Bernie Sanders is a 78 year old man who has a lot of nice things and thinks that everybody should be able to enjoy some security and stability throughout their lives and yes, accumulate nice things.
If everybody with his means felt that way, what a world we would have to share.
If everybody with his means felt that way, what a world we would have to share.
If Bernie Sanders liquidated his wealth and distributed it personally, he would lose his security and stability and yes, some lives would be changed, but either not many lives or not for very long.
He seeks structural changes that will let us all enjoy nice things.
He seeks structural changes that will let us all enjoy nice things.
The right has got most of us convinced that any flavor of Socialism = Communism = Stalinism but he's not actually proposing anything that radical.
Honestly, the free market that most of us think of as capitalism will function better with more money circulating more freely.
Honestly, the free market that most of us think of as capitalism will function better with more money circulating more freely.
What if everybody who made it to that stage of their life had no worries about the necessities and the means and leisure to enjoy their life? That's part of the nigh-mythical social contract of retirement. The American Dream.
What Warren and Sanders want for the country is broadly for the American Dream to work the way it was supposed to and never really has, except for the very lucky, the very privileged, and the very few.
The conflation of billions with millions and the fearmongering around "wealth redistribution" that has people thinking if we fix the social safety net then it's grey coveralls and breadlines and Big Brother has us running from policies that, in polling, we statistically WANT.
Sometimes I'm hustling to stay alive and sometimes I'm hustling to get more of what I want out of life. If we had a system where I didn't have to worry about what I need, I wouldn't necessarily be working less hard. But my work would be impacted less by stress and worry
We lose so much of our lives -- and Industry loses so much of our all-fired productivity -- to the stress of having to kick our legs just to stay above water, the work of figuring out healthcare and childcare. Even people who don't have a second or third job are doing extra work.
Conservatism wants us to go back to "traditional" single-income households but doesn't want businesses to pay living wages. How's that supposed to work?
We ask how to pay for medicare for all but we can't pay for for-profit healthcare right now. We can't. We're in freefall.
We ask how to pay for medicare for all but we can't pay for for-profit healthcare right now. We can't. We're in freefall.
Becoming more of a social democracy wouldn't kill business, it wouldn't stop you from owning a house... I mean, most of us can't afford one right now. We're waiting for medical care right now. We're scrabbling for shelter right now.
Why are we afraid of breadlines when kids are having school lunches thrown in the trash in front of their faces because even when the money is there in the community to pay for it, capitalist ideology demands they pay for it personally?
"Bernie Sanders doesn't think people should hoard billions and yet he has plural million bucks multiple houses." doesn't reveal that he's a hypocrite. It reveals that we don't need a ridiculous unreachable dream of hyperwealth to live the good life.
Google how many families are food insecure. Look at how much our "breadbasket" is propped up by government (public) spending. At how catastrophic climate change is already affecting our food supply.
Bernie got torn to shreds for essentially saying that if people are hungry, a line they can stand in and get food is a good thing. What if we need those lines and we don't have them? What if there's a way to stave off the need by acting before we reach that crisis point?
No Democratic candidate is proposing a centrally planned economy where the government ceases the means of production in the supposed name of the people, which is the scenario that is used for the fearmongering.
Just democracy and a free market, w/ regulations and social features
Just democracy and a free market, w/ regulations and social features
And look at the alternative: empty houses that no one who wants them can afford, businesses that need labor to keep growing but no affordable housing, children growing up into adults who have never known stability or security... and adults who can never afford to retire.
Capitalism as it's practiced in the US is headed for a cliff, past which revolution or extinction are the only possibilities.
Social democracy would keep the market economy viable for far longer than the alternative.
Social democracy would keep the market economy viable for far longer than the alternative.
Nothing in Sanders or Warren's vision would prevent you from earning the benefits of hard work. If anything, they would make the process of doing so more equitable, so that you don't also have to be super lucky.
Right now most of the people who "worked hard and made something for themselves" had support in the form of capital infusions from their parents or a very rare opportunity. Or they had someone to pay the bills while they worked night and day at low wages to build a career.
Having your basic needs met and having insulation from the financial shock of unexpected expenses (broken fridge, medical crisis, etc.) are the firm foundation for "making something of yourself".
What could you do with your life, if you had that?
What could you do with your life, if you had that?
What would your job be if keeping your health insurance didn't require you to stay in one place and keep your employer happy? What could you try to build for yourself if you knew that you'd be basically okay if it didn't work out?
For that matter, what would you *buy* in that situation? How much more of a good little consumer would you be if you weren't living paycheck to paycheck, paying money you don't have to put out fires because you can't afford to build a life that is fireproof?
Capitalism as it is practiced is keeping us all in a state of terrible insecurity and then wondering why consumer confidence isn't higher.
It's unsalvageable.
It's unsalvageable.
TL;DR - we are ~*The Wealthiest Nation In History*~ and we would be richer, not poorer, if that prosperity were more widely shared. It doesn't mean doing away with opportunity. It doesn't mean doing away with private wealth and personal property, or having a centralized economy.
Don't look at Bernie's pretty nice life and think, "And he wants to deny the rest of us all that!" We don't all have that for him to take it away. We're told we all have the opportunity to get it, but it's mostly an illusion.
He wants it to be real. Make the promise a real thing
He wants it to be real. Make the promise a real thing
