Socialism creates poverty. Capitalism lifts people out of it.

When I was the CEO of the company that owns Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurant chains, we spent millions of dollars every year trying to determine what customers wanted. If our customers didn't like something, we changed it--and fast, because if we didn't, our competitors would (pun intended) eat us for lunch.

The consumer—that's you—has the ultimate power. In effect, you vote with every dollar you spend.

In a socialist economy, the government has the ultimate power. It decides what you get from a limited supply it decides should exist.

Instead of millions of people making millions of decisions about what they want, a few people—government elites—decide what people should have and how much they should pay for it. Not surprisingly, they always get it wrong. Have you ever noticed that late-stage socialist failures always run out of essential items like toilet paper?

Of course, this isn't a problem for those who have the right connections with the right people. Those chosen few get whatever they want. But everyone else is out of luck.

Venezuela, once the richest country in South America, is the most recent example of socialism driving a prosperous country into an economic ditch. Maybe you think it's an unfair example. I'm not sure why, but okay. We'll ignore the fact that leftist activists celebrated it as a great socialist success—right up until it wasn't.

But what about Western European countries? Don't they have socialist economies? People seem pretty happy there. Why can't we have what they have--free health care, free college, stronger unions?

Good question. And the answer may surprise you.