{"id":6676,"date":"2016-02-08T15:09:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T15:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/08\/sanders-socialism-a-paradox\/"},"modified":"2016-02-08T15:09:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T15:09:28","slug":"sanders-socialism-a-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/08\/sanders-socialism-a-paradox\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders’ Unsustainable Socialism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among other things, Bernie Sanders supports free tuition<\/a> at all public colleges and universities, medicare for all<\/a>, and an increase<\/a> in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.  Are such socialist proposals implementable? Are they economically feasible?  A necessary but not sufficient condition of practical implementation would have to be a major curtailment of the influx of illegal immigrants and a serious reform of the system of legal immigration.  And yet when we look at his immigration<\/a> policy, we see that Sanders wants to allow all immigrants, legal or illegal, to purchase health care under the Affordable Care Act; that he supports sanctuary cities, and that he opposes building a physical barrier along the southern border.<\/span><\/p>\n

It's a bit of a paradox:  you cannot combine socialism with porous borders and sanctuary cities.    'Freebies' such as free tuition will attract too many legal and illegal immigrants.  If you want to be 'liberal' with citizens, you cannot also be 'liberal' with non-citizens.  And of course what is free for some will not be free for others, for those who are footing the bill.  There are only so many fat cats, and they will not allow themselves to be fleeced.<\/span><\/p>\n

A second, sharper, form of the paradox.  A welfare state cannot work without strict border control.  Equally, a welfare state cannot work  without large numbers of people willing to work at physically demanding and relatively low-paying jobs such as re-roofing houses in Phoenix in the summer.  Where are these people going to come from?  Presumably from outside:  the existing population, having had their work ethic eroded by welfare state benefits, will not want to work at the demanding jobs.  So a welfare state needs strict and also lax immigration controls.  There is also the problem that an aging population the members of which will most of them live for many years in retirement on supposed 'entitlements'  is not sustainable without plenty of young immigrants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feel the 'Bern' yet?  Feel the tension?  It would be wonderful if turkeys flew around ready-roasted or were delivered by government drones on major holidays.  But who is going to foot the bill? <\/span><\/p>\n

At the other end of the political spectrum, the libertarians are also in a bit of a bind.  "Open the borders!" John Stossel once said.  That would work only on condition that you first dismantle the welfare state.   But the welfare state is here to stay.  The only question is whether we can contain it or roll it back a little.<\/span><\/p>\n

So choose.  You can't have both a robust welfare state that provides 'free' health care, education, and so on while also having a liberal immigration policy.  You will have noticed, if you went to Sanders' site, that he refuses to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.  After all, that would be 'xenophobic' as liberals (mis)use the word.
<\/span><\/p>\n

But the question of Sanders' socialism is moot.  He won't get the Democrat nomination.  Hillary will get the nod.  And no, she will not be indicted, no matter what further evidence of her wrongdoing turns up.  It is really very simple.  Obama will not allow his 'gains' to be overturned or be in any way mitigated by a Republication administration.  The rule of law counts for nothing for those who believe that their ends — noble and worthy in their own eyes — are to be achieved by any means.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it will come down to a contest between Hillary and Rubio, and Hillary will win.  Cruz is a brilliant man and would make a good president, but he is not electable because of his personality.  Rubio is more personable, more of a regular guy.  Trump will flame out.  He is essentially an empty suit riding a short-term populist wave, to mix some metaphors. In any case, there is no way the Republicans would allow his nomination. <\/span><\/p>\n

Those are my predictions.  I hope I'm wrong about Hillary winning.  She is Sanders writ small, a gradualist Sanders if you will, who cunningly hides her true convictions in the manner of the stealth ideologue that Sanders is too honest to be.  I am assuming, perhaps falsely, that Hillary has convictions and is not merely out for personal gain.  It might be better to say that she either has no convictions or leftist convictions. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Anarcho-Tyranny<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Orwellian Illegal Immigration<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Left Has Had All the Best Songs?<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among other things, Bernie Sanders supports free tuition at all public colleges and universities, medicare for all, and an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.  Are such socialist proposals implementable? Are they economically feasible?  A necessary but not sufficient condition of practical implementation would have to be a major curtailment of … Continue reading “Sanders’ Unsustainable Socialism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}