photo #9446670

The Federalist Papers Capitalism builds. Socialism waits in line.This cartoon is funny because it's true. One system launches a supercar into the sky. The other hands you a rusted sedan and a 10-year waiting list.In communist East Germany, ordinary families waited 10 to 13 years for a Trabant, a tiny smoke-belching car with a plastic body and a design that barely changed in nearly 30 years.Used Trabants sold for more than twice the price of new ones, because at least you could drive a used one home.Here's the kicker. The Trabant was named after Sputnik. The satellite flew. The car never did.Now compare it to the other half of the same country.Same people. Same language. Same engineering tradition. The only difference was the system.In 1988, capitalist West Germany built almost 4 million cars. East Germany didn't top 200,000 a year until 1984.Audi was born in Zwickau, the same city that later built the Trabant. The company rebuilt in the West and became a luxury brand. The city stayed socialist and built a punchline.That's the pattern everywhere. Socialism doesn't build. It feeds on what others built until there's nothing left, like a cancer.What about China? People point to its skyscrapers and factories as proof socialism works.Look closer. China's boom started only after it opened up to markets in the late 1970s. And a big piece of its "innovation" came straight out of America.The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property estimates IP theft costs the U.S. economy between $225 billion and $600 billion every year, and names China the world's No. 1 culprit. China and Hong Kong accounted for 87% of counterfeit goods seized coming into the country.Steal the designs. Force American companies to hand over their technology just to do business there. Then call it progress.Capitalism rewards the person who builds a better car. Socialism rewards the person who controls the waiting list.That's why the line only ever forms in one direction.