By Nate Abraham Jr.
COMMENTARY
August is National Black Business Month. At the Carolina Panorama Newspaper, we celebrate Black Business Month all year long. Since our founding forty years ago, this newspaper has championed and celebrated Black entrepreneurs through its entire existence. We have profiled over 1,000 local Black capitalists over the years.
Despite this celebration of Black capitalism, I find it disturbing that so many people now claim to want socialism.
Recently, I was listening to the Don Frierson radio program and a woman called in to extol the virtues of “Democratic Socialism.” She claimed that any time the government spends any money, it is socialism. Building roads, she said, was socialism. Social Security was socialism. Fire and police departments were examples of socialism. Black people who do not support socialism, she said, were people who vote against their best interests.
I was stunned by this level of ignorance. Do people not know that dictionaries exist? Socialism IS NOT government expenditures. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines socialism as “any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”
In addition, many people also haven’t read a history book. Socialism has never worked anywhere on this planet at ANY TIME in history. You don’t have to go back very far to find proof.
Look at the nation of Venezuela over the past 20 years. It was once one of the wealthiest nations on Earth and controlled the world’s largest oil reserves. After the people o Venezuela people elected a socialist government under President Hugo Chavez, it went to hell in a handbasket. Chavez confiscated businesses and industry all over the country. Shortages and poverty ensued and over eight million people fled the country, many to the United States.
It’s even been tried in this country. In 1825, a wealthy industrialist named Robert Owen purchased land in Indiana to create a settlement called New Harmony. He wanted to create a socialist utopia featuring communal labor and resources, free public education, and greater equality for women. Over 800 people moved to New Harmony.
It took less than two years for the experiment to fail. Residents argued over work expectations, and the community failed to produce enough income and goods to sustain itself. Owen lost his entire investment.
Even before this nation was created, settlers experimented with socialism. The Pilgrims at Plymouth was originally set up as a communal society where everyone shared labor and resources.
It failed. Pilgrims realized that communal ownership of resources discouraged work and effort. The colony didn’t produce enough resources to feed the Pilgrims. To save the colony, its leaders assigned each family their own plot of land to grow their own food. Food production boomed, and the Pilgrims celebrated by hosting the first Thanksgiving with Native Americans.
Advocates of socialism frequently site Scandinavian countries as an example of a successful socialist society. That is also false.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, responding to Bernie Sanders calling Denmark an example of democratic socialism, said “I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.” He added that Denmark had a large public sector and high taxes, but that it was also “one of the most business-friendly countries in the world.”
Sweden’s leaders also made a similar argument, saying that Sweden combines extensive public benefits with a market economy, private businesses, and private ownership.
That is a far different argument than advocating for the government to own and control everything. The only thing that socialism ensures is poverty for everyone – except for government bureaucrats.
People who advocate for socialism have a huge misconception. They believe that wealth is finite and must be redistributed by the government. Capitalists know that wealth has to be created – and it can only be created by people willing to risk their time, money and capital to create something.
Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other any other system – and it’s not even close. Socialism killed and impoverished over 100 million people in the 20th century alone. When you look at the results, socialism can’t hold a candle to capitalism.
As a lifelong advocate of Black businesses and the creation of Black wealth, I believe that anyone who advocates for socialism is against the best interests of ALL people, not just Black people. We need Black people creating, owning and controlling businesses and resources – not government bureaucrats.
Black people are at the bottom of the economic ladder in America because too few of us practice capitalism. We don’t own enough businesses that serve our people. We spend over 90 percent of our income with businesses owned by other ethnic groups. If we supported the businesses owned by people in our community, we would begin to close the wealth gap.
Capitalism works with other groups of Black people. Akil Dangote, the wealthiest African in the world, is a strong advocate of capitalism. His wealth is based on serving other African people. He realized that Africa has trillions of dollars of construction projects scheduled to be built, and every construction project needs cement. Unfortunately, most cement had to be imported to the continent. He raised the money to build cement plants all over the continent.
A few years later, Dangote realized that Nigeria was one of the largest oil-producing countries on the planet. Nigeria shipped their oil to European countries, and imported oil products such as gas, fertilizer and jet fuel. He thought that importing oil products into the largest oil producing nation in African didn’t make sense. He raised billions to build a huge oil refinery in Nigeria to supply west African nations with oil products. Currently, he is raising money to build another huge oil refinery in Kenya to supply east African nations with oil products. In addition to creating billions of dollars of wealth, he also employs hundreds of thousands of African people. That is what Black capitalism should look like.
We can do the same thing in America. Why do we spend billions of dollars on Black hair care products with stores owned by Asians? Why are there no gas stations in our community owned by Black people? How come there is only one Black-owned bank in the entire state of South Carolina?
Socialists believe that all people, especially Black people, shouldn’t own anything. They think that we should be dependent on government bureaucrats for our very existence.
I vehemently disagree. I want economic freedom for Black people. I want a healthy and wealthy Black community owning and controlling the means of production in our community. I want Black people to actually practice capitalism.
I am a Black American by birth, and a capitalist by the grace of God.
Happy National Black Business Month.