Talk to almost anybody enough and they’ll give a nearly endless list of problems in this country. Nine times out of ten, it’ll come down to an economic issue. It’s not surprising really, economics is one of the least-understood and most important fields of study.
One solution offered to these various ills is straight up socialism – and I’m not using socialism as a perjorative here, Sanders is a self-professed democratic socialist and favors openly socialist policies, inspired by the Nordic system.
The consequences of socialism are apparent and close to home. Venezuela has spiraled into a stupendously ridiculous situation, with grocery shelves empty, toilet paper being rationed by the military and people being reduced to smuggling powdered milk. Critics respond that Venezuela is not a Nordic country, and democratic socialism is different.
Regardless of the wrapper and marketing scheme, socialism is socialism. Contrary to popular belief, Nordic socialism is nothing close to a success. With massive taxes and government spending between 1950 and 1976, the welfare state ballooned. As with all government spending schemes, things looked to be getting better, until Sweden’s growth began to stagnate. Sweden’s growth and apparent stability were bubbles, and it started to crash. For those curious, many wonderful analyses of the situation can be found on Mises.org.
As Henry Hazlitt said in his seminal book “Economics in One Lesson”: “all government expenditures must eventually be paid out of the proceeds of taxation; that to put off the evil day merely increases the problem, and that inflation itself is merely a form, and a particularly vicious form, of taxation.” Hazlitt goes on to explain the destructive nature of taxes, slowing down production, discouraging investment, stagnating innovation and keeping new businesses from forming.
The cost for Bernie’s policies is staggering, nearly doubling the national debt. I can’t fault people for believing that it works, socialism definitely sounds good on paper at first glance.
The one thing that makes a Bernie presidency is the legions of economic illiterates that overnight would become economists well-versed in socialist policy, giving their opinion as to why a certain policy is working, or even worse, explaining why a given policy failed. Unending socialist apologetics is not something I’m looking forward to.
With the Federal Reserve constantly refusing to raise the interest rate, it’s only a matter of time until the dollar starts losing its value in earnest.
Nobody has Federal Reserve policy anywhere on their radar for good reason, voters want to hear about the issues they care about, and economics isn’t called the “dismal science” for nothing.
Call me selfish, but I really wouldn’t be able to stand a Sanders presidency, not only for his policies and economics, but for the masses supporting him, like legions of annoying fans ruining a movie.