EDITOR’S NOTE: What follows is written in response to “Midterm Elections: Democrats, Reconsider Socialism” by Gabriel Samandi, published in the October 25 issue.

In the last issue of The Observer, there was a piece published about Democrats and the United States embracing socialism. Yes, socialism, the same form of economics that has led to the death of millions of people including 67 million in the Soviet Union, 40 million in China and 1.7 million in North Korea with widespread starvation and poor living conditions.

More recently, it has caused unrest in Venezuela which, at one point, in the 1970s, boasted one of the richest economies in the world. Now, poor Venezuelans are eating dogs and rats to stay alive, and 60 percent of Venezuelans said in the past three months, they woke up hungry because they did not have enough money to purchase food. For that reason and many more, socialism does not have a place in the United States. Ever.

This whole fraudulent movement was injected into the American mainstream by the delusional Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Sanders said in 1985: “You know, it’s funny. Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is when people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing.”

In 2015, he also advocated for governmental control over the economy: “Democratic socialism means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment economy.” If this came to fruition, it would result in more Americans losing their freedom of choice, a hallmark of our country.

We were too close to having that man become president.

It seems that young people are fine with sticking the word “democratic” in front of “socialism” to make it seem like it’s still a viable form of economics, all because candidates like Sanders offer them free stuff that, in reality, can never be afforded. In no world does this work, and no, it’s not because the last couple of kicks at the can in places like Venezuela weren’t “real socialism.” Yet, for all the failures, these same young people look toward certain countries as shining examples of government control over citizens’ lives.

Denmark, Sweden and Norway are typically the names associated with the notion of “successful” socialism. These countries are small and homogenous in comparison to the United States. The welfare policies that come with socialism work in a utopia, but in reality, the daily lives of these people are gripped by lack of liberty. For the United States, a diverse and ever-growing country, having a broad welfare state, dependent on high taxes across the board, is unsustainable.

Even if it could work in the United States, no one would want the absurdly high taxes that come with this dysfunctional form of economics. In Sweden, the income tax for the working middle class is anywhere from 29 percent to 60 percent or higher if you make more than $60,000 annually. In Denmark, to purchase a car, not only would one have to pay for the up front cost, but, as of the new tax law that took effect in September 2018, one would also have to pay a tax as high as 150 percent when purchasing a new vehicle.

Economics aside, the very concept of socialism, even “democratic” socialism, is immoral. An implementation of socialism in the United States is a method of undermining the bedrock of the country that is the Constitution. The Constitution grants us, among many things, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. With a socialist government and a large welfare state, what quality of life can we have if we don’t have the freedom to make decisions to suit our needs?

The idea of having government intervention in everyday life with high taxes and saying what healthcare to have, on top of threatening people with following these types of mandates, leaves citizens with no other options and is an outrageous reality that should never come to fruition anywhere in the world.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said on socialism: “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.”

Questioning the great capitalist system that has lifted more people out of poverty than any other form of economics in the world poses a threat to the country. One of the key elements of socialism, as opposed to capitalism, is how it destroys a need for competition. If people of a particular country are being offered the same product with few to no options for private corporations to step in, the quality of that product would go down. In turn, the government-provided service would decline, leading to poor living conditions and, as we’ve seen with socialist countries before, large-scale loss of life.

Rather than trying to topple the only viable form of economics, young people of the United States should embrace capitalism and the freedoms that come with it. Government deregulation has only led to good in recent months, with rising stock market values, greater consumer confidence and a reemergence of reasonable taxes for the middle class. If you still think socialism is the best economic system, my suggestion would to be live with the impoverished in Venezuela and then come back here and tell me how dog tastes.