Here’s How To Successfully Debate A Democratic Socialist
(cont)
‘’’Lesson 3. How to Talk About Sweden’’’
This lady made it clear from the beginning that democratic socialism won’t turn America into Maduro’s Venezuela, even though Venezuela has everything DS believers want: anyone who wants a university degree can get one regardless of prior educational experience or qualifications; socialized comprehensive health care because health care as a social right was written into the Venezuelan constitution; the government controls the economy by nationalizing thousands of private companies; price controls keep many things cheap for ordinary Venezuelans—i.e., a gallon of gas cost only 15 cents; the government raised the minimum wage by some 3,000 percent to $30 a month from the less than $1 a month workers now make.
When I asked, my debate opponent wouldn’t say which of these policies she doesn’t like. I imagine if democratic socialists like her had the power to duplicate these socialist policies in the United States, they would do it in a heartbeat. Like all democratic socialists, she refuses to see that Venezuela’s socialist policies are the causes of its problems such as mass starvation, a high infant mortality rate, and shortage of everything from diapers to medicines.
Venezuela is a perfect example of how democratic socialism fails in real life right in front of us. But it’s obvious democratic socialist apologists want to disassociate their movement from this troubled socialist country.
Like all democratic socialists, she refuses to see that Venezuela’s socialist policies are the causes of its problems.
While democratic socialists disavow Venezuela, they clearly want to talk about Sweden. My opponent says democratic socialism will turn the United States into a bigger version of Sweden. I pointed out that Sweden is only able to afford its welfare state as a result of capitalist policies she and other democratic socialists despise: deregulation, strong protection of private property rights, privatization of failed state enterprises, strong support of free trade, and a national school voucher system.
This lady and other democratic socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to raise taxes on the rich and corporations in the U.S. to provide every American Swedish-style social welfare. But they either fail to mention or have no idea that Sweden’s tax policy is actually quite friendly to rich people and corporations. There is no property tax, and no inheritance tax.
Sweden’s corporate taxes rates (23.5 percent) were much lower than the U.S. rate of 35 percent before the U.S. tax cut in 2017. By these measures, Sweden is a much more capitalistic country than the United States is.
To pay for their expensive social welfare system, the Swedish government makes the poor and middle class pay huge tax rates.
To pay for their expensive social welfare system, the Swedish government makes the poor and middle class pay huge tax rates, something that will never fly in the United States. Sweden’s top marginal tax rate of 56.9 percent applies to all income over 1.5 times the average income in Sweden. If we adopted the same personal tax system, any American who earns over $75,000 (1.5 times the average income of about $50,000 in the U.S.) would be taxed at 56.9 percent, in comparison to the present 22 percent.
In addition, both Sweden’s rich and poor pay the exact same amount of value-added tax (a consumption tax) at 25 percent. I doubt any democratic socialists really think this through when they say they want to model the United States after Sweden.
This lady came across as a kind woman. She seems genuinely concerned about other people’s well-being. Yet her prescriptions to cure social ills are wrong and her willful ignorance of history and reality is shocking. Socialism is an evil and immoral social economic system. No matter what kind of adjective someone today tries to decorate socialism with, it won’t change its evil nature.
It’s like trying to put lipstick on a pig, although it’s not fair to pigs to compare them to socialism. Let’s just call it as it is: democratic socialism is a scam, and it’s the same tyranny the world has seen over and over again. Anyone who loves liberty should be ready and be well prepared to vigorously push it back into history’s dust bin.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/09/28/heres-successfully-debate-democratic-socialist/
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