Harold Meyerson: Economic Freedom Is Nuts!

In "The Libertarian Democrat, part XVIII", Harold Meyerson weighs in with this one:

[Democrats] may be civil libertarians and to some degree social libertarians, but they’re not economic libertarians. And for good reason: Economic libertarianism has never been more preposterous.

*sigh*

Effing blinders. It's funny how a completely discredited philosophy is still hip and groovy in Meyerson's world.

In short, as the balance of forces in capitalism shifts entirely towards investors and executives and away from employees, the need for a state that takes the burden of economic and health security off employers who won’t pick it up and employees who can’t pick it up is increasingly urgent.

The good news for Meyerson is that this country will get some sort of socialized healthcare and the irony which will be missed entirely by Democrats is that the corporations will be the primary movers of such a scheme. Corporations are getting tired of providing healthcare benefits for employees when governments in other countries provide the healthcare, taking their own corporations off the hook.

Cost of healthcare is therefore, indisputably transferred back to the individual citizen through increased taxation. This, despite the fact that the poster child of Democratic nationalized systems is in deep kimchee. But this never quite sinks in.

In an increasingly competitive world where corporations in the U.S. have to compete with business in Europe where corporate welfare and subsidies[pdf link] are a way of life, U.S. businesses are getting more and more cranky and hoping for a shift away from employer provided healthcare to government provided healthcare. That way, the cost is picked up by everyone, especially wage earning employees, as opposed to the individual contracts negotiated between employer and employee.

Meyerson, despite clear and compelling evidence has made the classic Democrat blunder: Confusing corporations and big business with Capitalism. Corporations don't want economic liberty from their governments, they want economic protection from their government. And once one sees this Truth, you can see why it's only a very short step between what we have now and the ensconced public/private partnerships so evident in places like Europe. I personally guarantee that the U.S. answer to subsidized industries in Europe will not be for Europe to drop or lessen its subsidies of European industry, but for the U.S. provide its own subsidies for industries deemed "too big to fail".

And I also want to go on record by saying I'm very, very tired of Democrats whining about corporate welfare. I agree already, so stop providing it to them with your creepy schemes!