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Ärende: socialist conservatives?
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www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.schaller23sep23,0,7915225.column
baltimoresun.com
Saving the wealthy with socialism, conservative-style

Thomas F. Schaller

September 23, 2008

Like it or not, we're all socialists now. You can thank those free-market
conservatives and their deregulatory idol, George W. Bush, for that.

Conservatives love to wield the word socialism like some all-purpose,
liberal-slaying sword. Redistribution to the poor, the right to unionize and
affirmative action are decried as anti-market, unfair advantages for filthy
socialists who can't compete and fail to appreciate the almighty, equalizing
power of self-determination and an unfettered market.

To social conservatives, Darwinism is merely an unproven "theory" about how our
species evolved. But "social Darwinism" is an ineluctable fact: The smart and
hardworking prosper, while the stupid and lazy fail.

Yet notice how those same chest-thumping capitalists of talk radio and at the
corporate-funded think tanks often fall silent in the face of fixed markets,
no-bid contracts, bailouts and subsidies for the very corporations that demand
less government oversight when things are going well, then turn to Washington
when things go horribly wrong.

The hypocrisies abound.

If unionized teachers were given 15 percent annual raises, regardless of
performance, that would be socialist. But when easily repaired military
equipment in Iraq is discarded so no-bid defense contractors can charge the
automatic 15 percent overhead for replacements (watch Iraq for Sale, a
documentary exposing Defense Department contracting), that's the cost of doing
business during wartime.

If Congress proposes legislation to extend leniency to Americans who, because
of unexpected medical expenses or a job recently shipped overseas, go bankrupt,
Republicans fret about governmental dependency. But when Chrysler, insurance
giant AIG or the airlines after 9/11 take Beltway bailouts, executives such as
Lee A. Iacocca are still esteemed as corporate masters of the universe.

If affirmative action provides a minority or female applicant the inside track
for a job or college admission, conservatives lecture us about the power of
competition. But when the pharmaceutical companies and the Bush administration
collude in passing a Medicare Part D prescription drug bill that expressly
prohibits the government from using its competitive buying power to negotiate
the best price for those taxpayer-funded drugs, Fox News cues the video for the
latest Paris Hilton scandal.

Propose a national health care program to cover everyone, or invest a mere $7
billion per year over five years to expand the children's health insurance
program? Sounds like "each according to need" Marxism. But spend several times
that amount to bail out AIG, the nation's largest insurance company? That's,
um, market stabilization.

While we're debunking myths, now is a good time to revisit those free-market,
tax-cutting promises that economic conservatives have been feeding us for
years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average recently dropped to the level it was back in
summer 2001, when Mr. Bush signed the first of his four income-tax cuts. That
means that if you put $5,000 into blue chip stocks seven years ago, and rolled
another $5,000 into sweat socks and hid them under your mattress, your socks
and your stocks would have about the same value today.

And you may have to break those socks out now, because the government's
proposed $700 billion bailout of the mortgage and finance industries will
translate into $4,000 from the pocket of every employed American. (Plus
interest, since the money is all borrowed, and Mr. Bush will soon retire as the
fifth straight Republican president to leave office without submitting a single
balanced budget.)

Meanwhile, rising unemployment means those who are working will continue to
shoulder a larger share of our mounting national debt.

The U.S. economy must generate about 150,000 net new jobs each month just to
employ Americans entering the work force from high school, college or the
military; in a seven-year period, that requires 12.6 million new jobs just to
keep pace. The Bush administration's job creation record these past seven
years: 4.7 million.

Those of us who work hard and pay our taxes are getting screwed. Our Christmas
bonus this year? The privilege of covering the tab for greedy executives in the
deregulated insurance and mortgage industries who scoff at safety nets for you
but demand a safety trapeze for themselves.

As I said, we're all socialists now. Too bad all that filthy, pinko socialist
redistribution is moving up, rather than down, the economic food chain.

Thomas F. Schaller teaches political science at UMBC. His column appears
regularly in The Sun. His e-mail is schaller67@gmail.com.

Copyright + 2008, The Baltimore Sun

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