Only his name is Bernie Sanders. And he’s not at all concerned whether you’ve
been naughty or nice, unless you are a billionaire.
If you’ve not been following Bernie, he’s been drawing
record crowds with a campaign based almost entirely on the most powerful word
in marketing: Free.
Free tuition at all public colleges and universities. Free
comprehensive healthcare for all. Free pre-school
and kindergarten for everyone.
How does he expect to pay for all this? Why by making the
rich pay their “fair share” – in other words by raising taxes on the rich when
they are alive, and again when the rich die and pass on their estates to others.
Bernie’s an old-school class warrior from the way-back
machine. His solution to income inequality is Robin Hood simple: take from the
rich and give to everybody who isn’t. That has a lot of appeal for folks who
want other people to pay for their stuff.
As someone online posted: If you’d like to steal from your
neighbors but don’t have the guts, you’re probably voting for Bernie
Sanders.
Bernie’s running as a Democrat, although he isn’t a Democrat
(he’s a self-proclaimed Socialist), but that doesn’t seem to bother anybody at
the DNC.
Now, in fairness, Bernie has some ideas that make sense.
Right now you only pay the Social Security tax on income up
to $250,000; he wants to remove that cap so all income beyond that is also subject
to the same Social Security tax rate. That seems somewhat reasonable. He also
wants to cut the student loan interest rate to a bit more than 2% from the
current rate of about 4.3%; again, not a terrible idea.
Like a lot of Democrats he wants to spend big on
infrastructure, make-work programs for young people, and education. He’s also
on record for making it easier for unions to organize, and against any laws or
regulations that give individual employees the right to choose not to be a part
of a union, or force unions rather than the employer to collect their
dues. So unions love him. He’s also in favor of raising the minimum
wage to $15 an hour by 2020, so low-wage, low-skill workers in retail, food
service and hospitality love him, too.
He’s Santa Claus.
He’s got something for just about everyone. Except the mean old
rich.
What’s not to like about Bernie? He’s passionate about his beliefs. He’s
sincere. He even looks like a nice old
guy. It’s not surprising he’s getting big crowds, especially among those who
long for the days when the United States finally is more like Europe.
Well, not the REAL Europe, but the one idealized by the
media and Euro-wannabe politicians like John Kerry – you know, the
travel-poster Hallmark-card version. The Disneyworld version. In their Europe there’s cradle-to-grave everything.
Free.
Everybody – rich or poor – takes modern trains or rides bikes
everywhere, appreciates good food, lounges in quaint cafes sipping espresso,
and is happy to share what they have with the less fortunate among them.
Their Europe is like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon: “Where
all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children
are above average.” And just as unrealistic.
The REAL Europe is a bit different from that lofty vision. There’s
massive unemployment. Unions routinely
grind everyday life to a standstill. Productivity is low. Higher education is
free – but only if you pass rigorous tests. Healthcare is free but rationed.
The reason people take trains and ride bikes is because fuel prices are through
the roof, and after taxes so is the price of a car.
The social structure is ossified – there’s little hope of
moving beyond the class you were born into. At the bottom or middle of the
social and economic strata, there’s no reason to work harder than you
absolutely have to; your opportunities for advancement are limited. If you want to make more money, and do, high
taxes on everything you earn or buy will take most of that away.
It’s the European way. It’s how they fund all the other free
stuff.
This must be very appealing to immigrants now flooding
Europe in a headlong rush to jump on that gravy train. They know they don’t have to learn to speak a
new language, become a citizen, or try to assimilate. That’s not part of the
rules for getting on the dole in many countries.
However, faced with this crush, the mythical welcoming
Europe is starting to have second thoughts. Many Europeans worry about being conquered from within by
groups that once there may attempt to substitute their culture and laws for those
of the host country.
It’s already happened in several places. Islamist
immigrants want their own enclaves where Sharia law supersedes local laws. Local
law enforcement authorities have been instructed not to enter those enclaves
unless invited.
What results in a patchwork of feudal fiefdoms where
accepted cultural traditions of some immigrant groups – such as honor killings,
child brides, and sex slavery – happen every day out of view of law
enforcement. And no one in those communities will speak out.
In Great Britain, for example, a group of Pakistanis ran a
sex-trafficking operation of underage sex slaves for years within the
tight-knit Pakistani community. Many in
that community knew all about it but never reported it to local authorities. It
was a cultural thing.
The same reasons folks like Bernie Sanders and Obama envy
European-style governance are the principal reasons why Europe is such a mess
today. Free this, free that, bending over backward to appease everyone, cultural
diversity run amuck – these are a few of their favorite things.
I wonder how many American’s would really like giving up as
much as 50-70% of their income in taxes to remake America into the Europe
envied by progressives here?
In the recent Democrat debates Bernie Sanders said he would
like to see America more like Sweden and Denmark. The income tax rates for both Denmark and
Sweden are about 56%. The highest
income-tax rate in the U.S. is about 39%, with the highest effective tax rate
being about 33%. Big difference.
Funny, that never comes up when Bernie is making sweeping promises
of free stuff.
I guess Santa likes to keep his secrets.
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