Pennsylvania Must Reject Collectivism and Embrace Prosperity

Individualism, rugged or not, has led to more collective prosperity than any other human economic inclination in history. Charismatic prose from a 34-year-old socialist who majored in Africana Studies most certainly doesn’t change that fact. But despite Zohran Mamdani’s glowing report of collectivism at his inauguration for New York City mayor, he was elected resoundingly to direct the most consequential city in the United States. This is also a fact. What does this kind of ideology, if realized by policy, mean to New Yorkers?

The results are likely profound – and destructive – with the likelihood of many successful residents fleeing the city and taking its tax base with them. And yet, how could so many voters in New York look past the chill wrought by collectivism in human history? Perhaps they don’t know, or perhaps they don’t care. The lure of socialism has always been an emotional appeal. It lives and breathes emotion and thrives on whimsical theories. But practical nor effective it is not, and centuries of history, in the U.S. and more commonly abroad, show that it has failed time and again.

A form of socialism was tried at Virginia’s Jamestown Colony in the early 1600s, and if it wasn’t for Captain John Smith’s “rugged individualism,” it would have certainly and permanently sunk. His famous, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat,” policy revived the production of the colony, but even more important was the Virginia Company’s headright system of allotting tracts of land to individuals and families to produce independent of the state. This system of private property rights took root in American colonial life, and it gave birth to prosperity.

We don’t have to rely on the Jamestown experiment for proof that socialism doesn’t work. Ask the occupants of East and West Berlin some 40 years ago. East Berlin was so warm with collectivist idealism that inhabitants, like Joachim Rudolph, literally tunneled under the Berlin Wall to escape utopian tyrannical rule.

Among the most notable examples of this failure of collectivism: North and South Korea. The stark economic differences between the two countries, one a collectivist nightmare and the other a capitalist haven, couldn’t be more colossal. North Korea, a wicked regime built on the lie of collectivism, and South Korea, a world power that ranks seventh for burgeoning entrepreneurs and is in the top 20 for overall quality of life, according to a U.S. News survey.

Examples of the woes of collectivism abound, but an important question that America’s Democrats must grapple with is whether New York City’s experiment is an isolated incident or if it’s becoming more mainstream as their party further shifts from their roots.

Pennsylvanians reject the deceitful premise of collectivism. As the second-leading exporter of natural gas in the United States, and a regional manufacturing powerhouse, we can’t afford a collectivist mirage that bleeds us of prosperity. Having just exited the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), essentially a carbon tax cartel, Pennsylvania now becomes a more attractive place to set up shop. Pennsylvania’s individuals are too talented to bind them with the delusion of collectivism.

In a free country with a free economy, private-sector investment decisions are voluntary. That’s why Pennsylvania’s leaders should embrace market-driven innovation and growth by improving our business fundamentals – and not for a second borrow the harmful collectivism that New York City is flirting with. For too long, the commonwealth has relied on taxpayer-funded, government-directed “economic development.” A better choice is to earn private investment by reducing the baseline cost of creating and keeping jobs here. The first and most important step to greater prosperity is to mobilize Pennsylvania’s enormous energy reserves. Combined with practical steps including fiscal discipline, regulatory reform, pro-growth business tax relief, and limits on lawsuit abuse, we could make Pennsylvania better and build a more prosperous future.

Sadly, Gov. Shapiro doesn’t seem interested in economic activity that he can’t claim credit for. His approach of targeted subsidies, gimmicky tax credits, and other PR stunts doesn’t begin to approach the consequential changes needed to make Pennsylvania a top performer among U.S. states.

Pennsylvanians deserve the glimmer of prosperity. From our rich store of natural resources to our unmistakably ideal geography, to our heritage of hard work and inventiveness, to our talented people, there’s no obstacle, whether it be a Marxist utopian fantasy or frail leadership cloaked in social media spin, that should stop us.