Sweden tried democratic socialism in the 1970’s and 80’s. It didn’t work. Economic growth slowed. Since then, Swedish governments have reversed socialist policies. Now Sweden is growing faster than the rest of Europe, Swedes are richer, and the country is ranked more free than the USA.
What has been proposed is nothing less than the destruction of the fossil-fuel-based energy industries which have long been the lifeblood of capitalism. All houses and businesses are to be “upgraded” in terms of their energy use by thousands, or tens of thousands, of government bureaucrats who would presumably go door to door to enforce the state’s energy-use mandates.
By accepting the idea that China’s success is a function of direct government manipulation of investment, banking, currency values, corporate strategies, industry formation and labor markets, the West is essentially endorsing China’s ideological schemes.
Let’s hope government is shut down at least through 2020. This way there’s no growth in government. Congress and the White House both lose, but those of us not in government win, especially the investors and entrepreneurs who can get on with the business of creating prosperity and growth.
Planned inflation, engineered by Central Banks and executed through money printing and credit expansion, is a friend of expansive government and its close-in cronies at the big banks and Wall Street firms. It’s the enemy of the citizen. There are some signs that perpetual inflation may come to an end.
Progress in one area leads to progress in others. Life gets better. Progress is not brought to us by managers striving for efficiency, but by entrepreneurs developing specialist knowledge about their area of expertise and thereby discovering new opportunities to serve customers better and to make a profit doing so
These firms are run as networks or ecosystems, rather than top-down command-and-control models. They tolerate and even encourage significant “organizational messiness.” Values and culture are key features that help maintain consistency and coherence.
The future of innovation lies squarely in the initiatives of the independent, interconnected entrepreneur. As new technologies like A.I. and global idea exchange platforms augment individual capacity, the trend towards individually ideated innovation will accelerate.
The socialist program for the U.S. would make shortages, or otherwise degrade quality, of whatever product or service is put under a public monopoly. The pace of innovation would slow, and living standards generally would be lower. These are the opportunity costs of socialism from a modern American perspective.
In our increasingly socialized farm economy, nearly everyone is too big to fail. Which means the rest of us pay. The Farm Bill has that golden seal of congressional approval: It was “bipartisan.” All that means is both sides found ways to blatantly rip off taxpayers.
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