Freedom of Opportunity; D. W. Johnson, Jr.

There is no way for schools to "give" an education. An education must be earned. Schools provide the opportu nity for education, but that is all. If schools "guarantee" that you will pass, why learn? If God guaranteed heaven, Mr. Johnson teaches mathematics at Hialeah Senior High School in Florida. He described this article as "one of the three-minute lec tures I generally give at the beginning of each math class." [88 ] why be virtuous? If government guarantees a. living, why work? Of course, none of these things can be guar anteed. The schools and the government are incapable, and God is too wise. All that can reasonably be provided is opportunity. The Same Holds for Government These policies and the lessons to be learned from them have an important parallel in the field of government. Socialism, with its pretended concern with the welfare of the poor, "social equity," and the like, has the same results. Progressive taxation and other schemes sup posedly designed in the interest of the poor do not actually aid the poor at all, but result in loss of initiative on the part of the better and more successful members of society, so that the total contribution to the material welfare of the whole is diminished.

The alleged humanitarian motives of socialism consti tute an argument which is beginning to wear rather thin. No amount of commendable reasons behind certain actions can excuse the actions themselves, especially when such actions have proved destructive for century upon century. If we really want to help the poor have adequate housing, good medical service, and other ad vantages, let's try something that works ... which involves keeping the dead hand of government out of these things and making sure that private enterprise is not paralyzed by taxation. The next time anyone says, "We ought to tax the cor[89 ] porations more and spare the people," let us remind him that you cannot tax a corporation as such, or a state, or anything else except people, and that his words really mean, "We ought to tax those who were frugal and saved and took the risk of investing those savings so that a corporation could be formed, so that jobs could be created, and so that the things we all want and need could be produced." Viewed in this light, such policies appear to be what they actually are-a direct attack on the very mainsprings of our welfare.

To promote true welfare, let's do all we can to preserve the one characteristic that only freedom can provide opportunity . [90 ] SOCIALISM AT ITS BEST tg paulof. poirol ~ TAKE a good look around the world today. Tum back through the records of history. Peer ahead as far as the imagination allows. For what? For a time, and a place, and circumstances as ideal as man could hope to nnd or arrange for carrying on an experiment in socialism! Why do that? Simply to give the believers in socialism the best chance in the world to prove to others the soundness of their theories-or to see for themselves the falsity of their claims. What conditions, then, would one prescribe for such a test? First of all, he~d probably look for a well-devel oped industrial society, a wealthy people who have known the productivity and abundance of private capi talism and who could afford such costs as a socialistic experiment might involve. He'd probably look for a complex exchange economy with many highly skilled and highly productive specialists-many persons of great ability from whom goods and services might be drawn.