Kids are taught from a very early age that they need to share with others in order to be good members of society. But is this a really a good thing? When kids are taught that everything they own must be shared in order for us to live in a “fair” society, it opens the door to socialism.

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Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Connor: Hey, Brittany.

Brittany: Hi, Connor.

Connor: In the last episode that we talked about this Rainbow Fish book, I believe you called it Your least favorite book of all time. That right?

Brittany: Worst book was ever written.

Connor: Best book ever.

Brittany: Just, pure trash.

Connor: Wow. That is the high bar. Ok, Ayn Rand would probably agree with you, with a message of that book, she talked about the virtuous selfishness Yes. Way, which is very opposite of what that book was about. And so, you know, that’s interesting. I remember you mentioned there was, we talked about the sequel that was based of Neil Bortz. What did he say about this book?

Brittany: Yeah, so he said it was he, to copy me. He didn’t take it from me, I took it from him. But one of the biggest pieces of trash children’s books ever published. And I you know, I was like, that’s harsh. But I love that because the book basically teaches very young children that if they don’t share they’re bad members of society, no one will like them. And I don’t wanna recap too much, I’ll have you go back and listen cause we did the entire episode on that. Instead, I wanna talk about what happens when kids are raised with this kind of message. You know, one that unfortunately you, like you guys are bombarded with all the time, I think is young people. So all throughout your education, unless you know you’re homeschooled or you’re doing something special. But a lot of schools, even private schools, have this dangerous message.

Connor: I think so too. And I’ll be honest, some homeschool, I would say, depending on the parents Yeah. Depending on the curriculum. Cuz a lot of homeschoolers will just use similar curriculum or books that, you know, the schools use and so forth. So it’s a broad problem. And I think there’s two things that can happen when kids hear this message. I think a lot of kids will naturally be angry if they are forced to share. If they’re required to give something up that they worked hard for and spent their money on. Maybe it was a birthday gift. Brittany, you talked about what happens when you try to take, a little rattle from a baby, you know that they’ll hold onto it with that superhero, baby grip and not let go. They want, you know, what is theirs. And so I think the second thing that can happen is that children will start to think that sharing makes them morally superior. And anyone who doesn’t share then is, you know, a bad person. And this, I think, follows them. This idea follows them into adulthood. We see it right now with, you know, the Bernie Sanders of the world and AOC and all these people who look to people like Elon Musk, one of, if not the wealthiest person in the world. And they attack him by saying, oh, you ought to pay your fair share. Well, what is a fair share? Right. What does that actually mean? Well, it’s born of this idea. These people have of you have too much, I have less than you. And so you need to be compelled to share with me or share with other people who have less. And so it’s born of this idea, right? That sharing, even forced sharing is a moral good. It’s a good thing to do. And therefore they think that the government has the right and sometimes even the moral obligation to step in and force Elon Musk or me or you or whoever to surrender to share quote unquote what we have with other people.

Brittany: Yeah. No. You know what’s funny about this, and we didn’t actually talk about this in the last episode with Rainbow Fish, but I just kind of, you know, touched on right here is its envy. When you look at the people who are doing this, you know, we talk about not sharing being a bad thing, but what about envy these people that want what you have? That’s why envy is so badly that they become very bitter and angry about it. And you think like, which one’s worse to me, that you know, that envy is just so bad. So yeah, that just kind of popped into my head. But I’ve noticed when it comes to sharing, it’s not even just physical things. It’s not just money. It’s not just toys. We see it with what, you know, what you could call innovation or inventions. And that’s kind of what the whole book Atlas Shrugged is about. Right. And I didn’t finish it cause it’s really long, but, I got to the points that matter. So you have this guy, he invents this incredible steel, like the strongest steel, and I believe it was like cheaper to make like just this amazing steal or, and this government is like, oh, or the governments like, you need to give this, the patent to that. You need to basically hand over the rights to that because it’s for the greater good. And we’ve talked about that term a lot on this show on past episodes that people need it more than you do. Like it’s good to our society. So you need to give it to us. And then you have this little community of inventors who all have left this world because the government keeps trying to take their inventions to basically say, we are owed these, it’s for the greater good, blah, blah, blah. So they start their own little, what’s called Galt Gulch and they start their own little community where all their stuff can be respected without them having to fear that the government’s gonna come take them. Because there is one scene in the book where this guy that invents the steal is like forced to sign over like a document basically saying the government now owns this thing. And it was, it’s just really sad that there’s, you know, people in society that they believe they’re entitled to, which means they think that they rightfully deserve what other people have produced. What did, did Ayn Rand call these, the Moochers? Wasn’t that her term for them? I believe? Yeah, the Moochers, which I like, cuz it kind of gives you that image of like, like a bad person, just like trying to grab all the stuff you have. So I’ve always kind of liked the visuals that puts in my head, but where does this all begin? And I think it begins in schools. And that is why, and I talked about this a little bit before when I was a teacher, I didn’t make my kids share. I didn’t tell them they weren’t allowed to, but there was no rule that basically said, you have to share. I’m gonna publicly, you know, shame you in front of the whole class for not sharing. So, Connor, this reminds me of an ism. What ism does this remind you of?

Connor: Well, we’ve talked a lot about isms in past episodes. We’ve done many episodes on different isms. And the thing I think our listeners will remember is a lot of the isms are kind of interrelated. Yes. It’s not like they’re totally exclusive of one another. If you’re a socialist, you’re also kind of a totalitarian. And you’re also a collectivist and you’re kind of a communist of kind of.

Brittany: A fascist too. I mean.

Connor: Right? So these isms all have their own flavors. If you guys want to know more, you can go back and find those episodes. We’ve done a lot of.

Brittany: So, Many Isms.

Conno: The conversation on different isms. But the one that this mostly and directly pertains to is really socialism. It’s, everywhere in society. You don’t have to have like a socialist state, right? Like Venezuela or Cuba under, you know, Castro or any of these things. You don’t have to have this outright socialist government. You can have socialist policies and laws even in the so-called land of the free in America. Right? So socialist ideas and socialist policies are everywhere. You often see voters out of this greed that you talk about who want to use the power of government to force other people more successful than them to surrender and forcibly share what they have with others. And so this is in America, it’s in your city, it’s all over the place. This is not just for like horrible communist dictatorships in past decades. This is all over America today. I mean, we see it. People want free healthcare, they want free rent, they want, you know, free college. We need to, you know, make tuition free and get rid of college debt and all these ideas that people have where it’s all quote-unquote free even during COVID, right? All these shots and then the boosters and then the at-home testing kits. Yeah. And the government is always like, it’s free. It’s free. I’m like, no, it’s not. Nothing is free. It’s just a question of who’s paying for it and how, and we’re inflating the dollar like crazy people are losing their jobs, losing their homes because they can’t afford things because of inflation and we’re making them pay for it. So, what would you rather have an at-home test for free for Covid or your home, right? For some people, it kind of comes down to these situations where, you know, to them it’s not free. It’s, really not free. We’re still paying for it. And yet these ideas persist that people claim that they want this or that for free. The healthcare, the, you know, free rent, free college tuition. You and Emma, I know Brittany did an episode on the principle of, the idea that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Yep. And I think that idea applies here. It comes from somewhere someone has to pay for it. And as I said, it’s ultimately us or sometimes it’s our children and grandchildren. We kind of kick the can down the road by, you know, when you inflate the money, you’re kind of, and take debt when, when the government just prints up new money and borrows money. Right. It’s just going to make things that much worse for our children if and when kind of the economy collapses and there’s a bunch of problems as there have been. And every country that does this, America can’t do this forever. And so it happens through these laws that force us to share. It all boils down to this greed, this idea that we should be using the government not to secure our rights, which is what the Declaration of Independence talks about as being the, you know, valid purpose for government. But instead, when the government is used as a weapon, Frédéric Bastiat, who’s one of our homeboys, right? Bastiat.

Brittany: We love him.

Connor: We love him. We quote him often. And for the older kids and certainly the parents, you know, pick up a book, pick up multiple books. Everything Bastiat yet has written is amazing. And he has this great quote where he says that government is the great fiction through which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else. I’m gonna say that again. Government is this great fiction through which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else. In other words, so many people are you know, we’ve moved away from this rugged individualism and independence and self-reliance where people are, you know, hardworking and providing for their own families and you know, pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and whatever. And now we’re in this environment where everyone has discovered that through the government, they can get all these welfare benefits and stimulus programs and childcare tax credits and PPP loans and all these different programs the government has done where they’re just providing people money. And so they’re trying to live at the expense of other people. They’re trying to benefit themselves and get money at the expense of someone else, meaning someone else has to pay for it. I want to benefit, I want free money, free rent, free tuition, free healthcare free whatever. And I want other people to pay for it. For me. I shouldn’t have to pay for it. I can’t pay for it. I’m too weak. I’m too lazy, I’m too sick. I’m too.

Brittany: I shouldn’t have you hear a lot too.

Connor: Or I shouldn’t have to, yeah. It should be free. Or this is reparations for what happened, you know, 200 years ago or whatever. There’s all these ideas and it all boils down to what Bastiat is saying. People have a desire to live at the expense of other people rather than doing their own hard work.

Brittany: I think that’s exactly right. And I do wanna hit on one’s thing because I don’t want the kid’s takeaway from this to be like, see, I never wanna share, sharing is terrible. Cause I wanna take a minute then to talk about, you know, voluntary charity, which you and I have talked about a bunch on here that it’s great if you choose to do that. If you even wanna give some of your, you know, allowance and give it to someone in need, that’s absolutely great. But the difference here is forced. And I think that’s the difference in a lot of things we talk about, right? That if you wanna do something on your own, that’s great, but nobody should make you do it. One guest we had on here, we had my friend Max Borders, and he has a whole book with different things he talks about, about different communities that have come together and given up something they need to help somebody in the community. But they did that without the government, right? They came together as people. He talked, his grandfather was a dentist in a small town in North Carolina. And every time, you know, he worked on everybody’s teeth, but sometimes the poorer people in the community, they just wouldn’t get a bill. He just never sent a bill. And there they never expected not to pay, right? They came in there knowing that they were gonna exchange, you know, money for the services, but he chose to give away that labor that time, as we talked about for free. And, these are the stories that are touching to me because anybody can give away money at the point of a gun, right? Anybody will give money away if you’re told you’re gonna go to jail if you don’t. But the people who come together and actually give to charities are pulled together as a community like that to me, that’s when I just get really excited about humanity and everything we’re doing. Not, you know, because I pay taxes, so I’m not gonna give to any other charity that that’s what I don’t like.

Connor: And Brittany, if you fall on hard times and we put together a GoFundMe for you, or Oh, that’s a great example. Yeah. Give you or whatever that money is going to you and you’re gonna use it where it’s best needed to help you get back on your feet, right? And do what’s needed If I’m forced to help you because the IRS comes in or the department of whatever, and they come and they take my money, but they have to pay for their salary and they’re 43 other people and they’re building and they’re whatever, and all these middlemen come in. And by the time any money gets to you, it’s hardly any money. And another thing that’s I think is really important that we don’t often talk about when we’re talking about charity is that one of the biggest blessings and benefits that come from a charity is when you are the giver and you are directly connected to the receiver. Brittany, if I help you, or if I organize some of our friends to help you in a time of need, you feel very grateful directly to the people who helped you. You also feel accountable, right? So like, let’s say, you know, you say, I really need like $2,000 for, you know, rent this month or this surgery or whatever. And if you go to Vegas and blow that money and don’t actually spend it, right? You know that your friends know and they’re gonna hold you accountable. So it leads you to be a better steward, a better person using that money rather than wasting it, you know, on other things. But if you get the money from some government program and you don’t see the taxpayers who are forced to share with you and you have no idea who they are, and they’re never gonna know you, right? Not only do they not get the benefit of like helping you if you’re truly in need, but you’re also not accountable. And so you have kind of an incentive or an opportunity to maybe claim to the government, oh, I really need this, when in fact you don’t, and then you can go spend it on other stuff. Or, oh, I need food stamps and I’m gonna use it to buy, you know, all this other stuff instead. And so it creates waste, it creates fraud where people are lying. It deprives us of mutually helping one another. Like you said, with voluntary charity. We, have in our first book, the Tuttle Twins Learn about the Law, the twins, you know, go and voluntarily share it with Mrs. Lopez across the street. And then she shares back and creates a great relationship and a bond between neighbors That is voluntary charity. It’s amazing what we have through the state, through the government. These forced charitable relationships is bad. It’s bad in so many respects and it’s all born again out of this greed that people have and this idea that they want to live at the expense of others. So that’s an idea. We need to resist. We need to resist in our own lives. We need to push back when other people say it because it becomes the foundation of so much bad government and heavy taxes and so many problems that we see today. Guys, great. Having you listening and subscribing, please share the podcast with another family that could benefit from it. We love having you guys here and being able to have these conversations. Brittany, thank you as always. And until next time, we’ll talk to you later.

Brittany: Talk to you later.