socialism, we are told, defends human rights. The historical record shows likely more than 100 million deaths from purges, gulags, reeducation camps, and deliberate famines. Meanwhile, World Bank data show extreme global poverty fell from around 45 percent in 1981 to under 9 percent by 2019 — driven entirely by the expansion of free markets.
Communism doesn't fail because it's implemented poorly. It fails because it's implemented. Don’t let young Americans fall prey to historical revision or omission! Stay informed and grounded in truth at PhyllisSchlafly.com, and join us again for the Phyllis Schlafly Report.
