How Does David Friedberg Define the Second Law of Socialism?

David Friedberg introduces a theory he calls the socialism point of guaranteed return, a play on a point of no return. He says socialism always fails, the zeroth law, because it removes human agency and the capacity for human progress.

The first law is that a society has to cross a threshold before people realize the failure. The second law is that until the threshold is crossed, people think more socialism is the answer. Giving people free stuff and a guaranteed income makes services cost more and get worse, because no market force drives progress. He names four problems in the United States: housing, education, healthcare, and retirement. When government services fall short, the demand is for more government healthcare, more government housing, more government education, and more government services. Eventually the government cannot tax enough and cannot print enough to provide the services, and people see that socialism does not work.

Friedberg says the collapse is the socialism point of guaranteed return. The system breaks and society returns to a non-socialist state. He says many countries in Latin America crossed it and bounced back. France might have crossed it. The United States has not, and he worries the country will go deeper before it hits the point.