BY ALEXANDER G. MARKOVSKY
The road from imperfect capitalism to socialist idealism is soaked with the blood of those who failed to appreciate the fairness of economic equality. Yet the socialist believers will not relinquish ideas that have been disproved repeatedly by historical precedents, and no amount of reality can shake their convictions. For them, acceptance of reality equates to a denial of faith.
It’s always the same — this time it is different; this time socialism is democratic. So, what is this mysterious democratic socialism? How is it different?
For the most of us who are not familiar with the terminology and Marxism, ponder this:
Social democracy is a political ideology that has as its goal the establishment of socialism through the implementation of a policy regime that includes, but is not limited to, high taxation, government regulation of private enterprises, and the establishment of a universal welfare state.
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In 1903 Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) was having the Second Party Congress to adopt the Party platform of transition from capitalism to socialism. The leaders of the Party, Julius Martov and Pavel Axelrod, aimed at a peaceful regime change via democratic process. After gaining power, they would use the authority of government bureaucracy to destroy capitalism by overburdening it with taxation and regulations. A radical faction led by Vladimir Lenin rejected this approach and demanded a revolutionary tactic with the imposition of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Evidently, neither faction had illusions that this unnatural social organization could be implemented on a voluntary basis.
In the end, the Party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks ultimately won, became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and eventually liquidated their comrades in arms in accordance with Marxist comradeship ritual.
Nowadays, the Mensheviks’ concept adopted by American socialists is being promulgated by Bernie Sanders and his disciples as an alternative to Marxism. This Marxist’s Trojan horse is intended to enact socialism by installing the Hugo Chavezes of this world through the democratic process.
Democratic socialism is not a new version of socialism; it is just another method of establishing socialism.
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Regardless of how the socialists come to power and what variants between political flavors of Christian democratic socialism, Soviet-style revolutionary socialism, Democratic socialism or any other kind of socialism are, they are all based on the same blueprint — Karl Marx’s "scientific socialism" — and share the common mantra: “fair and equitable” distribution of wealth. Hence, the differences are superficial. The ultimate goal of socialism is economic equality.
Those who criticize socialism for its failure to create wealth are missing the point. Socialism is not about wealth creation; it is about wealth distribution. In this context, socialism works, it works as it supposed to. Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, etc. are not socialism’s failures; they are actually a fulfillment. We have to be mindful that every ism — communism, socialism, fascism, etc. — has its supporters and benefactors. Those who imagine themselves on the receiving end, have every reason to think they will be better off with socialism.
In1846 French philosopher and socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon criticized Karl Marx’s theories in his book “System of Economical Contradictions: or, The Philosophy of Poverty.” Since then, the generations of true believers have been endlessly stepping on the same rake expecting different results. In this manner, they have been proving time after time that Proudhon was right then and he is right now — socialism, whether democratic or otherwise, is the philosophy of poverty.
One time, as I was riding in an Uber from the airport, the driver began explaining perpetual motion.
Even though we were in a motor vehicle which needed regular infusions of gasoline to keep going, the driver, who was a devotee of ancient Egyptian technology, claimed that the pyramids were really generators, that modern technology had been stolen by the white man, and that free energy was real.
He also had a video of a perpetual motion machine powered by a bicycle chain. “It generates energy by sliding down,” my driver assured me. “And then it gets pulled up by its own weight. It’s real simple.”
I never got around to asking him why he didn’t use the perpetual motion bicycle chain to power his car.
But now, Senator Bernie Sanders has announced his own perpetual motion energy plan.
In Bernie’s new Green New Deal, 20 million new jobs will be created to fight, what the elderly socialist claims is, a “climate crisis”. These jobs will be "good paying, union jobs" in "energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants", not to mention the eternal New Deal fantasy of government work camps under a "a reimagined and expanded Civilian Conservation Corp".
And this perpetual motion plan will pay for itself by, among other things, "collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan."
The bicycle chain slides down. And then gets pulled up. And creates 20 million jobs. It’s real simple.
Bernie’s plan calls for spending a mere $16.3 trillion (also known as most our national debt) and that will create 20 million union jobs in such booming sectors as sealing windows and coding (when the coders have been unionized, all our software will work as well as all other union sectors), and then the income tax from those 20 million jobs will help cover that $16.3 trillion. Presumably with some tax hikes.
But it’s okay. We’ll just pay the workers more so they can afford to pay the higher taxes. It’s real simple.
Much like my Uber driver’s perpetual motion machine, the energy will be free.
First, Bernie will “ban the imports and exports of fossil fuels”. There will also be bans on fracking, coal mining and offshore drilling. And he’ll also “ensure fossil fuels stay in the ground by stopping the permitting and building of new fossil fuel extraction, transportation, and refining infrastructure.”
You wouldn’t want those fossil fuels escaping the ground and sustaining human civilization.
Then, President Bernie will use the SEC to force "financial institutions, universities, insurance corporations" to divest from oil and gas and buy "clean energy bonds". Those “clean energy bonds” will be subsidizing the failed “renewables” strategy that doesn’t work, but will now have been mandated.
Federal pension funds will also be forced to throw away the futures of their workers in the same way.
By 2030, the entire country’s electricity and transportation grid will be powered by “100 percent renewable energy.” Which is to say you’ll spend a lot of time sitting around in the dark.
But the whole thing will pay for itself “through litigation, fees, and taxes” on the fossil fuel industry.
First Bernie will bankrupt the energy industry and then pay for everything by taxing the industry he bankrupted. The bicycle chain goes up and then it goes down. Which part of that don’t you understand?
At least the energy will be free. Or virtually free.
Bernie’s Green New Deal proposal claims that, “after 2035 electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance costs.”
Operators are standing by to take your call.
How will this free energy work?
Simple. "The renewable energy generated by the Green New Deal" will be sold to "cooperatively-owned" utilities that " demonstrate a commitment to the public interest". Ban oil, coal and gas, then force all the financial institutions to subsidize “clean energy” which will be sold to lefty cooperatives.
And they say Communism doesn’t work.
There will be no more “energy greed” because the Green New Deal, whose key pieces of energy infrastructure, windmills and solar panels, are the least reliable ways to produce energy, and only work intermittently when there’s sunlight and wind, will resell its energy to politically correct utilities.
Everything will be subsidized and pay for itself by taxing the oil industry that no longer exists. And forcing everyone to invest their savings and pensions in a boondoggle worthy of Venezuela.
The bicycle chain goes up. The bicycle chain goes down. And you’re really gonna need those bicycles.
As Bernie puts it, "We will move beyond oil toward an electric car." There'll be $2 trillion in grants to buy electric cars. And $681 billion for electric car trade-ins. Then $407 billion to replace all buses with electric buses. And $216 billion to replace trucks with electric trucks. Plus, another $100 billion to “decrease the cost of a new electric vehicle to at most $18,000.”
Actual cars will be eliminated through the, "regulation" and "enforcement" of personal vehicles.
But don't worry about the cost of charging your new electric car, built by unionized "indigenous peoples" and "communities of color", because with charging stations everywhere, "drivers will no longer need to worry about where to charge their car or if they can pay for it."
The electricity is "virtually free".
The entire country, including all its vehicles, and long-haul trucks and school buses, and your car, will be dependent on an energy grid run by political apparatchiks who worked on the Bernie Sanders campaign and whose power supply varies depending on the weather, and are managed in defiance of economics.
What could possibly go wrong?
Better hang on to your bicycle. You’re going to need it once the blackouts, brownouts and restrictions on power usage kick in. After a while that $2 trillion worth of electric cars will be banned through “regulation and enforcement”, while everyone except seniors will be told to ride bicycles.
The bicycles will be powered by that unique form of renewable energy known as human muscle.
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