Een econoom van Russische afkomst neemt het verscheiden van Fidel Castro te baat om te illustreren dat socialisme nog verre van dood is – ongeacht de intellectuele mankementen er van.

The western media’s fawning treatment of Fidel Castro demonstrates the enduring mystique of socialism—while recent Harvard and Rasmussen polls suggest that perhaps half of young Americans hold unfavorable attitudes toward capitalism. No matter how many millions perish in collectivist bloodbaths, the Left remains committed to its ideology of radical egalitarianism and enamored of murderous revolutionary figures like Che Guevara.

Our great friend Yuri Maltsev, a victim of Soviet totalitarianism in his youth, joins us to explain how and why westerners still don’t understand what socialism really means. He recounts his many trips to Cuba, and demolishes the myths surrounding that country’s vaunted “healthcare” and “education” systems. He explains how socialism actually produces a superclass of elites and a form of socio-economic apartheid, rather than egalitarian nirvana. And he reminds us that the romantic vision held by western elites is best defeated by those who have lived through the ravages of collectivism firsthand.

Yuri N. Maltsev, Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute and professor of economics at Carthage College, worked as an economist on Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic reform team before defecting to the United States in 1989. He has testified before the US Congress and appeared on CNN, PBS News Hour, C-Span, CBC, and other American, Canadian, Spanish, South African, and Finnish television and radio programs. He has authored and co-authored fifteen books and numerous articles. He is a recipient of the Luminary Award of the Free Market Foundation.

Duur: 21:59