E-Newsletter No. 73 January 2020
The Left continues to be quite masterful in utilizing the English language as one of their means to advance their political agenda. Several examples come readily to mind. The Left’s “progressive” agenda sends a message that they believe their policies and programs will somehow better our society. However, we all know that this is simply part of their attempts to grow an ever-expanding government. And history has shown that as government grows, liberty declines.
The “radical Leftists” want to deceive our country’s citizens by inserting the word “Democratic” in front of the word “Socialism”. They believe that this adjective will somehow change the nature of Socialism (but we all know that it’s still Socialism). They think that if they can trick a simple majority of our country’s citizens into believing that Socialism is a good thing, then they will be able to further their “progressive” agenda. Alexander Fraser Tytler warned us that “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy…” (See below).
The latest example of such “word perversion” is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ attempt to stop our citizens from using the term “Free Stuff”. In a recent town hall meeting in front of her Bronx constituents, she said “I never want to hear the term “Free Stuff” ever again.” Instead, she wants to replace the term “Free Stuff” with the term “Public Goods”. However, there is a very significant difference between these two terms that she is trying to obscure.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a Public Good is defined as “A commodity or service that is provided without profit to all members of a society…” A Public Good has two characteristics. The first characteristic is that when the good is consumed, it doesn’t reduce the amount available for others – i.e., benefiting from a streetlight or a public library doesn’t reduce the amount of light or knowledge that is available to others. The same can be said for national defense, law enforcement, and fire protection, all of which are legitimate roles of government.
The second characteristic is that it must be “non-excludable”. The members of our Editorial Board like to equate this characteristic with the Founders’ original intent behind the “General Welfare” clause (see our November newsletter). Unfortunately, the Democratic Socialists want us to believe that higher education, health insurance, housing (along with utilities, transportation, food, etc.) are Public Goods, i.e., new “Rights” that should be provided by the government (for “free”). Conversely, we believe that these are examples of Personal Responsibilities, and we believe that such goods and services are best provided by the free market, not the public sector.
So, here is the pertinent question – Once the government provides “free” higher education, “free” health care, “free” housing, “free” utilities, transportation, food, etc. where does such a list of Public Goods end? Some members of the radical Left actually go so far as to believe the government should provide a Universal Basic Income, regardless of whether someone wants to work or not. (See the above warning from Alexander Fraser Tytler). As you will note below, this past month, the federal government’s “on-book” debt of $23.1 trillion has now passed an amount that exceeds $70,000 for every man, woman, child, and retiree in the country. We believe this is a textbook example of “loose fiscal policy.”
US Debt Clock – – December 1st – $69,895 per citizen / January 1st – $70,096