Kerby Anderson
A significant number of young people have a positive view of socialism. In my booklet on A Biblical Point of View on Socialism, I suggest this is because of what they hear on college campuses and what they hear from politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
John Stossel now provides another reason for socialism’s popularity: social media. He documents the “Dumb Things Socialists Promise.”
For example, one TikTok social influencer has a video proclaiming: “Socialism is working better than capitalism 93% of the time!” That misleading statistic is drawn from a study by self-described Marxists in the Journal of Health Services from nearly four decades ago.
Another social media influencer proclaims, “Socialism worked in China” because it “lifted over 800 million people from poverty.” Yes, the per capita income in China has increased, but much of that increase came after China gave up on socialism and created a hybrid capitalism-communism society. Hong Kong, which adopted true capitalism, increased personal income much more and much faster than mainland China.
And another social media influencer tells his YouTube subscribers: “The central idea that unites all socialists is maximizing freedom … democratization of power.” The reality in most socialist countries is less freedom and only one political party.
Perhaps you have a friend or family member that is promoting socialism. Let me offer my booklet on socialism (either in digital form or printed form). We need to be prepared to answer these socialist claims and promises.

Kerby Anderson
Here’s a phrase I sometimes use on radio: “It is difficult to solve a problem when politicians won’t even admit there is a problem.” This is true about our national debt, but it is also true about America’s health. We can’t solve America’s health problems if we won’t admit that Americans are unhealthy. The confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. may be changing our mindset. But we still need to understand the depth of the health care problem in America.
We have heard that “America is a first-world country facing third-world health issues.” When you hear that, it sounds too extreme. Is that true? You can read an article in the Annual Review of Public Health that attempts to answer: “Why do Americans have shorter life expectancy and worse health than people in other high-income countries?”
It is even worse for poor Americans. One research paper on “Life Expectancy in the United States” says this: “The poorest men in the US have life expectancies comparable to men in Sudan and Pakistan; the richest men in the US live longer than the average man in any country.”
A CDC research paper documents that: “Six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, and 4 in 10 have two or more chronic diseases.” It is worth mentioning that chronic disease may account for as much as three-quarters of America’s health care spending.
Another study in the New England Journal of Medicine on the “Prevalence of Adult Obesity and Severe Obesity,” made this ominous prediction. The researchers estimated that by 2030 nearly half of US adults will be obese.
These statistics, and many others, illustrate the need to address the health of Americans. There are solutions to this problem, but the first step is to admit there is a problem and understand the depth of our health care problem.