Is Obama a Socialist?

It started in the 2008 election, and has persisted even today. Four years later, we’re still hearing right wingers angrily denouncing Obama as an “America hating socialist”, and one who wants to see this country fail and on and on. Very seldom do we ever hear anyone address this seriously, or even hardly at all. So for the fun (and education of it) let’s examine closely what being a socialist means, and if Obama meets that definition.

Socialism: What is it?

It would seem that many people in the US are a bit ignorant of what the word socialism means. Let’s consult a dictionary first:
From Merriam-Websters:

so·cial·ism noun \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\
Definition of SOCIALISM

1
: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2
a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3
: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

What does this mean?

OK, so basically, socialism means collective or government control of the means of production. There are different ideologies and parties that claim to be varying forms of socialism. You have Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats (not really socialists, but for the sake of argument we’ll group them in here) among others, like libertarian socialists, also known as anarchists. Do Obama’s policies have any links to these political ideologies at all?

What Obama has done while in office has been nothing short of capitalist in nature. From a slew of FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) to drones attacking people in Pakistan with more stealth and precision than George W. Bush, Obama has proven himself time and again to be on the capitalist side of the fight. He talks about building jobs, but continues the 10 year old tax cut for the wealthy that Bush began. He has mostly kept the military at it’s current level, with only minimal cutbacks. He has instituted a weak health care reform plan that will probably be knocked down and out by the Republicans. In fact, the health care reform law was very capitalist in nature from the start. It is in effect a huge kickback to insurance companies by making everyone buy PRIVATE insurance.

He has hired people for his administration at top levels that come directly from firms like Goldman Sachs, he has maintained the embargo against Cuba. He has caved in almost every instance to the Republicans, even when he had the political power to accomplish something good. He has allowed cuts in education, in social programs and has maintained basically a majority of Bush policies in almost every regard.

He has not overseen the nationalization of industry. While he did bail out the car companies, banks and insurance firms, these were merely hundreds of billions in injected capital, not an actual government takeover. Certainly none of those helped the common people in a real or lasting way, but sure did make some good money for his friends at the top of those companies.

In short, Obama has been, and continues to be a very conservative president. He advocates capitalism, is hardly even an advocate of Keynesian Economics and is just as war mongering as his predecessor.

Let’s lay this to rest. Socialists such as myself are sick of hearing how socialist Obama supposedly is. The facts tell us that he is not a socialist, not on the side of the working class, and not worthy of our support. The Communist Party USA may support him, but only because they’re defeatists who think that since the GOP is worse they have no obligation to fight for anything better than the status quo. Reject this argument, Obama is not a socialist, nor should anyone consider him one. We fight for a radically different America where common citizens get bailouts, not giant cash hungry corporations. We fight for a future where education and health care are considered human rights, not merely a bottom line for a corporation. We fight for food, housing and clothing for every singe person within our borders. We fight for a future free from war and imperialism. Obama stands for NONE of that. Reject both capitalist imperialist parties, and vote for a real socialist in 2012.

Peta Lindsay 2012! http://www.votepsl.org

Austrian Economics and Science

There are quite a few economic schools of thoughts out there. Some may like the Keynesian economic model, others want the “free market” Chicago model others, Marxist, Anarchist,  and on and on. There is one particular economic school of thought that stands apart from the others, and not in a good way. I’m talking about Austrian Economics.

What is Austrian Economics?

To begin, let’s look at what Austrian Economics is. Austrian economics is a heterodox school of economic thought based on an idea called “Praxeology”, methodological individualism. Or more simply put, it is an economic theory that is outside the scope of accepted economic theories, and bases its approach on an idealist philosophical approach that rejects statistics, math, and science in favor of postulations of economic theory based on “logical” conclusions. They claim that statistics cannot completely or accurately asses the economic world, and so they decide that using “logic” to understand the basic motivations of humans is the way to understand economics. There is a reason this approach is rejected by the majority of self-respecting economists. It’s complete and utter bullshit.

Why Austrian Economics is Garbage

First let’s hear what one of the founders of the economic thought said, and we’ll dissect it.

“Human action is purposeful behavior. Or we may say: Action is will put into operation and transformed into an agency, is aiming at ends and goals, is the ego’s meaningful response to stimuli and to the conditions of its environment, is a person’s conscious adjustment to the state of the universe that determines his life. Such paraphrases may clarify the definition given and prevent possible misinterpretations. But the definition itself is adequate and does not need complement of commentary.”

The above statement was made by Ludwig Von Mises to explain the idea of “Praxeology”, which underlies the philosophical roots of this economic worldview. What does the above platitude suggest? And what are its implications? First it states that the only thing that matters is the individual. What does the individual want, what does the individual work for? He wants whatever he wants, he wants to achieve his personal goals.  In a word, the ideology of the Austrian School of economics is individualism. The idea that everything revolves around the individual’s specific desires. They postulate that this means one cannot assess society as a whole, because of the overwhelming complexity and variation of human action. They say that because the actions of human beings cannot be understood or characterized, it is useless to use such things as science, math or statistics in assessing economical behavior. This idea is absurd. We can, and do scientifically assess human behavior. It’s as if the people who came up with this economic school of thought (loose usage of the word thought there, I know)  had never heard of the sciences of psychology, anthropology, sociology or the common practice of common sense. They throw out statistical measuring and analysis of economics because it does not support their selfish infantile worldview.

Human society is not about individuals pursuing “rational self interest”. It never has been. Homo Sapiens Sapiens are social animals. We thrive off of human touch, that connection that keeps us happy and sane. Isolated people are not happy people, and they are not healthy people. There is a reason why solitary confinement is such a harsh punishment. The human craves interaction with other members of his or her species. This has been demonstrated, time and time again. I dare them to prove differently to me.

Economics is not about the individual. It never has been. If economics was entirely about the individual, we’d not barter or trade (that takes more than one person) and we would just build and produce for ourselves. We would hoard hoard hoard, fighting to keep others away from our personal territory like a lone wolf in the forest. We don’t behave like that. The reason we have such an interconnected world is that humans cooperate. We’ve worked together throughout history. We need that social work, because without it we are nothing. Without cooperation we would not have economy, we would not have society, we would not have humanity. As Ernest Hemingway said; “No man is an island.” That goes doubly well for economics. Economics is not the result of many people all trying to screw the other guy, and should not be. It is utterly illogical to think that economics is about the individual, when its very definition describes it as the allocation and distribution of scarce resources. It’s not about get all you can, it’s about organizing our resources effectively.

We have to see society, politics and economics as interconnected, because they are. You can’t look at a cell in the human body and decide that because that cell is healthy the whole person must be as well. You have to understand the body in its entirety, and how it all works together. In the same way, economics and politics go hand in hand. You cannot understand one without understanding the other. Human society is organized around the solving the problems we face, and we do it together. We didn’t get to the moon through competition, or cutthroat individualism. We got there through government, the manifestation of what human cooperation can be. Nothing that was ever accomplished was accomplished by one person in a vacuum. It takes a village. Most of the world’s cultures are in fact collectivist, not individualist.

Science Spurned

Austrian economics spurns science, math and statistics. It states that you cannot assess economy with those means. Why not? Human behavior can be understood, and we are continually learning more about why people act the way they do. Mises spoke loftily of “agency” and will, but seemed to completely gloss over what those things mean. We know that Mises is wrong, that we can in fact understand human action. All we need to do is take a quick look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. What, you may ask, is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Glad you asked.

Maslow was a psychologist who devised a theory of human motivation. What makes people tick, at the very base and simplistic of levels? He organized the motivations, the needs that is, into a pyramid. We must have certain needs met before we can meet other needs. Here it is:

We look at this chart from the bottom up. First we have to address the problems that lie at the base of the pyramid. Before we can acieve anything else at all, we must have air, food, water, sleep, excretion and homeostasis and sexuality. This lower level doesn’t really change, no matter what culture you’re in. You can only last about a month without food, only 3 days without water, and when it comes to air, just minutes. Once our physiological needs have been met, then we can begin to move up the pyramid. We next need security. Body, health, etc. And the pyramid keeps going up. Notice where it says that we need income inequality, the need to feel superior to everyone else. Oh, sorry, that’s not on here.

Yes, our societies are made up of individuals. Those individuals seek self-fulfillment. However, that fulfillment cannot come in a vacuum, no matter how many college freshman who just discovered Ayn Rand want to assert. So how do we create good societies that foster an environment wherein the individual has self realization and life satisfaction? We do this by creating a society wherein everyone has that ability. We cannot achieve self actualization if we live in a society where we don’t have esteem among people, acceptance of others. We can’t have esteem of others if our priority is to crush others to get to the top. We can’t have a society at all if we don’t have food, water, housing and clean air. When many of us do not have the very basics of these most essential needs in our world, they don’t get any higher up the ladder. Crime comes from the basic needs of a human being not being met. The Austrian school wants you to think that it’s all about the individual. What they really want is for you to ignore their crimes, their crimes of greed, their philosophy of avarice. They want to rationalize their selfishness, and deny the results of their actions. The fact is that society, like people, become what they are made to be. If a person grows up in a bad environment, without proper nutrition, without proper education, without proper housing, without love, acceptance, self actualization etc. S/he will most likely not turn out to be a productive member of society. In a like manner, if we put greed, selfishness and cutthroat individualism as our creed, we sacrifice the golden goose to get the egg. Austrian economics can’t see the forest for the trees.

Marxism is a scientific approach to economics. It rejects the failed platitudes of the philosophy of greed, and looks to unite humanity in creating communities where we all will realize our true potential. Some like to say that if you want peace, it has to begin with you. In reality, if we want peace, we have to start with our communities, our countries, and then the world. You see, we are all interconnected.  We all do seek cooperation. When we focus on doing what economics should do, that is meet the needs of the world, we’ll find that the individuals that make up these societies are happy, educated, well rounded people.

If you accept science, logic, and rationality; the answer is clear. Throw Austrian economics in the garbage, where it belongs.

Unite, and help us build a better world.

Austerity: Cuts in Common Sense

The stories just keep coming back. Most of them from embattled Greece. Families, unable to care for their children, abandon them. People desperate to find work, just enough to survive, trudge home day after day with empty hands, and empty hearts. People are suffering.

I could go deeply into why, and how this has come about, but I’ll only touch on it briefly, because I want to focus on the human impact of these policies.  Greece, like many European nations it would seem, has a debt problem. Sovereign debt is high, and the governments claim that they can no longer keep up the payments on this debt. Ignoring that many of these problems came as a result of the Eurozone, and the common currency, countries like Germany and France are determined to get their pound of flesh. The IMF, in its eternally sleazy way, promises help, but only if that help doesn’t go to the poorest, neediest, and most vulnerable Greeks. Burdened with these problems, Greece’s government, with a gun to its head approved austerity measure after austerity measure. A downward spiral, killing the economy, and making things worse by the day.

What is happening to the people of Greece? How is this affecting them? It is failing, and failing with horrible consequences attached. The corporations have their field days as they lay off workers, make the remaining workers work harder, and pay them less. Those who can’t find work are finding that the social safety net is fast retreating. Pensioners who worked hard their whole lives, are finding that they are now without anything. The capitalist class lives high off the hog, while the workers pay for Europe’s mistakes, and lies.

And what has been the result of this austerity for Europe? There cutting everything they can, public workers, pensions, infrastructure, not politician’s pay of course, education et. al. The result should be a great jumping rebound of capitalism’s wonderful built in springs, right? Unsurprisingly, no. As economies shrink, more worker’s lose their jobs, the wealth gap widens, more and more people fall into poverty and despair. It has been an abject failure. Even capitalist economists are starting to realize that the austerity measures are stunting economies, destroying families, and ruining countries. So why do they keep doing it? The answer is because, as always, the rich are in control. The capitalist class sits back with their fine wine, and exquisite cigars, puffing away about how everyone needs to tighten their belts in time of crises. The crises they created. The crises they are profiting from. The crises that will only make them richer and more powerful. They sit in their ivory towers laughing at you. “Look at those little ants, running in the streets of Athens, they think if they protest hard enough we’ll let them have more money to buy food at the market, or clothes for their children.” They scoff in their protected palaces. “Let them scream all they want, let them despair, let them cry, let them rage. They can’t touch us.”

Do  you get the picture? They don’t have democracy. They don’t have a choice. They are enslaved to the money interests of European capital, chained with no chance of escape.

Imagine working hard your whole life to earn a pension to retire on. Maybe you didn’t want much. You just wanted a decent place to live, maybe near a public swimming pool, somewhere that had bowling and other activities. Let’s say you lived alone, and thought it wouldn’t take much money to survive by yourself. All you wanted was to enjoy the rest you earned after a lifetime of working so hard.

Imagine that was taken away from you. As your debts pile up, and your money dwindles, all because your pension has been wiped out by the greedy bastards who run the government, by capitalist assholes in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris. You realize that you’re going to end up penniless; you’re going to slowly starve. This isn’t a hypothetical situation. This is real life. The man I’m talking about decided to take action. Rather than lose his dignity, by becoming homeless and starving on the street in spite of a lifetime of work,  he walked in front of the Greek Parliament, the people who have completely ignored the anguished cries of the assaulted Greek people, and shot himself.

From his suicide note:

“The occupation government… has literally wiped out my ability to survive, based on a respectable pension which I had paid for during a 35-year period,” the pensioner said in an excerpt published in Greek newspapers.

“I find no other solution for a dignified end before I start sifting through garbage to feed myself,” he allegedly wrote in red ink.

Now do you understand that capitalism kills? That this is insanity? We have enough for the world, we really do. We really, really do. Capitalism gives more wealth than anyone can use to a select few, and starves the rest. The workers don’t matter, their social security doesn’t matter, they don’t matter, because to a capitalist all that matters is that his own greedy wallet gets fatter.

Hey Greece, maybe it’s time you started pointing those guns in a different direction.

Eat the rich.