FT Alphaville (registration) | Socialism with trolly characteristics | FT Alphaville FT Alphaville (registration) You could say you owned that watch, or that refrigerator, or that house, or those shares in that mutual fund, but you wouldn't actually have a claim to any of it. |
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Socialism with trolly characteristics | FT Alphaville - FT Alphaville (registration)
Jeremy Corbyns socialist policies of state control, high spending, class warfare and punitive taxation have been tried in many countries. We know how these policies turn out and it is always the same: badly.
As a starting point, he appointed a Stalinist as a key advisor, ignored warnings about Trot infiltration of the Labour Party and called for the complete rehabilitation of Leon Trotsky himself.
We should all know what hardline Communism produces: the Soviet Union, Maoist China, North Korea or, at best, Cuba or East Germany. Yet Mr. Corbyn thinks that the same policies that produced repeated catastrophes before will produce a socialist nirvana in the UK. While the Bourbons learnt nothing and forgot nothing, the UK Hard Left seems to have learned nothing at all. Consider some of Mr. Corbyns comrades abroad and the damage they have wrought.
Exhibit Number One is Venezuela under Hugo Chavez. Twenty years ago Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world. Now it is one of the poorest. Food is scarce, people are starving and inflation is approaching a thousand per cent. Venezuelan agriculture and industry have been all but destroyed and the countrys oil wealth has been wasted. But to quote Corbyn shortly after Chavez died in 2013: Chavez showed us that there is a different and a better way of doing things ... Its called socialism, its called social justice and its something that Venezuela has made a big step towards.
Sorry, Jeremy, but a system that starves the population it serves is not one that promotes social justice and the only big step made by Venezuela recently is towards breakdown, mass starvation and a looming revolution.
Exhibit Number Two is Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. At independence in 1980, the Tanzanian President, Julius Nyerere told Mugabe You have inherited a jewel; look after it. Instead Mugabe squandered it and shamelessly too. Run by a self-described socialist, Mugabes regime is a kleptomaniac plutocracy that has mismanaged the country to the point of ruin, produced a hyperinflation of almost 80 billion percent a month by 2008 and destroyed what was left of Zimbabwean civil society. One can add to that enormous human rights abuses and a collapse in public health as the government botched attempts to contain AIDS and other epidemics. Yet the Zimbabwean First Family have accumulated enormous wealth under their dictatorship and Mrs. Mugabe is a notorious shopaholic who is reputed to spend millions on each of her shopping trips.
Example Three is former President Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner in Argentina. Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world in the early 20th century. Decades of economic mismanagement have since reduced it to a third world basket case. Ms. Kirchners own policies were a disastrous interventionist cocktail that left the Argentinian economy in yet another major crisis as she left office. She was however one of the first world leaders to congratulate Mr. Corbyn on his election as Labour leader. She described his election as a triumph of hope and a victory for those putting politics at the service of people and the economy at the service of the well-being of all citizens. She is now facing charges of corruption in office.
What do these examples all have in common? They show how to take a prosperous country blessed with abundant resources and reduce it to destitutionand all in the name of the people. In each case, there is also a massive increase in inequality between the very top and the mass of the population below, the key to which is breathtaking corruption made possible by state control. This is how socialism works in practice.
Nor should we forget that hardcore socialism has been tried in the UK too. We had flying pickets, energy cuts and candlelit diners as the Hard Left in the trade union movement took on the ailing Heath government in 1974. The government then calledand losta who runs Britain election and Labour came to office with a Socialist agenda.
The results? Out-of-control unions, a bloated inefficient public sector and an economic crisis requiring an IMF bailout. This crisis was followed by the winter of discontent, unburied bodies and trash piling up in the streets.
Really. We have seen this movie before. Vote for Corbyns Labour and our past will soon become our future.
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Kevin Dowd is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and is the co-editor of the Independent bookMoney and the Nation State.
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Jeremy Corbyn's Hardcore Socialism Would Render Britain Destitute - The Beacon (blog)
The International Examiner | Opinion: Understand what socialism means for some Asian immigrants The International Examiner It's something we see often here in Seattlecandidates and parties embracing socialism, particularly while riding the very valid and important movements in resistance to Trump. But as socialist themes become popular tropes and codes for ultra-liberal ... |
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Opinion: Understand what socialism means for some Asian immigrants - The International Examiner
Sam Brownback has been a Tea Party star since taking office as Kansas governor in 2011. He rolled back anti-discrimination laws and vetoed a bill that would have brought health coverage to 180,000 residents by making his state the 32nd to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
But his signature achievement if one could call it that was to institute a package of drastic tax cuts to produce what he predicted would be a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy. Brownbacks tax consultant, supply-side guru Art Laffer, promised Kansans that the cuts would pay for themselves in supercharged economic growth.
Instead, job growth in Kansas trailed the nation. Month after month, revenue came in even lower than fiscal officials most dire expectations. Instead of turbocharged growth, observes veteran local commentator Yael T. Abouhalkah, the state had to divert billions of dollars in road funding, slice higher ed money, cut social services, reduce support for public pensions and fall behind on previous pledges to improve funding of K-12 schools. Despite that, Brownback squeaked through to reelection in 2014 with a 49.82% plurality.
Now, the dime has finally dropped. The Republican-controlled state Legislature on Tuesday overwhelmingly overrode Brownbacks veto of desperately needed tax increases. The action rolls back much of Brownbacks 2012 tax cuts, producing a $1.2-billion shot of adrenaline for the state budget over two years.
The rare rebuke of Brownbacks policies is being taken in the state as a major reversal in the governors political career and a prelude to his rescue by President Trump. The override represents a blow to the legacy of one of the most unpopular governors in America, wrote Jonathan Shorman and Daniel Salazar of the Wichita Eagle, amid speculation that he may not serve out his remaining time in office but instead take a federal position.
Brownbacks policies were designed to make Kansas a national laboratory of tea party economics. But their dismal effects have been visible for years. By 2015, job growth was lagging its neighbors, the U.S. as a whole and more fiscally responsible states such as California. Job growth had actually slowed since the enactment of Brownbacks tax-cutting package, lagging that of 37 other states, including neighboring Missouri.
A year after the tax cuts were implemented, Brownback touted impressive early results to the Wall Street Journal, citing the formation of a record number of small businesses more than 15,000. But that was deceptive. As was shown by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 16,000 had disappeared. Many of the others cited by Brownback appeared to be created to take advantage of his elimination of all taxes on partnerships, sole proprietorships and LLCs that pass through their tax liabilities to their owners. That scheme allowed everyone from freelancers and petty contractors to huge partnerships to avoid any state income tax at all, as long as they were organized as a certain type of small business.
If that sounds familiar, its because the same idea is part of President Trumps tax proposal. Its an invitation to tax dodging (and perhaps not coincidentally, would be a huge boon to Trumps own businesses and family).
As Brownback anticipated, Kansas has indeed been a lesson for America, just not in the way he hoped.
Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.
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An earlier version of this article misspelled commentator Yael T. Abouhalkah's surname as Abouhalkar.
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Kansas Legislature finally ends Gov. Sam Brownback's destructive tea party tax cuts - Los Angeles Times
On Wednesday, Julie McCarty, head of the formidable Northeast Tarrant Tea Party, offered the killer quote in a New York Times profile of Gov. Greg Abbott, that ran under the headline, Governor Struggles to Lead as Texas Republicans Splinter Into Factions.
Why is he so hands-off? McCarty was quoted as saying of the governor. Is that what his dream was, to become governor of the greatest state in the nation so that he could sit out on everything?
But, with the governors announcement Tuesday that he wascalling the Legislature back for a special session beginning in mid-July that will consider a robust agenda that includes some longstanding tea party priorities, McCarty offered the governor some grudging praise.
If this version of Greg Abbott had shown up during the regular session, perhaps we could have avoided the time and expense of a special, McCarty said by email. I cant say I agree with his entire agenda, but at least hes doing SOMEthing finally.
And since a special tends to work in favor of conservatives, Ive certainly got no objections, McCarty said. Welcome to the 85th, governor.
Even before he called the special session, Abbotts poll numbers with tea party supporters statewide were sky-high. In the February University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, 70 percent of respondents who identified with the tea party strongly approved of Abbotts job performance, and another 18 percent approve somewhat of his job performance.
Those numbers are higher than for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, for whom 47 percent of those who identify with the tea party offer their strong approval, and another 28 percent say they approve somewhat.
But some tea party leaders, like McCarty, have been critical of Abbott for not taking a stronger hand in pressing conservative objectives in the session, preferring Patricks more hard-charging style. Abbott has viewed his proper role during the session as identifying his priorities, and guiding and mediating between the House and Senate, with a more forceful role now as he determines which bills to sign and which to veto, and, as he did in a big way Tuesday, deciding on a special session.
JoAnn Fleming of Tyler, the three-term chairwoman of the Texas Legislatures TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee and a leader of a broad coalition of conservative grassroots activists who had been beating the drum for a special session, said that Abbotts expansive calls includes most all of their priority issues especially property tax reform, bathroom privacy legislation, ballot security and annexation reform with the exception of grid security, though she said Patrick plans a study on that in the interim, and ethics reform involving lobbying.
Fleming said her concern in the special session would be the same as it was in the regular session, that there are those forces in the House beginning with Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, and his leadership team that would try to run out the clock and thwart the governors conservative agenda.
I hope the Legislature will be in session all day, every day to get this done, she said. We dont need to be going in at 2 oclock in the afternoon. They should get started early, get busy and work until the work is done.
And, she said, if they dont get it done in 30 days, the governor should bring them back for as many special sessions as needed to get his whole agenda passed.
Rep. Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said, I applaud Gov. Abbott calling the Legislature back into special session for important conservative priorities such as property tax relief, womens privacy, protecting the unborn, parental choice in education and ensuring our schools are adequately and fairly financed.
Asked if he saw this coming, Rinaldi, who was involved in a brouhaha with some Hispanic Democratic representatives the last day of the regular session, said, I did anticipate a special session in August. I did not anticipate the breadth of the call.
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Abbott earns (grudging) tea party respect for calling special session - Austin American-Statesman