The problem with democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders, and indeed everyone who believes that a large welfare state is a moral imperative of western countries, is that they take for granted the wealth that makes socialist programs possible. That staggering wealth was produced by industrial and post-industrial capitalist economies. Once socialism is adopted, it will be a few short generations before that wealth is spent.

This pattern is natural. Humans work all their adult lives, scrimping and saving and sweating and bleeding, and if they are successful they can have a nice comfortable retirement. Socialism springs from the same impulse: just as the old seek comfort in their twilight years, so old, successful civilizations seek retirement, and encourage in their population lifestyles suited to a slow, cushy decline. Witness the advocacy for small families, career women, and all around the disinterest in producing enough children to forestall population decline.

Socialism is civilizational retirement. And western societies are ready for it. They have allowed the vitality to seep from Christendom; it's bones have grown frail, it's eyes dull, it's womb barren.

The socialist fantasy is that this scenario is sustainable. But it isn't. Retirement is only ever a prelude. Those who advocate socialism are advocating for the death of civilization.