Socialism for the wealthy,Capitalism for the Rest “We renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country, Donald Trump said recently.
Someone should alert him that America is now a hotbed of socialism. But it’s socialism for the wealthy. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism.
In the conservative mind, and socialism means getting something for doing nothing. This pretty much describes General Motors’ receipt of $600 million in federal contracts,plus $500 million in tax breaks, since Trump took office. Some of this corporate welfare has gone into the pockets of GM executives. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra raked in nearly $22 million in total compensation in 2017 alone. But GM employees are subject to harsh capitalism. GM is planning to lay off more than 14000 workers and close three assembly plants and two component factories in North America by the end of 2019.
The nation’s largest banks saved $21 billion last year thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, and some of which went into massive bonuses for bank executives. On the other hand,thousands of lower-level bank employees got a big dose of harsh capitalism. They lost their jobs.
Banks that are too big to fail courtesy of the 2008 bank bailout – bask in a hidden subsidy of some $83 billion a year because they own the backing of the federal government. This hidden subsidy gives Wall Street, giant banks a huge advantage. In 2017, and Wall Street’s bonus pool was $31.4 billion. So,buy away the hidden subsidy, and that bonus pool disappears, and along with most profits. Trump and his appointees at the Federal Reserve are easing bank requirements set aside in place after the bailout. But they will design certain the biggest banks remain too big to fail.
When he was in business,Trump perfected the art of using bankruptcy to shield himself from the consequences of bad decisions– socialism for the wealthy at its worst –while leaving employees twisting in the wind. Now, all over America, and executives who run their companies into the ground are getting gold-plated exit packages while their workers gather pink slips.
Under socialism for the wealthy,you can screw up big time and still reap big rewards. Equifaxs Richard Smith retired in 2017 with an $18 million pension in the wake of a security breach that exposed the personal information of 145 million customers to hackers.
Wells Fargo’s Carrie Tolstedt departed with a $125 million exit package after being in charge of the unit that opened more than 2 million unauthorized customer accounts.
Whatever happened to the notion of a meritocracy – an economic system that allows everyone to gather ahead through tough work, and economic gains disappear only to those who deserve them? Around 60 percent of America’s wealth is now inherited. Many of today’s super-wealthy own never done a day’s work in their lives. Trump’s response has been to expand this divide by cutting the estate tax to apply only to estates valued at over $22 million per couple. Mitch McConnell is now proposing that the estate tax be repealed altogether.
To the conservative mind, or the specter of socialism conjures up a society in which no one is held accountable,and no one has to work for what they receive. Yet, that’s precisely the society Trump and the Republicans are promoting for the wealthy.
Meanwhile, or most Americans are subject to an increasingly harsh and arbitrary capitalism.
They need stronger safety nets,and they deserve a bigger piece of the economic pie. If you want to call this socialism, fine. I call it fair.
Source: robertreich.org