Socialism Is For Rich People
It is clear that we will have to revise our economic systems somehow. Issues such as healthcare, education, stagnated wages, poverty, all of which have caused people unprecedented amounts of debt, are often highlighted as areas where this sort of revision should start. Many people have given up and felt betrayed by the economic systems we have in place. Despite this, the solutions proposed are often discredited, perhaps unfairly, as being some evil brand of Authoritarian Left-Wing economics. Ideas such as increasing wages so that people can afford to live or that healthcare should be provided to all are often scoffed at as being ”Socialism”. Yet it is perhaps the misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the term that is at the heart of our economic woes. Understanding the meaning of what a “Socialist” policy really is can reveal some rather uncomfortable hypocrisies that underline the Capitalistic system, especially when we turn our eyes towards corporations and the billionaires of this country. It is clear that our economy has turned its back on the average American and has left a large amount of us searching for something better.
A society in which the most vulnerable is exploited always has a chance to fall. History has shown us that when a certain group gains too much leverage over another the society is doomed to fail. With the cost of living increasing, wages stagnating, and yet profits are at unprecedented levels, it seems that we are taking a similar path here in the United States. What has happened is the blind eye we have towards unregulated economic measures that have allowed a select few to not only maintain wealth but leverage that wealth to affect policies for the rest of us. I am talking about lobbying groups funded by billionaires that pay politicians to support special interests, tax cuts that allow for a select few to centralize wealth and redistribute it to a select few in a way that otherwise would be deemed to be Socialistic in nature, at least that is how we should learn to look at it.
One of the most glaring issues for misrepresenting Socialist policies is that it ignores the benefits we gain from them, not just individually, but collectively as a society. Many people may not realize this, but things such as the police, fire departments, the military, public schools, the post office, etc. are all Socialist policies by default. All of these respective institutions are funded by taxes collected from the population. These taxes are then redistributed to the benefit of all by funding these institutions that have a very observable benefit to us all. So, while Conservatives may be proud of their military, it is ironically one of the most glaring examples of Socialistic ideas that we have in this country. After all, we collectively fund the military through our taxes the same way we would collectively fund any endeavor such as education or healthcare. Despite this, the blind defending of Capitalism often ignores the hypocrisy that lies in having a select group of people amasses and keep so much wealth while there are people working two jobs and barely surviving.
This hypocrisy in praising unregulated Capitalism and degrading any attempt to control the current income inequality as Socialism is often not really thought about, yet it is apparent in how the richest group of Americans not only amass their wealth but maintain it as well. Like I said before, anytime taxes are collected and redistributed it can be very easily argued that it is Socialist in nature, at the very least it strays from the traditional ideas of Capitalism where wealth is privately owned and gained depending on various factors. Think about the tax cuts that conservative policies often propose for the very rich. Think about the bailouts that happened during the economic crisis of 2008, and how all these banking corporations were essentially paid off by the federal government with the use of OUR taxes. It seems rather odd that this redistribution of the average hard working American’s money was used for the top one percent to allow their wealth to be stabilized while millions were left to suffer the worst economic crisis since The Great Depression.
This sort of discrepancy between what we ideally want Capitalism to be and the cliché degrading of any sort of stabilization of it as Socialism is at the heart of the economic conflicts we see today. As I see it, in today’s society Socialism is for rich people, Capitalism is for poor people. It is obvious that the rich do not play by the same rules as the average person. In many ways, they have a lot of social safety nets that ensure the continuation of astronomical amounts of income. They get tax cuts and often have the financial means as a result of this to offshore their profits into accounts to avoid paying any taxes at all. Yet it is this divide between the socialistic nature of corporate bailouts, tax money being quintessentially redistributed to the rich, the increasing gap between the average person and the astronomical amount of profits being gained by corporations that are at the center of the issues the average person has in today’s world.
In order to mend this problem, it is clear that the priorities of society need to be reexamined and redirected to things that truly do matter.Technological innovations, Healthcare, Education, Environmental Conservation, Criminal Justice reform, all of these are noble and worthwhile causes. The problem lies in this sort of cognitive dissonance we have when praising Capitalism and dismissing any sort of attempt to stabilize this system as being Socialism. It lies in deeming tax cuts for rich people as necessary but the funding of programs that better the other 99% as “too expensive”. It is not about having an economic system where unregulated corporations can run amok nor is it about trying to create a society where everyone has the same exact economic situation, it is about making sure the most vulnerable among us are looked after because that is what a civilized society truly is and how one should be judged. After all, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If we are to mend the issues we have economically it is imperative that we reexamine what we want Capitalism to be like, and recognize that Socialist policies have to be for all and not just the people who can buy their way into it.
Sources: https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2013/09/07/crash-course
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/business/dealbook/tax-bill-wealthy.html
