A Spectre Still Haunts Us

Stumbling onto this collective declaration of spite by one the blue state's lumpen proletariat (by way of Megan McArdle's excellent site), I fell into a brief melancholy after finding out that today, in the 21st century, communism does in fact exist. The same hatred of wealthy, the nihilist drive to debase all human life in service of Big Ideas, the insanely violent will-to-power -- it's all there. Unfuckingbelievable.

Thankfully, I was pulled out of my melancholy by Rob Leder, who, commenting on Ms. McCardle's website hits upon a perfect analogy to illustrate the absurdity of communism:

I see that Matthew also yearns for a "serious program to combat inequality". Hear, hear! But before implementing our social engineering in the U.S. economy, why not use professional sports as a test case?

Baseball, for example, is rife with inequality. Greedy players like Barry Bonds are hitting more than their fair share of home runs. Clearly it's bad for the game when a small number of players selfishly grab up so many of the available home runs, because it leaves less for all of the other players to hit. The best thing for the game is to have everyone hitting at least a couple of the homers, and nobody hitting too many of them: a large "middle class" of mediocre power hitters is what should dominate baseball. But how to best achieve a more equitable distribution of home runs? Heavier bats for better hitters? Movable fences in the outfield? Discounting every marginal home run over 30 by 80%, and distributing the "savings" among those disenfranchised players who can't even reach the warning track? I'm sure it will take a lot of tinkering to get our system just right, but in making the game more fair, we'll doubtless gain some valuable insights on how to remake society as a whole. Then we can move on to the gulags and 5-year plans...

Of course, why bother with test cases when we can look at a case study? If you're still smitten with any aspect of Communism, do yourself a favor, disabuse yourself of that folly, by checking out the Epoch Times' "Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party."

Comments

[Rob Leder]

Hi, Andrew!

Glad you found my little baseball parable worthwhile.

Yes, the spectre is still with us, it's just grown sly and subtle and continually dresses itself up in new terminology. Few openly embrace communism these days, but there was definitely a whiff of it's misguided ideals in Yglesias' screed. I doubt we'll ever be rid of the collectivist impulse. Ah, well, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, right?

Speaking of eternal vigilance, it certainly looks like you're doing your part over here. Nice blog, I'll be sure to check back now and then...