As discussed in my last post, America's economic system of lightly-regulated capitalism has produced a nation of highly-productive people who are cheated out of the benefits of all their hard work. Compared to working people in other leading industrialized countries, Americans are poorly compensated, have poor health care and bleak prospects for security in retirement. They are furthermore victims of irresponsible, rapacious corporations whose unlimited power to lobby and shape government results in environmental disaster and economic catastrophes like the Great Recession.
So what's the alternative? A recent poll shows that four in ten Americans would prefer living in a socialist nation to a capitalist one. "Socialism" means a lot of different things to people. But in the United States, a lot of people are latching on to a set of ideas known as democratic socialism. Or rather, I should say, they are latching on to the term democratic socialism. Even its biggest supporters aren't very precise on what democratic socialism actually is.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is America's best known proponent of democratic socialism. Earlier this month, Sanders sought to distinguish himself from the two dozen or so other candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2020 by giving a speech that would define his principles as a democratic socialist. From Tara Volshan of Vox.com:
"Four months into his second presidential campaign, Sanders took the stage at George Washington University to make his clearest case for democratic socialism." Sanders called, "for an economic bill of rights: for health care, affordable housing, racial equality, a clean environment, and a living wage."
Sanders' speech elicited several different responses from Democrats and other folks on the left. The podcasters of Pod Save America commented that the speech was an enthusiastic defense of all the ideas espoused in Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, particularly FDR's Economic Bill of Rights. That's just fine, Pod Save America pointed out, but the Sanders campaign made clear this was to be a speech about democratic socialism, not the continued relevance of the New Deal, and if there's anybody who should be able to make clear the distinction between those two sets of ideas, you'd think it would be Bernie Sanders. It used to be that Sanders supported the idea of nationalizing major industries, including energy companies, factories and banks. That vision is dramatically different from New Deal liberalism, and one that meets many conventional definitions of socialism. But Sanders no longer advocates for nationalization.
After Bernie Sanders, certainly the best-known proponent of democratic socialism is superstar freshman Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Perhaps she can help un-muddy the waters? In a recent interview with Nisha Stickles and Barbara Corbellini Duarte of Business Insider, the authors reported:
"Ocasio-Cortez has likened her view of democratic socialism to Scandinavian social democracy. The congresswoman's progressive platform consists of a single-payer health care system that covers all forms of health care.
"We're talking about single-payer health care that has already been successful in many different models, from Finland to Canada to the UK," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is still paying off her student loans, also believes in tuition-free public colleges and universities. Her platform includes guaranteeing Americans a living wage that maintains "basic levels of dignity so that no person in America is too poor to live," Ocasio-Cortez said."
But again, public health care, a living wage guarantee and free adult education were all parts of the New Deal. For help on the definition of democratic socialism and what differentiates it from what Presidents FDR and Truman advocated decades ago, let's turn to Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "If we use the standard definition, democratic socialists don’t support capitalism: They want workers to control the means of production. In social democracies, by contrast, the economy continues to operate "on terms that are set by the capitalist class," Maria Svart, national director of the Democratic Socialists of America, told The Times last year. "Our ultimate goal really is for working people to run our society and run our workplaces and our economies." According to Astor, that would put democratic socialism to the left of "social democracy", common to the leading nations of Europe. Social democracy, says Astor, "preserves capitalism, but with stricter regulations and government programs to distribute resources more evenly."
Okay, now we're getting somewhere. So what does it mean in practical terms for people, rather than capitalists, to run our society and workplaces? Heading over to the Democratic Socialists of America web site, I see that:
"Social ownership could take many forms, such as worker-owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives. Democratic socialists favor as much decentralization as possible. While the large concentrations of capital in industries such as energy and steel may necessitate some form of state ownership, many consumer-goods industries might be best run as cooperatives.
Democratic socialists have long rejected the belief that the whole economy should be centrally planned. While we believe that democratic planning can shape major social investments like mass transit, housing, and energy, market mechanisms are needed to determine the demand for many consumer goods."
So if I can summarize: Democratic socialism is in most respects identical to the economic and social guarantees of the New Deal. That is:
* Everyone able to work has access to employment paying a living wage.
* All persons have a right to food, clothing, housing, education, medical care and social security.
* Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies, and price supports for farmers.
* National investment in transportation and energy infrastructure.
* Environmental protection.
The key difference between New Deal liberalism and democratic socialism: The New Deal emphasized unionization enabling workers to collectively bargain with private employers, while democratic socialism promotes employee-owned businesses and employee and consumer-controlled cooperatives.
So I guess your author is a democratic socialist too. I support emolyee-owned businesses, or unions, or pretty much anything that will break the cycle of people working full-time and still living in poverty.
Next time I'll cover the reaction of some folks on the right and on the mainstream left to democratic socialism. Spolier: They don't like it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment