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Socialism is always sold as a compassionate system that will make life more affordable, distribute resources fairly, and protect ordinary people from hardship. The promises sound wonderful, especially when politicians describe all the benefits without explaining the costs.But eventually, reality arrives.A government cannot distribute wealth that its citizens no longer produce. It cannot regulate an economy into prosperity, and it cannot punish successful businesses indefinitely without reducing investment, innovation, and job creation.When politicians impose price controls, excessive regulations, punitive taxes, and centralized planning, producers begin pulling back. Businesses close, investors leave, shortages develop, and consumers discover that low government mandated prices mean very little when the shelves are empty.That is the point behind the cartoon.Under capitalism, businesses compete to provide consumers with better products at lower prices. If one company fails to meet demand, another company has an incentive to step in. Profit is not a flaw in that system, it is the signal that encourages people to produce what others want and need.Socialism weakens that incentive while transferring more decisions to politicians and bureaucrats. Those officials do not personally bear the cost when their plans fail. Ordinary families do.The irony is that socialism frequently begins with promises of abundance and ends with arguments about rationing. Leaders who promised to improve everyone’s standard of living eventually begin explaining why people should accept less for the supposed good of society.Bernie Sanders and other socialist politicians may insist that their version would be different, but every centralized system faces the same basic problem. Government planners cannot possibly process millions of individual decisions as efficiently as free people participating in a competitive marketplace.You can redistribute existing prosperity for a while, but you cannot redistribute your way to permanent abundance.Sooner or later, production matters.Do you think younger Americans understand the connection between economic freedom, production, and abundance?