Socialism is Always a Move Towards Communism -- with the Same Results
Communism and socialism have terrible records.
Mark Landsbaum | July 13, 2026
Tragically, we face today burgeoning support for socialism, largely because the U.S. socialist-inspired public schools have intentionally avoided teaching the system’s evil ways and disastrous results everywhere on earth it’s ever been attempted. As red flags go, they don’t come much bigger. Or redder.
I have a long-time family friend, who should know better. He’s a lifelong business journalist who even for a while wrote for the conservative Wall Street Journal. Nevertheless, my buddy insists “socialism” is quite different from communism, and that in fact many socialist countries, such as in Scandinavia, are quite happy with the “benefits” of socialism.
He may be right that many people are happy in Sweden, whose major political party is the Swedish Social Democratic Party. But the happy faces in Sweden and its Scandinavian neighbors can be explained by the fact that many people find pleasure in receiving benefits paid for by other people. As U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher so coyly noted in 1976 before she became prime minister, “The problem with socialism is that eventually they run out of other people’s money.”
The difference between those happy-faced socialists and actual communists is just a matter of degree. As those benefitting from seizing other people’s wealth and income taste the fruits of their government-enabled theft, their appetite only grows for more. When was the last time you heard a socialist demanding less of other people’s money?
As Karl Marx, the unemployed German who came up with the idea of communism, spelled out in detail in his Das Kapital, Communist Manifesto, and other writings, socialism is not a goal. It is an essential step toward the goal.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/07/socialism-is-always-a-move-towards-communism-with-the-same-results/