text: Excellent piece. Some folks need to revisit civics class. Socialism, Communism, and Democratic Socialism are vastly different creatures.  
  
  Then the there's the "free stuff" narrative. Are we talking about the free stuff we give oil companies, banks "too big to fail," or the "free stuff" you get like heavily subsidized roads, airports, fuel, a public education system, law enforcement, emergency services, etc? 
  
  A little reality. Society benefits from economy of scale when we pool resources to provide for the common good. Things one can't economically provide for oneself. We all directly or indirectly benefit from things like a well-educated, economically mobile, healthy populace. 
  
  Ayn Rand's selfish objectivism & laissez faire capitalism (granted, a redundant phrase) eventually leads to anarchy & the breakdown of society, in part, because it ignores and discounts the forces driving a tragedy of the commons (William Forster Lloyd). This is illustrated by the current situation in AK.