In the contemporary world, it's taken as a given that capitalism with its free market and profit motive is based on selfishness and

produces selfishness. While socialism is based on selflessness and produces selflessness.

Well, the opposite is true.

Whatever its intentions,

socialism produces far more selfish individuals and a far more selfless society than a free market economy does.

And once this widespread selflessness catches on, it is almost impossible to undo it.

Here's an illustration. In 2010, the United States President Barack Obama addressed a large audience of college students.

At one point in his speech,

he announced that young people will now be able to remain on their parents' health insurance plan until age 26.

I don't ever recall hearing a louder, more thunderous, or more sustained applause than I did then.

Had the President announced that a cure for cancer had been discovered?

It is highly doubtful that the applause would have been as loud or as long.

But what were they so happy about?

To be told that you can now remain dependent on your parents until age 26,

should strike a young person as demeaning, not liberating,

throughout American history, and for that matter, all of Western history.

The great goal of young people was to become a mature adult, beginning with being independent of mom and dad.

Socialism and the welfare state destroyed this aspiration.

In various European countries and now increasingly in the US,

it is becoming common for young people to live with their parents well into their 30s and not infrequently beyond.

And why not?

In the welfare state, taking care of yourself is no longer a virtue.

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