Three Certainties : Death , Taxes , and Socialism Fails

In 1789, shortly before his death, Benjamin Franklin penned a letter to French physicist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, telling his friend that, “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” At the time, Franklin was correct because socialism simply did not exist then as we know it today. Based on its track record over the past two centuries, there is a third certainty in this world: “socialism fails.” If failure is defined as not meeting an expected objective or outcome, socialist governments have not come close to creating Marx’s workers’ paradise. Some have barely lasted more than a few years. The…