«
»

Bailouts ushering in Not-So-Creeping Socialism

Posted 09 Dec 2008 in bailouts, Barack Obama, economy, George W. Bush, healthcare, socialism, stupidity

I was reading this article on the latest bailout frenzy and something occurred to me. Check out the article and see if the same thing jumps out at you…

U.S. Could Take Stakes in Big 3
WASHINGTON — Congress and the White House inched toward a financial rescue of the Big Three auto makers, negotiating legislation that would give the U.S. government a substantial ownership stake in the industry and a central role in its restructuring.

Under terms of the draft legislation, which continued to evolve Monday evening, the government would receive warrants for stock equivalent to at least 20% of the loans any company receives. The company also would have to agree to limits on executive compensation and dividend payments, much like those contained in the government’s $700 billion rescue of the financial industry.

In the case of General Motors Corp., such a move could give the government a large stake in the company and may hurt existing shareholders. GM is seeking about $10 billion in short-term loans and has a market capitalization of about $3 billion. The legislation didn’t specify what kind of stock the government would take, leaving open the option it could be preferred, common, voting or nonvoting.

Assuming congressional Democrats and the White House come to agreement on the plan, the car industry would be the latest to submit to strict government scrutiny in return for a bailout, joining most prominently the banking sector.

I know I’m not the first to say that these financial and auto bailouts seem to mirror Karl Marx’s call for government to “Own the means of production.” But when I was looking around at what else Marx had to say in The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, I found this description that sounded eerily familiar to many recent newscasts:

“Fascism is a more subtle form of government ownership than socialism. While socialism is a system in which the government owns and controls the means of production, fascism is a system in which government leaves nominal ownership of the means of production in the hands of private individuals but exercises control by means of regulatory legislation and reaps most of the profit by means of heavy taxation. The owners nonetheless bear all of the risks involved in entrepreneurship.”

Back in the 50s, President Eisenhower invoked the phrase “creeping socialism” (first coined by the Republican Thomas Dewey in 1939) when he tried to roll back Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

And now, we’re mulling over nationalized healthcare and allowing the government to control huge portions of our economy. Seems to me we’re putting out our economic fires with gasoline.

One more thing to consider (well, 10 actually)…

The 10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto

    Communist-Manifesto
  1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

  2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

  3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.

  4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

  5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

  6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

  7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

  8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

  9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.

  10. Free education for all children in public schools.
Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

Leave A Comment