WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE
Men are bad (they are sinners).
Men (believers) are made good by God. Men are made good by God’s grace.
Virtue is obedience to God.
Everything belongs to God.
Everything good comes from God.
A man should ask for what he wants from God.
God will take care of you.
God loves you.
WHAT COMMUNISTS BELIEVE
Men are bad (if they own anything).
Men are made good by the government. Men are made good by government force.
Virtue is obedience to the government.
Everything belongs to the government.
Everything good comes from the government.
A man should ask for what he wants from the government.
The government will take care of you.
The government loves you.
WHAT COMMUNISTS TELL PEOPLE
You are a victim of injustice. Rich people have done you wrong.
The fact that other people are rich and you are poor is unfair, unjust, and wrong.
Businessmen are doing you wrong.
Businessmen are the cause of injustice.
If you join our revolution, we will kill the rich people, we will take what they have, and we will have justice.
If you vote for us, we will pass laws to correct injustice. We will take part of what the rich people have and give it to you. We will take the businesses away from the rich people. We will have justice.
PRODUCTION VERSUS REDISTRIBUTION
The theory of free enterprise is that wealth needs to be created. It needs to be produced. The fair, just, and proper rule is that if someone creates something, then it belongs to him. If he makes a trade with someone, exchanging something of his for something of the other person’s, and if this trade is voluntary on both sides, then he is now the rightful owner of what he got in that voluntary exchange.
This motivates everybody to work hard and to produce a lot and to trade energetically.
The theory of Communism is that wealth already exists. It does not need to be created or produced. It just needs to be redistributed. The people who have produced a lot or traded energetically, and who are now rich, are evil. Justice requires that their wealth should be confiscated by the government and redistributed to everybody.
There are two ways to do this. One is by revolution. The existing owners are killed. The government takes everything. The other is by democracy, by majority vote. The Communists or Socialists get voted into government. Then by force of law, they take ownership of the businesses, in part or in full.
This does not motivate anyone to work hard or to produce or to trade. The way to succeed is to take wealth which already exists away from the people who own it. If they object, kill them.
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