{"id":138354,"date":"2019-03-20T23:45:55","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T05:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138354"},"modified":"2019-03-20T23:45:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T05:45:55","slug":"better-dead-than-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/20\/better-dead-than-red.html","title":{"rendered":"Better Dead Than Red!"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The question is not *whether* we will be a &quot;socialist&quot; nation, but how much and in what areas. (Ditto for &quot;capitalist&quot;.) This is not a binary decision, dog-whistles notwithstanding. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uYmK0GeguZ\">https:\/\/t.co\/uYmK0GeguZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Three_Star_Dave\/status\/1108482529651318784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The question is not *whether* we will be a &#8220;socialist&#8221; nation, but how much and in what areas. (Ditto for &#8220;capitalist&#8221;.) This is not a binary decision, dog-whistles notwithstanding. https:\/\/t.co\/uYmK0GeguZ<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We are not a <em>capitalist<\/em> country. We do not have a free-wheeling free-market economy. We do not live in a Hobbesian war of all-against-all, Dickensian workshop, Ayn Randian anarchy. Indeed, most people reject Scrooge&#8217;s idea of a capitalist ideal for those who don&#8217;t succeed:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAt this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,\u201d said the gentleman, taking up a pen, \u201cit is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre there no prisons?\u201d asked Scrooge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlenty of prisons,\u201d said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the Union workhouses?\u201d demanded Scrooge. \u201cAre they still in operation?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are. Still,\u201d returned the gentleman, \u201cI wish I could say they were not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?\u201d said Scrooge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth very busy, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,\u201d said Scrooge. \u201cI\u2019m very glad to hear it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,\u201d returned the gentleman, \u201ca few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing!\u201d Scrooge replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou wish to be anonymous?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish to be left alone,\u201d said Scrooge. \u201cSince you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don\u2019t make merry myself at Christmas and I can\u2019t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned \u2014 they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany can\u2019t go there; and many would rather die.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they would rather die,\u201d said Scrooge, \u201cthey had better do it, and decrease the\u00a0<span class=\"search-everything-highlight-color\">surplus population<\/span>. Besides \u2014 excuse me \u2014 I don\u2019t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you might know it,\u201d observed the gentleman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not my business,\u201d Scrooge returned. \u201cIt\u2019s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people\u2019s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We do have, in the United States, what are properly deemed\u00a0<em>socialist<\/em> institutions. We have Social Security Insurance for the elderly, and Medicare and Medicaid for the poor and aged and disabled. We help poor people heat their homes in the winter. We have public-built roads, and police and fire-fighting forces that have their costs divided up amongst the whole population, not just those who explicitly call on them. We have national (and state, and local) parks, not just private preserves for those who own them. We have regulations about pollution, and about safe food, and proven drugs; about overtime pay and child labor and a five day work week; about requiring lenders to tell you the truth with some degree of clarity when you borrow money. We have tax incentives for public policy ends, some of them to support individuals, some of them to support businesses. We provide support to farmers to help them deal with wide-swinging fortunes in commodity prices and the weather.<\/p>\n<p>Those are all &#8220;socialist&#8221; ideas &#8212; and many of them were attacked as dire deep-red socialism when proposed, threatening the moral fiber of freedom in our country when they were passed.<\/p>\n<p>That said, we are not a <em>socialist<\/em> country, either &#8212; at least not in the state-controlled-economy Stalinist-Communist model, which is what the anti-socialist commentators condemn. Supply and demand largely control the economy. People can start (and end) businesses. People purchase goods and services almost solely from privately owned companies and corporations that are &#8220;public&#8221; only insofar as their stock is sold to the public. People can spend their money pretty much as they prefer, and pass on much of their wealth to their children (or to their cats, or to a charity of their choice).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/capitalism-socialism.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-138361\" title=\"capitalism socialism\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/capitalism-socialism.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/capitalism-socialism.jpg 500w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/capitalism-socialism-150x144.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/capitalism-socialism-300x288.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 85vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are no Democratic candidates who are proposing the sort of Stalinist\/Maoist collectivist state as their ideal &#8212; even the stereotype of Bernie in his wildest dreams.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s not what you hear from Trump and the GOP. From their perspective, the entire Democratic field consists of Levellers and people who want to tax everyone at 100% and allocate money out to everyone on an even basis, regardless of whether they are patriotic &#8220;maker&#8221; entrepreneurs or lazy &#8220;taker&#8221; welfare queens.<\/p>\n<p>One could have a serious discussion about individual policy proposals &#8212; Medicare for All, Tuition-free College, Child Care subsidies for working parents, whatever &#8212; looking at the pros and cons of their goals, the costs and benefits, the risks and rewards. Heck, one could have a\u00a0considered relitigation of those socialist programs and policies already in our society.<\/p>\n<p>But instead, the Right is pivoting Red-baiting mode, coloring any sort of &#8220;socialist&#8221; proposal as hurtling down Perdition Road toward a Venezuela or Cuba or Soviet Union. (If pressed, they&#8217;ll also condemn &#8220;Euro-Socialism&#8221; as a terrible evil, no matter how happy the people of the more socialist states in Europe poll as being.)<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, as I said, we would debate individual proposals and policy points. Apparently Trump has decided &#8212; and the GOP have agreed to follow &#8212; the concept that <em>anything<\/em> done for the common good is some sort of crazed communistic &#8220;socialism,&#8221; and therefore should be painted as a horrifying evil. The goal of the Democratic candidate in 2020 &#8212; and of the party in general &#8212; has to be to note those areas where we already have &#8220;socialism&#8221; in what we as citizens accept as normal and beneficial, and clarify that the discussion should not be about facile philosophical labels, but about specifics as to what people do or don&#8217;t want, and the costs and benefits of pursuing that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Capitalism&#8221; and &#8220;Socialism&#8221; are neither necessarily contradictory, nor are they a binary choice of all-of-one or all-of-another. Making that clear is the best messaging that Democratic politicians could put forward, in opposition to the scaremongering already coming from the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you want to know more?<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2019\/03\/20\/white-house-economic-2020-socialism-1228725\">\u2018High-level fear-mongering\u2019: Trump\u2019s economic team drives \u2018socialism\u2019 attack &#8211; POLITICO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump has decided that fear-mongering about socialism is his path to the White House in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[78,528,77,1142,374,380,376,1071],"tags":[1618,723,1794],"class_list":["post-138354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tweets","category-economic-justice","category-economy","category-elections-2020","category-money-politics","category-nationalism-exceptionalism","category-taxing-spending","category-trump","tag-capitalism","tag-nt","tag-socialism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/capitalism-socialism.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4190,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/01\/21\/realist_or_capi.html","url_meta":{"origin":138354,"position":0},"title":"Realist or Capitalist Stooge?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Jan-03 8:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"That's me, depending on your perspective, according to the The WildMonk War Personality Test. YMMV. (via Blaster's Blog)...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Personality Tests&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Personality Tests","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/personality-tests"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43294,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/28\/america-is-not-immune-to-the-torches-and-pitchforks.html","url_meta":{"origin":138354,"position":1},"title":"America is not immune to the torches and pitchforks","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 28-Jun-14 4:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"People have forgotten (and too few histories teach) about the social unrest in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- fought violently by the police, the Pinkerton, even the army, and largely assuaged only by the social programs (and abrupt poverty redistribution) of the Great Depression,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27489,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/20\/the-free-but-chained-market.html","url_meta":{"origin":138354,"position":2},"title":"The Free (but Chained) Market","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Apr-12 12:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The return of the Gilded Age and cheap, chain-gang labor. It's the American Dream!\"These [private prison] companies can, in most states, lease factories in prisons or prisoners to work on the outside. All told, nearly a million prisoners are now making office furniture, working in call centers, fabricating body armor,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.salon.com%2F2012%2F04%2Fchain_gang-150x150.png","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4195,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/01\/21\/a_passion_for_p.html","url_meta":{"origin":138354,"position":3},"title":"A Passion for Protest","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Jan-03 11:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a lovely NC-17 rated satirical piece of young love at an anti-war protest. As all around them entwined and cheered, forming an orgy of peaceful feelings, Smash and Blaze...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50274,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/04\/on-the-burden-of-taxes-upon-the-wealthy.html","url_meta":{"origin":138354,"position":4},"title":"On the burden of taxes upon the wealthy","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-May-15 5:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"The wealthy and their politico-punditry representatives would have you believe that taxes are unfairly focused just on the wealthiest, in an anti-business, anti-success, anti-capitalist, anti-American socialist-communist plot to let the freeloaders drain the precious bodily fluids of the job-makers.But such numbers usually are focused on tax rates, which, in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28021,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/27\/no-matter-the-truth-obamas-portrayed-as-a-crazy-eyed-marxist.html","url_meta":{"origin":138354,"position":5},"title":"No matter the truth, Obama&#39;s portrayed as a crazy-eyed Marxist","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-May-12 11:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While in reality most positions he espouses are centrist, at least, and he's issued fewer regulations than Dubya at the same point in his administration, Romney, running as the Big Business candidate, continues to claim that Obama is all about job-killing regulations and anti-capitalist socialism.It's either a profoundly cynical Big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138362,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138354\/revisions\/138362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}