Santa Claus: a tale of socialism
Is it heartless to raise children without the tale? It is usually told as if it were real to trusting young children. What is the tale about?
Santa runs a factory on the North Pole with many ‘happy workers’. He does not partake in the international division of labor. He does not buy from any producers, he does not ship resources from overseas, he does not use any pricing, he doesn’t need producer goods from others, and no electricity or gas.. He is simply able to create everything from scratch in his one factory. Pencils? No problem. Computer tablets with nanometer-scale microchips? No problem either. Santa has an uncanny ability to stay out of trouble for trademark, patent and copyright infringement. In the tradition of Karl Marx, he has a giant beard.
Who are the recipients of all this material wealth? The children who have been ‘good’, as judged by the almighty central planner himself, who knows everything that the children have been up to.
Santa also knows and keeps track of the precise desires of the children. You only have to ask him what you want, and he’ll effortlessly adjust his production schedule, and deliver the goods for millions right on time all on the same day.
The goods are actually provided by the parents, who have to generate excess capital themselves for this kind of spending. The goods they purchase are produced all around the world, through economic cooperation among masses of people. It took the whole of humanity to get where we are now; with continual difficulty for the accumulation of capital goods because of wars and predatory governments.
The reality of production contains many great lessons about peace and cooperation among cultures and peoples. The family unit is also based on economic cooperation, compassion, and mutual benefit. All of this is glossed over and substituted in the Santa Claus myth. People who don’t tell the Santa story to their children may not be heartless and may have better stories to tell to their children.
