Multimillionaire Thinks It’s Always Sad for People to Give up on Socialism
There's a difference between possibly high IQ and grasp of trivia, on the one hand, and sensible thinking on the other.
I’m an avid watcher of Jeopardy and I got a surprise watching the April 5 episode. (I’m a few days behind because of some recent travel.)
Host Ken Jennings stated the following “answer:”
Dostoyevsky gave up on the French utopian this type of economy, becoming more reactionary.
None of the three had a “question."
So Ken provided it in the form of a statement:
Gave up on socialism.
Then he added, “Always sad.”
Presumably he was saying that it’s always sad when someone gives up on socialism.
Jennings has an amazing command of trivia and seems pretty sharp. But that doesn’t mean that he understands economics or even has a grasp of history aside from the trivial facts. I wonder if he is even aware that everywhere socialism has been tried, it has led to misery and, in some cases, millions of deaths.
David Seltzer It's ironic Jennings would advocate for a political regime that would forcibly redistribute his considerable wealth. Too smart by half.
When I encounter someone that claims to support socialism, I ask them for examples of countries whose policies they support. They usually have one of two responses. They mention Nordic countries and I point out that those are capitalist and often rank higher on economic freedom than the US. Sometimes they refuse to give an example saying that corrupt leaders or interference from the US makes socialist countries poor. These people are usually harder to reason with, but I try to make the point that concentrating control of the economy into a small, unaccountable group is inevitably going to lead to corruption, human rights abuses, and sanction from free countries.