Bernie – Healthcare, Democratic Capitalism, Main Street Capitalism, Entrepreneurship, and the Kitchen Sink

Recently I was made aware of the red pill movement. It involves young people who are declaring their disconnect from the Alt-Left. They are saying they have taken the red pill, waking up and disconnecting from the machine, which is from the Matrix. I find this very encouraging. I love it when people decide to think for themselves and ignore the system, whether it is the Alt-Left or Alt-Right, to find solutions to the complicated problems we face.

One of those problems is healthcare. Bernie has proposed that all of our citizens go on Medicare. I am on Medicare and with my supplement I have found it to be exceptional. Of course, my supplement is very expensive. Analysts have stated that Bernie’s proposal will cost about $32 trillion over ten years. The federal budget in 2015 was $3.8 trillion. If we buy into an extra $3.2 trillion a year our national budget will be $7 trillion. I don’t think there are enough wealthy people in the United States to cover that amount. Therefore, every one of us will need to pay more taxes. Those who have disposable income will be able to weather the storm, but those that don’t will be adversely affected.

This means that the government will then need to raise minimum wage, create a basic income, which means small businesses will shut down, which means the government will need to make sure people are displaced from their homes, which means the government will buy all of the property, which means the government will provide our health care, wages, homes, thus destroying the initiative we have had in the past. Wait a minute, I think I just described Socialism – or even worse – Communism.

I know this isn’t going to happen, and I know that Bernie knows that his proposal will never be passed, but maybe, just maybe through the debate we can come up with a more reasonable solution to the healthcare fiasco in this country.

This brings me to my thoughts on Capitalism. I am convinced that the Capitalism young people are against is what we would call Cronyism. David Smick calls this Corporate Capitalism. This is a very different expression than what Democratic-Capitalism and what Main Street Capitalism is.

According to Michael Novak Democratic-Capitalism “is not just a system but a way of life. Its ethos includes a special evolution of pluralism; respect for contingency and unintended consequences; a sense of time; and a new distinctive conception of community, the individual, and the family.” In Democratic-Capitalism we see what Locke describes “as a novel and invigorating sense of human vocation.” Because we have the ability to take risk and receive reward and to own the means of production, we can experience initiative and growth.

What Novak describes is similar to what Smick calls Main Street Capitalism. In his book “The Great Equalizer” Smick states, “Americans feel besieged precisely because in recent decades, a Corporate Capitalism of top-down mismanagement and backroom deal-making has smothered their innovative spirit. Government and central bank policy now favors the big, the corporate, and the status quo at the expense of the small, the young, the new, the inventive, and the entrepreneurial. . . In response I envision a vibrant Main Street Capitalism of mass small business start ups and bottom-up innovation, all unfolding on a level playing field. Main Street Capitalism is the Great Equalizer.” Hmm, I like this.

In the first scenario we see large government stifling innovation and growth. In the second large Corporate Business environment is stifling growth. In either case we see socialism and capitalism leading to the same end “secular stagnation.

Therefore, the answer is better opportunities for entrepreneurs to thrive. According to Smick from 1952 – 2000 “the US economy grew at an impressive annual rate of 3.5%.” Not bad, but during the Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton years growth was over 4%. This was due to their ability to work in a bipartisan way. This is what we need today. We need the support the opportunity for small businesses to thrive. If we do that, maybe we can get away from 1.4% economic growth which is losing ground.

The last element of this blog offering today is the kitchen sink. By the way, that was a joke.

And that is my thought for the day!