For those who think Socialism is the answer, The following is a Term paper written by a young Vietnamese woman now married to one of the Pilot’s I served in Viet Nam with. Lily was born after American involvement ended in Viet Nam and the Communist takeover. She is enrolled in a Business Law Course and the Term paper was for that class.

Do You Really Want to Rear Your Child in a Socialist Society?

By Lily Cuc White

July 11, 2008

I was born and reared in a Socialist Society. Here is my personal testimony as to how good, or bad, I turned out. I turned out great! I would never cheat, or steal, or mislead anyone. I enjoy hard work, and my goals for my life are very lofty. I know that I will succeed in reaching my goals, and that my life will truly amount to something.

Considering that I was born in Vietnam and lived under socialist rule for the first 20 years of my life. (Furthermore, I lived in a very poor environment, reared by an uneducated single mother. We lived on the side of a tall mountain which, beginning at the age of nine, I climbed each night two and three times to pick up loose coal that had fallen from the coal trucks, then carry two buckets full down to the town below to be sold on the black market. This is how my mother, my grandmother, and my aunt survived. Just after I was born in the mid 1980’s and during the 1990, Vietnam was bankrupt. There was little or no food available to buy with the small amounts of money my mother, grandmother, and aunt made carrying coal). I seem to have turned out quite well.

Looking at my life one may think that rearing a child in a socialist society must have some very good advantages, after all, how did I turn out so healthy, happy, and moving towards a successful future? The answer is that things are not always what they appear to be.

It is true that I am healthy, happy, and moving towards a successful future, but this is despite of my socialist society upbringing and not because of it.

Read the rest at my blog here