In his 2016 campaign for president, Bernie Sanders inadvertently explained why Americans will never embrace socialism.

In a television interview he summed up the sins of consumer capitalism with these memorable words: “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants,” he complained, “or of 18 different pairs of sneakers, when children are hungry in this country.” Well, of course not: You don’t even necessarily need underarm spray deodorants. Or sneakers, for that matter. Americans did very well, and for a very long time, without either one. And yet, would we really be content to live in a society where Sanders decides what’s essential, or more important, what is not?