On a recent podcast, I noticed a bit of pro-socialism dishonesty from Scott Adams. I wasn’t really surprised, because he is a government supremacist, after all. And you can’t really have a state without embracing socialism.
Tag: socialism
“Socialism”: The Provocative Equivocation
The socialists are back, but is it a big deal? It’s tempting to say that it’s purely rhetorical. Modern socialists don’t want to emulate the Soviet Union. To them, socialism just means “Sweden,” right? Even if their admiration for Sweden is unjustified, we’ve long known that the Western world contains millions of people who want their countries to be like Sweden. Why should we care if Sweden-fans rebrand themselves as “socialists”?
Donald Trump, Socialist
“Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country,” US president Donald Trump announced in his State of the Union address in February. His base, as he had hoped, cheered him on in setting himself up as foil to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the three months since, though, Trump has doubled down on his own socialist policy proposals.
The Weakest Generation
As it turns out, sharing a downtown loft with a horde of dysfunctional roommates, taking an Uber every time you need to travel, and using Postmates instead of going grocery shopping doesn’t exactly create functioning adults. There is plenty of blame to go around. Helicopter parenting, participation trophies, a lack of real-world experiences and work (whatever happened to summer jobs?), and the systemic failures of higher education have all played their part. Let’s talk a bit about the last one.
The Art and Science of Physical Removal
That said, it is the even smallest potential for “libertarian socialism” that causes me to distance myself somewhat from Hoppe. That one-in-a-thousand leftie who just wants to live peacefully in a commune with his or her buddies down the road – so long as their chosen lifestyle and preferred economic models are kept among themselves and other willing participants who are free to leave at any time – is not and should not be considered a problem.
The Gig Economy is What Yesterday’s Socialists Said They Wanted; Why do Today’s Socialists Hate it?
They don’t want the wage system to go away. They just want to run it. They don’t want the workers to own the means of production. They just want to tax and regulate it. They don’t want a classless society. They just want to be the new ruling class.
The World’s Largest Socialist Economy
Who has the largest military system in the history of the human race? And who has the largest corporate welfare system to support the industrial arm of that military? Who has the largest public schooling program in the world? Could it be China, or India? I don’t know, but let me know if you are aware of real evidence that it is not the USA.
Yes, I Do Have An Enemies List
It’s a powerful thing to name your enemies. By naming them, you can keep always in front of you what you’re up against. So I figure I ought to take a page from Arya Stark’s playbook and start keeping tabs on my list of enemies.
I Win My European Unemployment Bet
In 2009, the U.S. unemployment rate exceeded Europe’s for the first time in decades. Apologists for European labor market regulation rejoiced, so I publicly bet that European unemployment would exceed U.S. unemployment over the next decade. The original authors I targeted turned me down, even after I offered a 1 percentage-point spread. But noted economist John Quiggin took the bait.
McCarthyism, Then and Now
The stale whiff of McCarthyism stole across the venue of the State of the Union address last week. POTUS played the “socialism” card, or rather he just showed the back of the card, allowing no peeks at the face of the card — not of its value, not of its suit. He was deliberately vague and ambiguous.