Thursday, October 1, 2026
Margaret Thatcher, the late former prime minister of the United Kingdom, once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Beginning in grade school, we were always taught about the differences in world economic systems as part of our own history, and the perceived/proven benefits and disadvantages of them. The reason this weighs on me, though, is thinking of my own small children and what the future holds for them. Are we no longer educating our children in basic domestic and international history?
I remember learning all about socialist economies in countries governed by communist parties such as the Soviet Union. My sixth-grade history teacher didn’t even let us refer to it as the USSR. She made us refer to it by its unabbreviated name, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I wonder how many grade-school students today even know what that means.
In all fairness, I grew up in an interesting time. We were learning about history as it was unfolding before us. We saw the events leading to the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on TV. We witnessed the celebrations surrounding the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. We weren’t generally taught that these counties were evil, but we were taught why they fundamentally failed. We were taught why socialism, time and time again, from country to country, collapsed.
We also learned about the dangers of our own American economy. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression, and passed down to us lessons about the real struggles their families faced. Fast-forward to the 2007-08 financial crisis, which I experienced as an adult. Some called it the Great Depression of our time, because it took many American businesses, communities, individuals and families years to recover from.
But America always recovers, and even thrives. The difficulties we face have always made us stronger. Our economy has been on a long upward trajectory of renewed productivity, resulting in historic wealth.
Many are now making the case to voters, as they run successfully for office in our city and state, that it is the unequal accumulation of this wealth that’s at the root of so many of our social issues. But let’s not forget our history. We’ve seen the destruction and the plight of residents of our city and state before. We’ve seen what it’s like to have lawlessness and homelessness on our streets. No one wants that again, yet it is happening before our very eyes, and in many cases permeating our communities.
History has proven, however, that it is fixable. We have shown that we can rise again. Our municipal governments have the tools in their toolbox, as I frequently say, to fix what has been broken. We just need to know how to properly use them, and adopting socialist policies to promote a promise of fictional prosperity isn’t the answer.
Don’t take it from me. Just ask your neighbors, the many successful and dedicated business owners in our communities and perhaps even members of your own family who have fled countries with socialist-based economies to come to America for opportunity, how bad socialism really is.
The owner of the Malverne Village Barber Shop, Zak Badalov a.k.a. Zak the Barber, has taught me firsthand what living in a socialist-based economy is all about. Zak emigrated from the Soviet Union to find opportunities in America. His stories about poverty, depression, and scarcity of adequate resources and food will leave anyone who talks with him stone-face shocked to learn about the dreadfulness of growing up with socialism. If we’re not teaching it in our schools, learn it from our own neighborhood barber.
If you get your news from social media, here’s another source. While I’m not a frequent viewer of the comedian Bill Maher’s shows, he had a guest on “Real Time” last weekend whom I was interested in hearing from. But the real takeaway was Maher’s comments on socialism. His audience was aghast when he was reading political platforms of some of the rising self-proclaimed socialists. “People gotta realize this is going on,” he said.
Tim Sullivan is the mayor of Malverne.
