In Jon Huer’s Sept. 5 column, “All men are created socialist,” he attempts to convince us that the Founding Fathers established America as a socialist state before the word was known. He makes this claim by conflating equality with equity. Our Declaration of Independence and other founding documents provide us with inspiration by stressing our equality as free people to pursue our dreams. This is a very American concept, and we do this with as much energy as we choose to apply.

Equality focuses on everyone having equal opportunity. Contrast this with equity, which suggests that everyone’s economic outcome should be equal regardless of individual talent and initiative. This concept is anti-American and is not mentioned by the Founding Fathers. This concept of equity is just one of the empty promises that advocates of socialism make as they attempt to gain power. These promises cannot be fulfilled because socialism/communism doesn’t work. Central government planning results in production for numbers’ sake rather than customer demand (e.g., the USSR). Or the numbers are just revised to those the leaders want them to be (e.g., the Chinese Communist Party).

The main reason socialism will always fail is that it undermines our initiative and drive. If we are all entitled to equal results regardless of our input, what is our incentive to innovate, discover, or create? Why even get up in the morning? Capitalism provides a risk/reward tradeoff that is good for most of us, and some thrive upon.

We do need changes in our society, but substituting socialism for capitalism is not the answer. The so-called Democratic Socialists of America are a radical group that is taking control of the Democrat Party. They cannot deliver on their promises even if they are granted the control they request. Bigger government is not the answer. Can you think of examples where government runs anything more efficiently than private industry? Socialist movements throughout the world typically result in fascist or totalitarian governance.

Our two-party system results in unchecked spending regardless of the party in power, and the federal government now has $40 trillion of debt. States can stop this by supporting a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We need this to reduce the debt we are passing on to our children. We can also push for term limits so we don’t have politicians in office for 30, 40, and 50 years. We the people should be better served than we are today.

Dave Graves lives in Greenfield.