The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” — Margaret Thatcher

Hear now, O listener of wisdom, the sharp and timeless warning of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady of Britain. When she spoke these words, she spoke not in jest, but in sorrow and fire — for she had seen with her own eyes a nation once mighty brought low by the weight of its own promises. In the corridors of power, she had watched the well of wealth run dry, not because the people lacked virtue, but because their rulers had forgotten a truth older than any ideology: that prosperity cannot be built upon the endless spending of others’ labor. To take without creating, to consume without producing — this, she said, is the flaw that no system, however noble in speech, can escape.

The origin of this saying lies in Thatcher’s fierce struggle during the 1970s and 1980s, when Britain teetered on the brink of economic ruin. Factories stood silent, inflation soared like a fever, and the public treasury groaned under the weight of socialist policies that promised everything to everyone. The state had become the provider of all, yet the giver itself was starving. The few who toiled to create wealth found their efforts drained to feed the many who depended upon it. And thus, the well of generosity, once full, began to empty — for even the richest soil, if not tended by labor and discipline, turns barren. It was then that Thatcher, clear-eyed and unflinching, declared this truth: that a society cannot thrive when its rewards are detached from responsibility.

Her words carry not hatred for compassion, but warning against illusion. For socialism, in its purest dream, seeks equality — yet too often achieves only dependence. It believes that by redistributing wealth, it can create fairness. But wealth, like the flame of a lamp, grows dim when divided too thinly, and dies when no one tends the oil. When the state promises to give all things, it must first take all things, and in doing so, it extinguishes the very spark of initiative that keeps the fire alive. Thus, what begins as mercy may end in misery, when generosity becomes coercion and charity becomes debt.

History, ever the stern teacher, has shown this many times. Look to Venezuela, a land rich in oil and promise, where leaders vowed to lift every soul through shared wealth. At first, the people rejoiced — food was cheap, wages rose, and the government spent freely. But as the years passed, the gold of others’ labor was squandered, the coffers emptied, and the nation’s lifeblood was drained by corruption and dependency. In the end, the very system that claimed to protect the poor left them standing in lines for bread, beneath the gaze of soldiers guarding empty shelves. So it has been in every land where the harvest of the few was seized to feed the multitude of the idle, until none had strength left to sow.

Yet Thatcher’s wisdom does not scorn compassion; it calls for balance and responsibility. A wise society aids the weak, but it must never destroy the will to work. It must remember that charity without productivity is a river without a source — soon it will run dry. True justice does not lie in taking from one to give to another, but in creating the conditions where each person may rise by their own effort, where generosity springs from abundance, not coercion. She understood that freedom and prosperity are twins — one cannot live without the other.

Let this teaching be a mirror to every generation: do not build a world that depends only on the wealth of others. Labor honestly. Give freely, but from your own strength, not by decree. Help the poor by empowering them, not by chaining them to the state. A nation’s greatness is not measured by how much it spends, but by how much its people create, how much they dream, how much they are allowed to keep of the fruits of their labor. For when men believe their effort no longer matters, the fields fall silent, and the treasury fills with dust.

So remember, O student of liberty: wealth cannot be commanded, only earned. The tree of prosperity grows only when watered by work, not when stripped for its fruit. Be generous, but be wise. Let government be the guardian of justice, not the dispenser of endless gifts. For as Thatcher warned, when the feast depends upon others’ tables, it will not last the night. Build instead a society where all may eat because all may sow — where freedom, effort, and reward stand together, like pillars of the same enduring temple. Then, and only then, will abundance endure beyond the reach of politics and time.