History and Economy according to Weinstein (Part 3)

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Part 3 is an attempt at anti-utopia: what, Leon imagines, would happen if you vote for Democrats - a very old tactics of fear-mongering.

I truly believe that even McCain, is he reads this (I believe he won’t), might just have a heart attack from laughing. Leon, please have mercy for the old man! I’m not voting for John McCain, but I believe he is an intelligent and knowledgeable man. He doesn’t deserve this crap.

But then the unexpected will begins to happen. The Users didn’t not know that when you take most of the profits from Producers, when you tax their inheritance and their dividends, their capital gains, their large homes and generally punish them for their success, the Producers stop creating new jobs, stop inventing new technologies, stop investing in new bold projects and stop working hard - or in simple words they stop producing wealth that the life of this country depends on, and which all of us enjoy so much.

Until now we have seen exactly the opposite happening. The moment the government started working for “Producers” (read: top earners, corporations, financial sector) instead or representing all American people, there was a steady growing gap between the earnings of the top 1% and middle class, and now the situation is close to that in the 3rd world countries. More people are dropping below official poverty level (now over 30 million total). poverty rate in USA is now higher than in at least 10 developed countries.. The number of people without health insurance is steadily rising. Deregulation of financial services lead to a scary growth of the number of bankruptcies and to recent mortgage crisis. And the top 1% is getting filthy richer!

And that’s what Leon would like to continue, just on even larger scale!

Here he goes again:

The Producers now are not in charge of their money, property and destiny (all that now can be taken away from them by a decision of the democratically elected officials, the majority of whom were representing Users, not Producers), they first slow and then eventually stop producing. To whose benefit should they work so hard? To whose benefits they shall create new companies, invest time and money, risk everything they have in life? To fill someone else’s pockets? Like in countless countries and regimes of the past, the moment people can’t get benefits from their own labor, ingenuity and investments, the economy freezes.

And the society that was proud to call itself a free Capitalistic society would cease to exist. The tyranny of one person of the past would be substituted by the tyranny of a majority, in this case the majority of Users. Freedom would be abolished in order to cater to the needs of the Users. The will of the State once again becoming more important than the life of the individual. And the wealth would begin to diminish. Exactly like it did in all the countries that put great ideas of equality ahead of the freedom of an individual and forgot about one simple thing, the nature of the human being.

Under this new (old) system the owners of the rental houses will stop repairing their properties. They would be unable to justify the expenses. New houses would not be built since prices and profits would be controlled by the state and it wouldn’t be worth investing. New drugs will not be created - the pharmaceutical companies will not be able to cash in on new inventions that usually cost millions to create, test, promote and distribute. Under this system the quality of the health care goes down since doctors receive their pay anyway, regardless of the quality of their service. Universities loose researchers - they are able to get better pay abroad. Research in many companies’ die, since only the companies with an abundance of profits can afford research. The Market eventually crashes (not fluctuates, crashes). Many large companies slid into bankruptcy. And slowly but surely life in the US will begin to resemble life in Mexico, Cuba, North Vietnam and Belarus. Immigration into America stops and the animosity and hate some other countries feel toward the United States diminishes and disappears. And China proudly and rightly will begin to be called the most advanced nation on earth. And only in the history books may be written about this ‘once rich and great country’.

Is there any sense to comment on all this? I’m not a Democrat, but to present this as their platform is either stupid or just plain dishonest. Again, the goal is to induce fear.

An obvious fault with Leon’s reasoning is that there are only two options for him. He wants a pure “laissez-faire” capitalism. At the same time he praises the 200 years of the United States achievements, although there never was any time in American history when pure ‘laissez-faire” capitalism existed. The government since Washington was controlling slavery, tariffs, intervened in monetary policy, founded government banks, created what we now call “corporate welfare”. Later came control over monopolies, anti-trust laws under Teddy Roosevelt, who firmly believed in Government protection for the citizens from the excesses of unregulated capitalism. Social security and other government programs, paid by the taxes, followed under another Roosevelt. So, The States always had and has now what economists call “mixed capitalism”, which greatly added to the success of this society.

Actually Leon’s views are very similar to Herbert Spencer, the creator of the idea of the “survival of the fittest”, later developed into “Social Darwinism” (that, in reality, has no relation to Darwin’s theories).

Spencer believed that unsuccessful people that aren’t able to support themselves should be left without any help - left to die, so the society would get better without them. And if you think that Leon’s views are more humane, think again. All he wrote in this letter tells you that his dream is to get rid of all those “users” altogether. It is very close to class genocide, not by killing, but by just letting them die.

Now comes his desperate call, and although he addresses it to “Dear Senator”, he is definitely smarter than to expect to influence McCain by this outpouring of paranoia, fear of “communist” conspiracy and predictions of apocalypse coming. No, he is addressing it to those who listen to Fox news, Rush Limbaugh and such, he is “preaching to the Choir”, just being afraid that they somehow get a portion of truth and reason and then may vote for Democrats because of that.

Dear Senator, this is what will happened (is already happening) if you do not win this election. I want you to realize that you are not fighting for yourself, but also for all of us, for all the people who cherish freedom and the right of the Individual to pursue happiness the way he wants to pursue it. You once said you would prefer to loose the election, but not loose the war. It was nice to hear, but again it was about you, your election. I want you to realize that now the situation is very different. Now you can’t loose this election. You have no right to the loose it! There is no retreat! There is no compromise! This is our last stand before this gloomy scenario will start unfolding in front of our eyes! The socialism is already playing out in the speeches of Senator Obama, in the ads of moveon.org, in articles by Democratic Party officials, under standing ovations of the tens of thousands of hypnotized listeners. Democratic party that once proudly represented Producers has chosen to represent the Users. This is the class warfare predicted by Lenin, Mao and Marx (an apparent hero of the Far L eft of the United States Democratic Party), and We the Producers have no right to loose it.

The dark shadow of Joseph McCarthy is definitely here. Oh, I’m sorry, it isn’t like a shadow, it is like McCarthy’s soul is now inhabiting Weinstein’s brain. And I’m afraid that the same kind of clinical paranoia that drove McCarthy to ruin the lives of thousands of people that had nothing to do with communism or marxism, is now driving Leon Weinstein.

McCarthyism, didn’t, of course, reach the scope of political prosecutions in dictatorship states (communist or otherwise). American system stopped him eventually, a little late for many affected. But it is important to keep in mind that the main idea was absolutely the same - punishing people for their views.

McCarthy paranoia was amplified by his alcoholism that ruined his liver and caused his death at 49.

Now we have another paranoiac who sees communism and socialism where it doesn’t exist. We all should be grateful that he doesn’t have the power McCarthy had, but, obviously would like to have.

To wrap it all up I would like to paraphrase Counsel for the Army Joseph N. Welch’s words, addressed to Senator McCarty in 1950 hearing.

Have you left no sense of decency, Leon Weinstein?

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