Why Do Americans Have Positive Views of Socialism?

According to a Pew study, one-third plus Americans have positive views of socialism. This report boggles the minds of people who understand that socialism does not work. However, it is good to know how it is possible for Americans to have such views. John Stossel reported the following information. 

Little has brought more misery [than socialism] – first in the Soviet Union, then in China, Cuba, Nicaragua, now Venezuela …

One reason young people support socialism is because their social media feeds show videos made by popular but economically illiterate people.

TikTok star Madeline Pendleton has 1.6 million subscribers. My new video shows her telling them: “Socialism is working better than capitalism 93% of the time!”

Where does she get 93%?

From a study published in 1986 by self-described Marxists in the Journal of Health Services.

The authors conveniently ignore the United States and other wealthy countries and compare socialist economies to “capitalist” countries like Uganda, Rwanda, and Somalia, some of which were at war.

It’s so stupid. But based on that, Pendleton tells her followers, “We have all the data showing that socialism does work.”

She also celebrates communism because of its “increased life expectancy.”

That’s nonsense, too. People live longest in capitalist countries like Japan (85 years) and South Korea (84 years). Even in the United States (70 years), where more of us die young because we drive more (car accidents), eat more, shoot each other more often, and try more dangerous drugs, we still live longer than people in China (78 years). Socialism is also superior, says Pendleton, because of “the 90-100% home-ownership rates.”

“One hundred percent,” of course, is just dumb, but China (if you believe the party’s statistics) does have 90% homeownership.

But not under socialism! They achieved that only after privatizing urban housing. Before 1998, when Chinese housing was still socialist, just 20% of Chinese people owned homes….

Another silly social media star, JT Chapman, tells his almost 2 million YouTube subscribers: “The central idea that unites all socialists is maximizing freedom … democratization of power.”

Democratization? In most socialist countries, there’s only one political party.

A popular TikToker calling himself Rathbone tells his hundred thousand subscribers: “capitalism … prioritizes profits over people … [but] socialism … prioritizes people over profits.”

Likewise, Chapman says socialism offers the “guaranteed right to … health care, food, and shelter.”

Well, of course socialism promises those things and claims to prioritize people over profits, but what people actually  get is different….

Finally, Chapman says, “Ownership should be collective.”

Collective ownership does feel good. “We’ll share everything!”

But every attempt at collective ownership has failed….

The bottom line: Incentives matter. No one washes a rental car. Few people care much about what belongs to everyone. It’s just human nature.

Capitalism isn’t perfect, but if we want a better future, and freedom, capitalism is the only thing that works.

Again, I ask the question: Why do Americans have positive views of socialism? It is obvious from the above information that many of them have incorrect information. Maybe they do not know where to find the information, and maybe they are too indoctrinated to really look for the truth. There are probably numerous reasons for Americans having such beliefs, but all of them are based on wrong information.

 

Is There a Better Way to Solve Homelessness?

Homelessness is problem in most of the larger cities in the United States. I volunteered at a homeless shelter for over a year. The homeless center could provide beds for 50 to 70 homeless women. It also provided clothing and light snacks for homeless people. In my experience, many of the homeless had problems with drugs and/or alcohol, but some of them used the center for a hand up rather than just a handout.

Virginia Allen, in an article published in The Daily Signal, discussed a unique way to address homelessness. She shared the experience of James Whitford and his wife who founded a ministry about 25 years ago to help the poor and homeless people in Missouri. Soon after they started the ministry, Whitford felt prompted to find out what it is like to be homeless. He discussed his feeling with his wife and obtained her support to be “homeless” for an abbreviated period of time. He had nothing but the clothes on his back when he left home. 

Not long after leaving home, he sat on a street corner with a young man named Ralph who was in his 30s. Whitmore had previously ministered to the man, but now they were homeless together. Whitford was hungry, and Ralph offered half his sandwich to him.

“And if you put yourself in that position of a homeless person offering his food to you, how do you respond? I didn’t say it,” Whitford recalled, “but I remember feeling or thinking, well, ‘NO, I’m not going to take your sandwich, Ralph. I’m not going to do that. I can go somewhere if I need to, and you’re the ministry, and I’m the minister.’”

At that moment, Whitford says, he realized he had been “treating Ralph and thousands of other people as objects of my good intentions … rather than subjects who have autonomy, capacity, and agency.” The experience changed Whitford’s perspective on serving the poor, and permanently affected the way he led his ministry, moving from a “handout model to a hand-up model.”

“If we’re not engaging people in reciprocity in our charity, we are failing them horribly, doing them a disservice and not really upholding the inherent human dignity that is in every person,” he said.

Unfortunately, Whitford says many of the government’s programs intended to help the poor, and many charity programs, don’t engage the recipients’ dignity and have instead created significant harm through creating dependence on programs instead of empowerment.

Whitford discovered that his good intentions for helping the poor and needy were not enough to help the struggling people. The welfare program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operates on the principle that people should not be given handouts but hand ups. Whenever, the Church of Jesus Christ helps able-bodied people, they expect those same people to do something to help the Church membership. Whatever the assigned task may be, it is within the ability of the person being helped. By working for the help that they receive, the person is able to keep their self-esteem and dignity. They may also be developing necessary skills for learning to provide for themselves. 

Who Is the Best Tag Team in the U.S.A.?

            My VIPs for this week are President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the best tag team in the U.S.A. and possibly in the world. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visit Trump and Vance and thought that he could steamroll them to get what he wanted rather than to sign the agreement as planned. Trump and Vance showed that they were not about to be rolled by Zelenskyy.

            Zelenskyy was asked to leave the White House when Trump realized what he was doing. The “brawl” in the Oval Office has been on every news program in the nation and world for the past 24 hours. Some people are siding with Zelenskyy, and some are siding with Trump and Vance. Victor Davis Hanson shared his ten takeaways from the brawl with Zelenskyy. 

1) Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not grasp – or deliberately ignores – the bitter truth: Those with whom he feels most affinity (Western globalists, the American Left, the Europeans) have little power in 2025 to help him. And those with whom he obviously does not like or seeks to embarrass (cf. his Scranton, Pa., campaign-like visit in September 2024) alone have the power to save him….

2) Zelenskyy acts as if his agendas and ours are identical. So, he keeps insisting that he is fighting for us despite our two-ocean distance that he mocks. We do have many shared interests with Ukraine, but not all by any means….

3) The Europeans (and Canada) are now talking loudly of a new muscular antithesis, independent of the United States. Promises, promises – given that would require Europeans to prune back their social welfare state, frack, use nuclear, stop the green obsessions, and spend 3% to 5% of their GDP on defense. The U.S. does not just pay 16% of NATO’s budget but also puts up with asymmetrical tariffs that result in a European Union trade surplus of $160 billion, plays the world cop patrolling sea-lanes and deterring terrorists and rogues states that otherwise might interrupt Europe’s commercial networks abroad, as well as de facto including Europe under a nuclear umbrella of 6,500 nukes.

4) Zelenskyy must know that all of the once deal-stopping issues to peace have been de facto settled: Ukraine is now better armed than most NATO nations, but will not be in NATO; and no president has or will ever supply Ukraine with the armed wherewithal to take back the Donbas and Crimea….

5) What are Zelenskyy’s alternatives without much U.S. help: Wait for a return of the Democrats to the White House in four years? Hope for a rearmed Europe? Pray for a Democrat House and a third Alexander Vindman-like engineered Trump impeachment? Or swallow his pride, return to the White House, sign the rare-earth minerals deal, invite in the Euros …, and hope Trump can warn Putin … not to dare try it again?

6) If there is a ceasefire, a commercial deal, a Euro ground presence, and influx of Western companies into Ukraine, would there be elections? And if so, would Zelenskyy and his party win? And if not, would there be  successor transparent government that would reveal exactly where all the Western financial aid money went?

7) Zelenskyy might see a model in Netanyahu. The Biden administration was far harder on him than Trump is on Ukraine…. Yet, Netanyahu managed a hostile President Joe Biden, kept Israel close to its patron, and when visiting was gracious to his host….

8) If Ukraine has alienated the U.S., what then is its strategic victory plan? …

9) If one views carefully all the Oval Office tape, most of it was going quite well – until Zelenskyy started correcting Vice President JD Vance firstly, and Trump secondly….

10) March 2025 is not March 2022, after the heroic saving of Kyiv – but three years and 1.5 million dead and wounded later. Zelenskyy is no longer the international heartthrob with the glamorous entourage. He has postponed elections, outlawed opposition media and parties, suspended habeas corpus and walked out of negotiations when he had an even hand in spring 2022 and apparently even now when he does not in spring 2025.

 

What Is A Constitutional Crisis?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns constitutional crises. Leftists tend to scream about constitutional crises because the Trump administration is moving extremely fast in an attempt to save the United States and bring peace to the world.

One of the tasks of the Trump administration is to cut federal government costs. The nation can wait no longer to bring the debt under control, or the United States of America will go bankrupt. Trump brought in Elon Musk and his team of geniuses who are finding much waste and possible fraud, and Leftists are screaming about constitutional crisis. Jacob Hess, staff writer for the Deseret News, discussed the situation. 

No one disagrees that the new White House administration is moving very quickly. But do steps being taken amount to a legitimate constitutional crisis, as many are now alleging?

“I think we should be careful in describing our situation as a constitutional crisis. It’s a term that we should save for a real emergency,” said Yuval Levin, director of Social, Cultural and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), in a recent interview with Deseret News executive editor, Doug Wilks.

“It has to mean something, and I don’t think we’re in a place where we can say that.”

Levin explained, “A lot of our constitutional politics is a matter of action and reaction. We’ve seen a lot of actions from the president so far, and the question of what reactions are going to look like is still an open question. So, I think it’s much too soon to talk about a constitutional crisis. We have to see how the system responds to the pressures it’s under.”

When Levin was asked about whether he worried about the U.S. and its current resilience, the scholar acknowledged, “It makes sense to worry in a moment like this, when there’s a lot of pressure being put on the system.”

But he qualified: “I don’t think it makes sense to panic in this moment. We’re not in a place where the fundamentals of the system are being undermined. We’re in a place where the structure is being challenged, and that happens on a fairly regular basis in the American system of government.”

Levin’s views are aligned with other political science experts we’ve spoken with at Deseret News in recent weeks. …

What is it, then, that constitutes a true constitutional crisis? And what are the factors and relevant context to help us know if and when that’s taking place?

Those we spoke with pointed to the founders’ original design for a system allowing for vigorous push-and-pull between competing powers as backdrop for what we’re witnessing….

“I’d consider it ‘crisis,’” Curry said, “if over the long term power is overwhelmingly and broadly handed to one branch to such a degree that the other branches become meaningless or unimportant to governance.”

“A constitutional crisis is when there is extreme ambiguity and open conflict over the prerogatives of the three major branches of government designated by the U.S. Constitution,” said Self, adding that such a crisis could be recognized when institutional rules outlined in a constitution “no longer constrain” the most powerful actors, specifically the central executive. “We can think of this as whether there is the Rule of Law or not.” …

How Can I Find Joy?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Doctrine and Covenants 18 in a lesson titled “The Worth of Souls Is Great.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

There are many different ways to try to measure a person’s worth. Talent, education, wealth, and physical appearance can all affect how we evaluate each other—and ourselves. But in God’s eyes, our worth is a much simpler matter, and it is stated clearly in Doctrine and Covenants 18: “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (verse 10). This simple truth explains so much of what God does and why He does it. Why did He instruct Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to establish the Church of Jesus Christ in our day? (see verses 1–5). Because the worth of souls is great. Why does He “command all men everywhere to repent” and send Apostles to preach repentance? (verse 9). Because the worth of souls is great. And why did Jesus Christ suffer “death in the flesh” and “the pain of all men”? (verse 11). Because the worth of souls is great. If even one of these souls chooses to accept the Savior’s gift, He rejoices, for “great is his joy in the soul that repenteth” (verse 13).

The scripture block taught several principles, including the following: (1) “Build up my church” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:1-5), (2) “The worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:10-13), (3) The Lord rejoices when I repent (Doctrine and Covenants 18:11-16), (4) Joy comes from helping others come unto Christ (Doctrine and Covenants 18:14-16), and (5) I can hear the Lord’s voice in the scriptures (Doctrine and Covenants 18:34-36).

I feel prompted to discuss the fourth principle, “Joy comes from helping others come unto Christ.” I will begin by sharing the scripture block.

14 Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints calls young men and women as well as older couples to serve missions. The purpose of their missions is to teach people about Jesus Christ and to call them to repentance – or “cry repentance” as stated in verse 14.

Besides serving in the mission field, members of the Church of Jesus Christ “cry repentance” by teaching their children and other family members about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how to access its powers by repenting of sins. Other ways include teaching classes and serving in the organizations of the Church of Jesus Christ. Still other ways include doing family history work and temple work for loved ones on the other side of the veil.

I did not serve in the mission field, but I supported my husband-to-be in his missionary work. I also taught my sons about missionary work and encouraged them to go into the mission field to “cry repentance” to people in the Tempe, Arizona, and in south Salt Lake City. I have taught many classes and ages over my fifty plus years of adulthood. I also do family history work and temple work to give deceased family members and opportunity to choose to repent.

Elder Craig C. Christensen of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke about joy in a talk titled “There Can Be Nothing So Exquisite and Sweet as Was My Joy” and said the following. 

We were created to have joy. It is our intended destiny as children of a loving Heavenly Father. He wants to share His joy with us. The prophet Lehi taught that God’s plan for each of us is that we “might have joy.” Because we live in a fallen world, enduring joy or everlasting joy often seems beyond our reach. Yet in the very next verse, Lehi continues by explaining that “the Messiah [came to] … redeem [us] from the fall.” Redemption, by and through the Savior Jesus Christ, makes joy possible.

The gospel message is a message of hope, of “good tidings of great joy,” and the means whereby all can experience peace and occasions of joy in this life and receive a fulness of joy in the life to come.

The joy we speak of is a gift for the faithful, yet it comes with a price. Joy is not cheap or casually given. Rather, it is bought “with the precious blood of [Jesus] Christ.” If we really understood the value of true, godly joy, we would not hesitate to sacrifice any worldly possession or make any necessary life changes to receive it.

How Can Election Integrity Be Strengthened?

Families, communities, states, and nations are stronger when democracy is protected by election integrity. One way to protect the integrity of our elections is to ensure that all ballots are counted on Election Day. In his article published at The Daily Signal, Fred Lucas discussed how election results in the United States take much longer than those in other nations. 

Germany’s election this week marked another reminder that most industrialized democratic countries tend to call the results of their elections on election night, unlike the United States, where some congressional, state legislative, and statewide contests ran for days or months after Election Day in November.

While the worst predictions about a prolonged 2024 presidential outcome in the U.S. didn’t come true, down ballot races were delayed.

It’s not just the often-cited California, where eight races were not called on election night – two U.S. House races, five state legislative races, and one statewide ballot measure. A North Carolina state Supreme Court race is still unresolved.

“Most European countries don’t have mail-in elections where election officials are counting ballots for two weeks,” J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “These countries have in-person voting at the polling place and have the results on election night.”

… almost three-fourths of the countries in the European Union don’t allow mail-in voting without specific reasons, while every European country except Britain has voter ID requirements.

As explained in the article, there are several reasons that determine how fast ballots are counted. Do states count ballots that arrive after Election Day? Do they start counting ballots prior to Election Day? Lucas quoted Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation:

“It takes a lot longer to process an absentee ballot than a regular ballot…. You have to open up the envelope. Check all the information on it. Did they sign it? Did they date it? Etc. Then you open up the second envelope, which actually has the ballot. And you have to unfold it. And you put it in a stack. You do all that processing ahead of time, then when Election Day closes, you already have the ballots there.”

Whatever can be done to strengthen election integrity should be done, and voters should insist that it be done. By creating greater election integrity, we can strengthen our democratic republic and protect our American way of life. By doing so, we can strengthen our families, communities, states, and nations.

Why Is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Trouble?

The liberty principle for this freedom Friday concerns consumer protection for American citizens. However, some methods of protection are better than others.

The Department of Government Efficiency – better known as DOGE – has the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in its sights. DOGE is looking at the “initiative for its censorship, waste, and hindering of businesses disfavored by the Left, among other issues.”

According to an article by Fred Lucas in The Daily Signal, Democrats, the media, federal employee unions, “60 Minutes,” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are all objecting to the dismantling of the CFPB. Lucas claims that Warren, as a law professor at Harvard, “was the architect of the agency.” 

The CFPB was established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation to regulate banks, credit card companies, lenders, and other financial services companies. It is funded through the Federal Reserve.

The agency has had a string of controversies, including censorship, a massive data breach, internal financial waste, and complaints of workplace discrimination.

Several actions are being taken regarding the CFPB. President Donald Trump appointed Russ Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the acting director of the CFPB, which operates under the Federal Reserve. “Vought eliminated the agency’s budget request for the next quarter and ordered about 1,700 employees not to perform any work.

Meanwhile, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) introduced a bill to eliminate the entire agency. A spokesperson for CFPB had no response when asked for a statement for this story. Here are five controversies that Lucas considers to be the biggest ones in which the agency has been involved.

1. Censorship in Chicago

The CFPB scored a $105,000 settlement late last year with the Chicago-based Townstone Financial, a non-bank mortgage firm, in a case that critics say amounted to policing speech.

“This was German-like censorship by the CFPB,” Berlau said. “No financial services owner is free to speak on a podcast or radio show under this very dangerous precedent.”

Berlau said the Trump administration should cancel the settlement and fire anyone involved….

2. Discriminating Tastes

Last year, the CFPB settled a decade-old class action racial discrimination lawsuit for $6 million brought by 85 black and Hispanic employees. The agency also paid $1.5 million for attorneys fees….

3. Data Breach of 256,000 Consumers’ Information

CFPB defenders assert it protects consumers when accessing records from financial institutions.

But the CFPB hasn’t yet resolved a 2023 data breach that forwarded the confidential information of 256,000 consumers to a personal email address, Berlau noted….

4. Surpassing the Trump Tower

A Federal Reserve inspector general report released in 2014 found renovations for the CFPB’s Washington headquarters exceeded $215 million – or about $120 million over the original estimate.

The House Financial Services Committee noted this was more than $590 per square foot. That meant the agency was spending more per square foot than it cost to build the Trump World Towe in New York, which was $334 per square foot; the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which was $330 per square foot; and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which was $450 per square foot.

The inspector general report also said the CFPB “was unable to locate any documentation of the decision to fully renovate the building.” …

5. Operation Choke Point

The CFPB was involved in the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point debanking initiative, according to a 2015 report by the inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The operation spearheaded by the Justice Department encouraged banks not to do business with gun stores, pawn shops, payday lenders, and other legal industries considered “high risk.” The CFPB reportedly warned banks against disclosing publicly about any of its investigations.