The true definition of socialism

It is with great dismay that I read an ongoing stream of letters to this and other publications in the Northwest making repeated referral to the statewide lockdown over COVID-19 as “assaults on liberty” and “socialism”, and that covid itself is a lie.

How interesting that this virus is now in 160 countries around the world, infecting 6 million people, with over 100,000 American dead.

Does that really look like a lie? How many of those who believe such nonsense know anything about covid? How many of those know what an exponent is, or what the symptoms ever are, or what the R(0) is? How much time have they spent learning how this moves through a population? Very little, is my guess.

How many of them even know what socialism is?

They could not define socialism if you put a gun to their heads. So, Heather and Steve, I’ll tell you what it is and what it looks like.

Socialism is an economic/political system in which the state owns most or all of the means of production and accumulation of wealth, as opposed to capitalism where those powers are held in private or corporate hands.

What does it look like? It looks like Vietnam, where private ownership of land is forbidden, or China, where the party is in control of everything, or Syria, where the government wages war on its own people.

If anyone thinks “liberty” is the right to infect another human with COVID-19, you need to take a look at public health policy, turn off Fox, and educate yourselves.

DAN STRAYER

Bonners Ferry