Here's the transcript of a speech Sanders made last January:
Sanders gave a speech on this in 2015. Now he’s back, calling for a new era of New Deal politics.
www.vox.com
It's long rambling diatribe, with a lot of the usual political bluster up front that takes a while to get through, mostly about the toil and nobility of our lowest earners. Some credit-taking for pay raises to $15/hr and above pay rates at Amazon, which had nothing to do with Bernie and everything to do with attracting more motivated employees, and Amazon's compensation includes benefits. Walmart's pay scales are about 25% lower, but they also include benefits. These companies are hiring hundreds of thousands of workers between them, and you won't get what you need on federal minimum wages and no benefits. But Bernie takes credit for it all, ignoring the obvious reality of a free labor market.
But the claiming credit nonsense aside, one of my favorite paragraphs is:
"Even while macroeconomic numbers like GDP, the stock market and the unemployment rate are strong, millions of middle class and working people struggle to keep their heads above water, while the billionaire class consumes the lion’s share of the wealth that we are collectively creating as a nation."
Excuse me Bernie, are you saying that the nation "collectively" creates the wealth and the billionaire class just consumes it? This is profoundly dumb. Jeff Bezos did not "take" $200B from the American "collective", as it if was a pie waiting to be divided up and he got first in line. The US did not collectively create Amazon. Bezos and his company did. He didn't "take" $200B, he created $1.5T in value. If Bezos didn't do it there were others in the line just waiting for an allocated opportunity, so the Sanders premise goes. I've heard this vile bullshit before, that any success created is more due to environment and the common wisdom than to the individual's contributions. Such drivel.
Then Sanders introduces the notion of "unfettered capitalism". This is code for capitalism not bounded by democratic socialist laws and dictums. Mandatory unions, union representation on the boards of directors, pay limits for leaders enforced by heavy taxes based on a ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay, forced benefits to "societal stakeholders". (Don't laugh, Portland, OR implemented an early version.) I can see it now, Bezos can be paid no more than what 100 warehouse workers make without paying onerous taxes. In fact, that's not capitalism at all, it's state-managed companies. Basically, Sanders wants to dictate to companies how they operate for the benefit of The People. I'd say that's a pretty hefty remake of how capitalism works in the US. So from unfettered capitalism, meaning no Bernie content, to what Bernie wants is a form of capitalism just to benefit his political base. Bernie wants state controlled capitalism, and I don't really know what that is. It's a recipe for disaster, since who in their right mind would invest in it? And of course remember, Bernie doesn't know the difference between revenue and profit:
This morning, Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) tweeted out his support for efforts to unionize the video game
reason.com
He's mixed up these concepts multiple times in multiple speeches. Just the guy you want to drive a reformation of the US economy. Not.
He goes on to talk about drugs that were developed with "taxpayer funded research". Some research is taxpayer funded, though a lot of university research is funded by industry grants. Telling one part of the story without the other is called a lie of omission. Then he switches gears and proceeds to attack Amazon, calling them a monopoly, which the are provably not in *any* of their businesses. But that lie doesn't bother Bernie. He also says they get $100s of millions of dollars of subsidies to place their facilities (true, from state and local governments trying to bribe Amazon and other companies to set up shop in their districts), and wraps it up by saying Amazon doesn't pay any federal income taxes, which *is* true lately. Amazon is legally using a strategy called loss carryforward, which was cooked up by, wait for it, the US Congress. Amazon and thousands and other companies, very big and very small, take advantage of this loophole.
By the end of this turgid diatribe, Bernie finally gets to the real meat of his philosophies:
What I believe is that the American people deserve freedom – true freedom. Freedom is an often used word but it’s time we took a hard look at what that word actually means. Ask yourself: what does it actually mean to be free?
Are you truly free if you are unable to go to a doctor when you are sick, or face financial bankruptcy when you leave the hospital?
Are you truly free if you cannot afford the prescription drug you need to stay alive?
Are you truly free when you spend half of your limited income on housing, and are forced to borrow money from a payday lender at 200% interest rates.
Are you truly free if you are 70 years old and forced to work because you lack a pension or enough money to retire?
Are you truly free if you are unable to go to attend college or a trade school because your family lacks the income?
Are you truly free if you are forced to work 60 or 80 hours a week because you can’t find a job that pays a living wage?
Are you truly free if you are a mother or father with a new born baby but you are forced to go back to work immediately after the birth because you lack paid family leave?
Are you truly free if you are a small business owner or family farmer who is driven out by the monopolistic practices of big business?
Are you truly free if you are a veteran, who put your life on the line to defend this country, and now sleep out on the streets?
To me, the answer to those questions, in the wealthiest nation on earth, is no, you are not free.
While the Bill of Rights protects us from the tyranny of an oppressive government, many in the establishment would like the American people to submit to the tyranny of oligarchs, multinational corporations, Wall Street banks, and billionaires.
It is time for the American people to stand up and fight for their right to freedom, human dignity and security.
This is the core of what my politics is all about.
In 1944, FDR proposed an economic bill of rights but died a year later and was never able to fulfil that vision. Our job, 75 years later, is to complete what Roosevelt started.
That is why today, I am proposing a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights.
A Bill of Rights that establishes once and for all that every American, regardless of his or her income in entitled to:
- The right to a decent job that pays a living wage
- The right to quality health care
- The right to a complete education
- The right to affordable housing
- The right to a clean environment
- The right to a secure retirement
Okay... a few additions to the Bill of Rights, which would make the US one of the deepest welfare states in the world.
These articles are about implementing meritocracy in corporations, while I was discussing meritocracy in the economy as a whole. I agree that many corporate meritocracies, such as implemented by "Stack Ranking" are flawed in my experience, and they were never intended to take racial or gender inequalities into account.
I'm not defending Trump, I was making a value judgement about Sanders.
You are looking at the Canadian economy with far more granularity than I am, like more frames per second, because you live there. As an outsider, seeing far fewer FPS, the changes look greater to me.
