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Maybe they don’t know what they believe…

In one breath, they mock anyone who thinks that Bernie is a “classic” socialist. In the next breath they celebrate the (dubious) successes* of the public take-over of industry.

It looks like somebody needs a dictionary.

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What's Up With That, socialism, Bernie Sanders, checklist, So you don't like Democratic Socialism, meme, illustration, response

 


*Examples of “successful” American Socialism. What’s not to love?

Social Security
Insolvent and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Essentially a massive Ponzi scheme.

Medicare / Medicaid
—Insolvent and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. So overburdened with bureaucracy that doctors routinely limit these patients to minimize red tape and maintain profitability.

Prisons
—Over-populated racist hellholes . . . an inevitable result of the government’s ill-conceived failed “war on drugs.”

Police
—Notoriously out of control, over-militarized, brutal civil rights abusers.

Military
—A corrupt and expensive acquisitions process on one end, with the VA on the other — serving as a useful example of some of what can go wrong when government runs healthcare. In the middle, an infamous stonghold of insanity, if useful for politicians seeking to kill lots of people quickly. (SEE CATCH 22)

Public Education
—A widely acknowledged failure, excelling mainly in the production of ill-informed, unskilled, brainwashed dullards.

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What are you so afraid of, people love it, people love socialism, American socialism, success, Bernie Sanders, real socialism, socialism, meme, American Socialism, public ownership, definition, meme, illustration, Jim Gill, Paul Jacob, Common Sense

 

Unintentionally funny examples of clueless “Democratic Socialism”

5 Ways America Is Already Socialist

Socialism. Seems Like a Scary Word…

 

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Common Sense general freedom ideological culture moral hazard national politics & policies tax policy too much government

Weekend with Bernie: Hard Looker?

What is a “democratic socialist”?

According to leading presidential candidate and Senator Bernie Sanders, such a socialist “takes a hard look at countries around the world who [sic] have successful records fighting and implementing programs for the middle class and working families.”

I don’t believe him. He shows his cavalier attitude in his next few words: “When you do that you automatically go to countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden . . .”

Competent comparative economics doesn’t simply focus on a few policies one happens to admire and then trumpet them for America. Other countries following Bernie-branded socialist policies are in or headed into the proverbial toilet, i.e. PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain).

The common-on-the-left meme runs like this: “No Other Advanced Country,” which Kevin D. Williamson handily demolishes in a recent article:

If we are to go around the world cherry-picking policies from happy countries, we might pass over French paid-leave laws in favor of the Swiss capital-gains tax (generally 0.00 percent) or the Swiss national minimum wage (there isn’t one), or Finland’s very liberal (in the good sense of that word) education system, or Sweden’s free-trade regime and its financial-regulatory system. We’d have to make radical improvements on our federal balance sheet to get our public debt down to Norwegian levels.

American success has never really been about copycatting Europe. We need to look hard at those who pretend otherwise — like nova Bernie, the rising star of the left, who’s now besting Hillary in polls in New Hampshire and Iowa.

And about “democratic socialism” — extreme redistributionism in a putative republic — Bernie needs to look hard at the worldwide experience . . . not hardly look.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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Weekend with Bernie Sanders