Ben Shapiro

All of world history, they said, was a class struggle.

The proletariat, those would be the workers, are exploited by the bourgeois, those would be the owners.

So Marx's solution was state ownership of the means of production.

Marx believed that capitalism would inevitably devour itself and that socialism would arise naturally.

Now, it turns out that wasn't true at all, but that's never stopped the socialists.

So what is socialism and what is not?

First of all, socialism is not wanting to help poor people.

Socialism is instead giving the government complete control of the economy, and it is a failure everywhere it is tried.

The number of deaths caused by socialism in the 20th century alone are staggering.

Low estimates are 20 to 30 million people.

That would be just based on direct political executions.

Mid-range estimates would be 60 to 70 million people if you include man-made famines.

And high estimates would include all excess mortality, civil wars, regime policy effects.

That would be all the way up to 100 to 148 million people.

China, under Chairman Mao, saw at least 55 million dead in the Great Leap Forward.

Then, of course, the Soviet Union saw, under Stalin and Lenin, 20 million dead in gulags, the Holodomor famine in Ukraine, the Bolshevik Revolution.

Cambodia's Pol Pot saw 2 million dead due to starvation and ethnic cleansing.

North Korea saw 2 million dead due to state-sponsored famine, labor camps, executions.

Ethiopia saw 1.7 million dead in the Red Terror, forced resettlement, and famine.

Eastern Europe saw 1 million dead in post-World War II purges, labor camps, and executions.