A socialist is out for a walk.

She encounters a tree.

The tree is a producing a slow steady drip, drip, drip of rubber.

Ah ha thinks the socialist. This is a big rich wealthy tree with lots more rubber to offer me.

So, the socialist nails ten more rubber taps in and is whooping with joy.

The tree dies.

15th Nov 2025

The rich leave and restart their operations in another country. They still have customers in this country, the country that they left; they charge us the same. The only difference is the level of tax they now pay. No personal taxes. Little capital gains tax. Just a little sales tax here and there. The socialist is happy as the rich are gone. They are happy to see that no personal tax is being collected from the rich. Nor stamp duties, not housing taxes, nor motor vehicle taxes.

The rich are ‘a necessary evil’, they are not evil, it is a long-established saying. All are much better off with rich people being in your country paying lots of tax and using services in your country.

I am not suggesting that socialists are all environmental heathens that kill every tree in sight. Far from it. Capitalists are renown for that. Capitalists need to be kept in check. However, a rich person will dredge a stagnant lake and fill it with fish. The poor will come along and eat the lot in one foul swoop They will not care about leaving some to harvest in the weeks and months ahead.

Your house is full to the brim with gadgets brought to you by the rich. The water system, the sewerage system, the healthcare, the electricity and the communication systems. Every railway line was built by the rich and bankrupted many. Embrace the rich they enrich your life is so many ways. Look around your house and examine who invented each item. How rich did they become? Tax them. Reasonably. Allow them to flourish and you end up with the least worst system. The least worst is the best. Best by a long way. Best for the greatest number of people.

Can a socialist, a crank, be converted into a normal decent person?

Not easily. Some have started a business of their own. They begin to see the world differently then. All socialists should run a business for a decade or two and contribute something to society before they enter politics. A doctor must study hard before they practice. As does a mechanic or an engineer. Yet a politician needs zero practical experience, zero knowledge of economics, zero common sense, and zero empathy. Socialists have the least empathy of all humans on the planet bar the severe psychopaths. An empath understands. An empath helps others succeed. An empath sees the harm they do to lots of people whilst trying to help a few.

Doing what you think is good at the expense of others is worse than doing nothing. Far worse. Shifting the suffering from one person to another is not helping. To help all, with no losers, one must focus on economic value added.