‘Crazy Bernie’ is at it again - Vilas County News-Review
ABOUT ▼
ADVERTISE
CONTACT
SUBMISSIONS ▼
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
NEWS TIPS
PHOTO SUBMISSIONS
ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENT
ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT
WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT
OBITUARY POLICY
PHOTO GALLERY
LOGIN-OUT
Search only accepts letters and numbers.
HOME
NEWS ▼
Coronavirus Coverage
Local
National
CDC Microsite
LIFESTYLE ▼
Not that you asked, but . . .
Conover-Land O' Lakes
Phelps
Sayner-St. Germain
Three Lakes
Community Calendar
OUTDOORS ▼
Fishing with the Guides
In the Outdoors
SPORTS ▼
Sports Sidelines
OPINION ▼
Will Maines
Byron McNutt
Cal Thomas
Robert Koehler
Robert Reich
PUBLIC RECORDS ▼
Births
Engagements
Obituaries
Weddings
CLASSIFIEDS ▼
News-Review Classifieds
North Woods Trader Classifieds
SUBSCRIBE
‘Crazy Bernie’ is at it again
By Cal Thomas
5/1/2018 11:51 AM
select
Delicious
Blogger
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Tumblr
ShareOnYammer
Pinterest
GoogleBookmarks
ShareOnGooglePlus
Tell a friend
THERE HE GOES. Despite the lowest unemployment rate in 17 years, including declining rates for minorities, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), affectionately called “crazy Bernie” by some conservative talk show hosts, is flirting with the idea that the federal government should guarantee every American a job, paying a minimum of $15 an hour and health care benefits.
The Washington Post reports the plan would “fund hundreds of projects throughout the United States aimed at addressing priorities such as infrastructure, health care, the environment, education and other goals. Every American would be entitled to a job under one of these projects or receive job training to be able to do so, according to an early draft of the proposal.”
The 1972 presidential nominee, Sen. George McGovern (D-South Dakota), ran on a similar platform and lost 49 states. Go, Sanders, go!
Are we not already spending plenty on these priorities? Just on education record spending hasn’t helped improve the knowledge of students. They still lag behind students in other countries when it comes to science, math and, apparently, even English, as the overuse of the words “like” and “you know” have dumbed down our common language.
What is it about socialism that remains so attractive to many liberals? In most communist countries, it is a form of mutually shared poverty. At a minimum, it starves incentive.
A thriving economy is the best guarantee of a job. The American economy is now thriving, expanding at an annual rate of 2.9%, which many economists said just a few years ago was impossible to expect. According to tradingeconomics.com, the “unemployment rate is expected to be 4% by the end of this quarter.” It is now 4.1%. Going forward it said “We estimate the unemployment rate in the United States to stand at 3.80 in 12 months.”
The goal of Sanders and others in the guaranteed-income crowd, according to Darrick Hamilton, an economist at the New School in New York and Stephanie Kahn of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y., who are quoted by The Washington Post, is to eliminate working poverty and involuntary unemployment altogether.
Wait, hasn’t that already been tried? The Great Society programs launched more than 50 years ago by President Lyndon Johnson had similar goals. They have so far cost a collective $22 trillion. While those programs include Medicare and Medicaid, which are long overdue for reform, the poverty rate in America is roughly the same as it was in the mid-1960s.
According to the Library of Economics and Liberty “The United States produces more per capita than any other industrialized country and in recent years, governments at various levels have spent about $350 billion per year or about 3.5% of gross domestic product on programs serving low-income families. Despite this, measured poverty is more prevalent in the United States than in most of the rest of the industrialized world.”
If government spending is the solution, wouldn’t the problem of poverty and the dwindling number of unemployed be solved by now? How will more spending, and the inevitable higher taxes and increased debt, improve their lot?
Sanders’ proposal is as likely to win approval as McGovern’s failed to do in 1972. But it taps into a growing feeling particularly among many young Americans for whom feelings, not results, are ultimately what liberalism relies on. Many liberals feel corporations are evil, that some people are paid too much, income inequality is something that should be addressed by government and, because some people make more money than others, America is an unfair nation.
This worldview appears to be increasingly taught in public schools and at the higher level by tenured college professors. This worldview did not build America and if it ever takes over, it will never sustain us. Consider where it has been tried.
Submit A Comment
Please fill out the form below to submit a comment.
We welcome your comments at vcnewsreview.com. Comments will be limited to 5,000 characters. Persons commenting must provide their full name and email address. Anonymous comments will not be posted. Comments should remain on the topic set by the original article. Personal attacks, profanity, slander, libelous statements and texting language will not be allowed. All comments will be reviewed prior to posting. Comments will only be posted during regular business hours. Phone numbers are optional and will not be publicized.
*
indicates a required field
Comment
*
Your Name
Email
Phone
A comment must be approved by our staff before it will be displayed on the website.
Submit
X
Download Our App!
Get notified on Breaking News!
SITE LINKS
AFFILIATES
AFFILIATES (CONT.)
USEFUL INFO
News
Lifestyle
Outdoors
Sports
Opinion
Public Records
Classifieds
Subscribe
More Lifestyles
The Ada Herald
Dearborn County Register
Delphos Herald
Eagle Print
The Harrison Press
Iron County Reporter
The Journal Press
Monroe County Beacon
Ohio County News
Paulding Progress
Putnam County Sentinel
Rising Sun Recorder
Star Gazette
The Times Bulletin
Waushara Argus
Forms and Flyers
Mechanical Information
Media Kit
Rate Card
Preprint Distribution Rate Card
Letters/Comments Policy
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
##LOC[Cancel]##