Is the "Good" of Socialist Societies Worth the Price?

            Most of the Democrat presidential candidates are promising to change the United States into a socialist nation. We are already leaning socialist with many of our public policies, but they want more. Many of the millennials are falling for the promises made by Bernie Sanders and other candidates. However, there is one group of Americans who are not falling for them. That group consists of people who have lived under socialist/communist rule.


            Sebastian Arcos, 58 years old, is the associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University and is spreading his knowledge of the dangers that exist in socialism/communism. He and his family tried to escape from Cuba to find asylum in the United States on December 31, 1981. They were caught in a sting operation, and Arcos was jailed for a year. His father supported the communist revolution, but he was jailed for six years. His uncle had fought in Fidel Castro’s revolution 20 years earlier, but he was jailed for seven years. 

For the sake of argument, let’s ay both the [Cuban] health care system and education system are perfect, which they are not. There have been thousands of political executions, tens of thousands of political prisoners, and 3 million Cuban exiles….

So, the question to ask when we are told to consider the good things is: What is the price for the good?” …

            Arcos expressed surprise with the “talking heads” in our nation that “give Fidel Castro the benefit of the doubt.” An example is Bernie Sanders defending his comments from 1980s praising Castro: “He educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed the society.” The regimes of Castro and other communist leaders commit “gross human rights abuses” and should not be praised even if they have excellent education and health systems.