Published by El Nuevo Herald on May 1st, 2016
Seems dangerous that apparently mostly young people, be with Bernie Sanders. Did I could say then that America's future is socialism? Not at all. It's just that have been selling merchandise with the name of socialism, essentially for political purposes.
Sanders has a known history as a socialist. In 1963 he belonged to the Socialist Party of America Youth League, a branch of the Socialist Party of America. After three terms as mayor, where it proclaimed it himself as socialist, since 1990 and as an independent, he becomes congressman , in what the Washington Post called "the 1st socialist elected to the US Congress in decades."
In 2015 he joins the Democratic Party and is auto-defined as democratic socialist to aspirate as presidential candidate. His project of democratic socialism, in his words, is comparable to the Scandinavian countries. Let's see: Sweden, Norway and Denmark are not socialist but constitutional monarchies.
▪ Sweden: It is considered the most democratic among 167 countries according to the Democracy Index 2006. Most of its production is manufactured by the private sector and by 2015 was ranked 23rd out of 178 countries in the Index of Economic Freedom.
▪ Norway: The State controls 30% of the companies listed on the stock market, including the oil industry companies. Officially, only 2% of the oil revenue can be used for social works. This automatically ruled the country as a non socialist.
▪ Denmark: Despite being considered the ideal place to live, according to the World Bank, Denmark is among the five most expensive countries in the world with the highest taxes in Europe (46%) and the highest wages in the world according to Union Bank of Switzerland. It also has the best climate in the world for business (Forbes).
Many socialists or communists projects have ended in failure, as the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the discredited Forum of Sao Paulo.
Others have endured over time based on a tyranny that represses its people with a firm hand, like North Korea and Cuba.
XXI century socialism propagated by Hugo Chavez has resulted in an economic and social debacle where the real aim of the rulers has been entrench themselves in power through manipulation of the constitution of their respective countries.
A pathetic case is Venezuela, a country with enormous wealth that is currently suffering from hyperinflation that has plunged into extreme poverty to 75% of the population.
It turns out that the behavior of the socialists is shamefully immoral. They themselves create poverty and social unrest and then justify "good deeds" and say they are benefiting the people.
Bernie Sanders has got the youth promising them that education will be completely free. Does this mean that there will be no private colleges and universities? I doubt it. If his imaginative plan is approved, the state will compensate those entities.
▪ Wanting better salary is not socialism.
▪ Aspiring to affordable health care is not socialism.
▪ Wanting less expensive education is not socialism.
▪ Pretending better income for retirees is not socialism.
▪ Achieve legal status for immigrants is not socialism.
For political reasons these human aspirations have been sold as socialism. Socialism is the absence of private ownership over the factors of production.
The US is democratic in nature and that word "socialism" frightens many. So, Hillary Clinton will be finally nominated by the Democratic Party, which is not a socialist party as so many have wanted to see.
And the running mate as Vice President probably will be the current secretary of housing Julian Castro, who thus settle a formidable duo to face pretensions of Donald Trump.
Benjamin F. DeYurre
Economist and journalist.
Benjamin F. DeYurre Follow on Twitter: @DeYURRE
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