While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America

by Yeonmi Park

Kim Il Sung, rose to power on the premise not only of being a great leader, but of being a god. He did so in part by promising to solve all forms of inequality and injustice, which he explained were simple and unnecessary problems that required simple, obvious solutions. The root cause of both inequality and injustice, he explained, was a capitalist conspiracy to make everyone pay money for essential services that they should be getting for free: education, health care, housing, food—everything people need to survive and thrive. And in order to make these services and resources free and accessible to everyone, all forms of private ownership had to be abolished: “Capitalists” (which is to say, ordinary citizens) were henceforth no longer allowed to own their own schools, or hospitals, or houses, or farms. The state (which is to say, those with military and police power) confiscated them. Needless to say, the results were catastrophic—just

Embarrassed to have to explain this to an ivy league grad but, this is a logical fallacy. Even though putting the basics for human life behind a paywall is indeed a grotesque perversion of the capitalist drive, the conclusions and consequences dreamed up by one of the worst dictators in history don't necessarily follow as logical inevitabilities. People and indeed even other modern governments have and continue to devise alternate solutions to these issues that venture beyond this false dichotomy you are bent on painting.