A story: While advocating for a higher minimum wage in 2014, I was interviewed by some corporate-minded CNBC host. During the pre-interview, their argument against a raise was: “didn’t we win the Cold War?” <1/10>
I asked: “What do you mean?” They responded: “Didn’t we show that these things don’t work by having our system beat the Soviet Union?” <2/10>
Me: “The Cold War showed minimum wage laws don’t work?” Host: “Yes, they were communist and we were capitalist and we won.” <3/10>
I then asked: “What system are you referring to that won?” Host: “Well, the American economy in the 20th century.” <4/10>
I then had to share that the American economy that, in this model, won the Cold War, was an economy that had minimum wage laws, strong unions, and government-backed economic security... <5/10>
...and that if we are using the economy that “won” the Cold War as a model for economic direction, we should restore all those economic security programs and policies that have been shredded by radical market fundamentalists over the past decades. <6/10>
The host had never heard that framing before. But I share this all not as a war story, but rather just as an example of how much internal propaganda there has been to frame all-American economic security and democracy programs as “foreign” and “communist.” <7/10>
Most of the things that we still like or once liked about the American economy are there result of economic democracy: the push for more economic power to more people in more ways; decentralized initiative mixed w/ large public projects; labor power and local business. <8/10>
And most of the things we hate about our economy resemble the worst of communism: unaccountable concentrated power; (privatized) central planning (by mega-corporations); the lack of funding for decentralized initiative; using prisons to paper over for societal failure. <9/10>
Let’s not give in to this propaganda. Economic democracy — labor power, economic security, infrastructure, community voice, public projects, public support for entrepreneurship — is not some communist plot; it has been, and will be, key to a vibrant American economy! <10/10>
