This column will quote some of “ Workers Deserve More” ,the program of the Democratic Socialists of America . Read their program carefully . It would destroy much of what is good about our country.
The DSA paints a very rosy picture about your future day without capitalism: “ Speaking of bills: you don’t really have them anymore. You have no debt. You don’t need health insurance. You don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right. …”.
Nothing is free. The DSA needs to tell us how many trillions of dollars their program will cost and who is going to pay the bill. The top one percent of income earners already pay about 38% of all federal income taxes. The bottom fifty percent of income earners
pay 3.3 % of federal income taxes . It is the middle class that will need to bear a much heavier tax burden.
Exploiters: “ Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us”. Small Business Administration defines a small business as employing 500 people or fewer. Here is some SBA data:
“ 99.9 percent of businesses are small. Small business in the US employing 62.3 million people, 25.9 percent of private sector workers. Economic activity from small businesses makes up 43.5 percent of GDP.” Are small businesses exploiters ?
Retirement: “Your retirement is publicly funded”
Some of the largest holders of stocks are pension funds. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Pension funds hold about $32 trillion in Financial Assets. That is an increase of $20 trillion since 2003. .Many Americans like having a pension and the stock market has been very successful in funding them. By contrast the government run Social Security Trust fund may be exhausted in the next six years .
Welfare State or completely new society? For the DSA, “ Our vision pushes further than historic social democracy…”. “ We are workers fighting to transform society…draft a new constitution and create a democratic socialist republic…we know that complete victory will require building a new society from the ground up…”
The DSA is not just trying to turn the USA into Sweden. The Social Democracies in Europe , like Sweden, have an expansive welfare state but also have a capitalist economy.
Economy:
“Food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation aren’t for-profit businesses;… “they are common goods and utilities”.
The DSA wants the federal government to own and operate essential sectors of the America economy. Let’s think about some critical aspects of managing companies . How will the selling price of products and services be determined? Would lowering prices for consumers outweigh operating revenue to the socialized company or vice versa ?
In terms of food, let’s take wheat as an example. Will the DSA government control what farmers are paid for their crops, the cost of milling wheat, baking the bread , trucking it to stores and the price the stores can charge?
Working class: John Jones is a plumber . He has invested in starting his own business and employs several other plumbers. The DSA website says “ when we labor for our common good instead of private profit…” . Is John working class because he performs a needed service or an exploitative capitalist because he invested his money, has employees and earns his income from the profit of a privately owned business?
Government : “ For the working class to govern we need a new political system….Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” “…”we are workers fighting to transform society:…draft a new constitution and create a democratic socialist republic.”
I have no problem with abolishing the Electoral College. However American democracy is secured by a separation of powers with three co-equal branches ( executive, legislative, judicial) providing checks and balances . We may not like some decisions made by the Supreme Court but Judicial Review is essential to protect individual and group rights from excessive government power . Under the DSA Program government power would be unchecked. If you think citizens would be protected by the US Constitution, think again. To create “ A real democracy… our country would need a different constitution.”The Supreme Court would not have the power to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional because the Court is “ subordinate to Congress”. Perhaps the DSA will give us the words of their proposed constitution . Building a new society from the ground up requires an enormous amount of centralized power.
Final thoughts: No country in the world is governed like the DSA’s program and our country shouldn’t be either. Instead we should work to improve our country until it reaches the highest ideals of the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.