The March Towards Socialism

(Note: For newer readers, and for those who - shockingly - do not read every post, this post follows on the August 26, 2018 post titled "Socialism?")

Yesterday, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren formally announced her candidacy for the office of President of the United States. Her speech could just as easily have been given by openly socialist Senator Bernie Sanders. And, reminiscent of Obama's desire to bring "fundamental change" to our country, Warren said: "Our fight is for big structural change." I am always surprised at how people cheer for fundamentally or structurally changing the wealthiest, freest country in history. As Warren told us, just tinkering with fixes is not enough. No, we need a complete overhaul of this great country.

Following up on the need for structural change, Warren told us that "over the years America's middle class has been deliberately hollowed out and families of color have been systematically discriminated against and denied their chance to build some security." Why would the wealthy seek to "deliberately hollow out" the middle class - the backbone of the country, the people who buy the goods and services - produced by the wealthy? Recall that Henry Ford knew he had to pay his employees enough so that they would be able to purchase his cars. And while there certainly was a history of systematic discrimination against blacks, Warren, like others on the Left, talks as if nothing has changed. After all, the key to getting their votes is to ensure that blacks always feel they are victims.

Warren told us that our country is based on "a rigged system that props up the rich and powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else." Warren then told the cheering crowd how, from her humble beginnings as the daughter of a janitor, and then going to a local community college, she was able to become a teacher, a law school professor, a United States Senator and now a candidate for President of the United States. In watching her and her supporters, it seemed that none of them appreciated the irony in the contrast between a "rigged system," and anyone, notwithstanding their humble background, being able to achieve great success if they work hard enough.

Warren told us that she wants to put workers in corporate boardrooms. And, noting that the US is the wealthiest country, says: "I am tired of hearing that we can't afford to make real investments in child care, college and Medicare for all." On the one hand, one could argue that this is nothing more than the longstanding "guns or butter" argument in politics. On the other hand, it appears that people such as Warren, and others on the Left, have no clue as to how and why the United States became the wealthiest country in history. Hint - it was not because of socialism.

Warren, along with other likely Democratic candidates for President such as Cory Booker (NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Kamala Harris (CA) and Bernie Sanders (VT) all support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's "Green New Deal." There are various Green New Deals that one can find online. The one proposed by the Green Party is essentially a call for communism. It would create a federal employment program, creating 25 million federally funded jobs. It would create publicly owned, non-profit banks at all levels of government. Obama had, before his candidacy, complained that the Bill of Rights only protected people from government action, it did not say what government must do for people. The Green Party's plan rectifies that by calling for a right to: a living wage, quality health care with single payer Medicare for all, free schooling from pre-school through college, the forgiving of college student loans, decent affordable housing with a halt to all foreclosures and evictions, accessible and affordable utilities and "fair" taxation. Quite a change from JFK's "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

Ocasio-Cortez's plan, introduced in the House and Senate, is actually a non-binding resolution providing that the Federal Government has a "duty" to create a Green New Deal (GND). The GND includes "a 10-year commitment to convert '100 percent of the power demand in the United States' to 'clean, renewable and zero-emission energy sources,' to upgrade 'all existing buildings' to meet energy efficiency requirements, and to expand high speed rail so broadly that most air travel would be rendered obsolete." (As reported on page 1 of the 2/8/10 New York Times.) Air travel become obsolete?

In case you are wondering how the Left proposes to pay for all their new ideas, there is a plan for that. Sort of. The Federal Reserve can extend credit, as can new public banks. "Extend credit" sounds like forcing people into debt, poverty and bankruptcy in order to pay for everything. I recall an interview given by Ocasio-Cortez a while ago wherein she explained how she would pay for her Medicare for all plan: "You just pay for it." Yet another example of how the Left is clueless about wealth creation or monetary policy. They certainly do understand fiscal policy - tax and spend, tax and spend, and tax and spend some more.

Of course, Senator Warren has her own plan - a new "wealth tax." Households with a net worth of $50 million would pay a 2% "tax" on their wealth, with those having $1 billion or more paying 3%. The truth is this is not a "tax" at all. It is government confiscation of people's money. There is no economic activity or transaction involved, which might justify a tax. It is merely having accumulated "too much" in the eyes of the Left. It is one of the reasons that this blog opposed Obamacare - it placed a "tax" on inactivity - a failure to buy health insurance. This idea of taking away people's wealth reminds me of a scene (often discussed by a friend) in the movie Dr. Zhivago. After Dr. Zhivago goes off to treat the revolutionary Bolsheviks in their fight against the Czar's army, he returns home to find that his large family home is no longer his. Rather, with Lenin in power, the home has been converted to multiple dwellings for "the people," with the Party now owning the property.

Of course, no left-wing plan is complete without acknowledging the oppressed, victim class. Ocasio-Cortez's plan refers to the need to "stop, prevent and repair the historic oppression of"...fill in the blank. "Indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low income workers, women, elderly, unhoused, people with disabilities and youth." Pandering to identity politics is a tactic that the Left sees as the path towards electoral success - never mind that it divides people into groups, rather than unifying us all as Americans.