Bernie Sanders and the Road to Serfdom

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)          
Photo Credit: Wickimedia Commons/Nick Solari

This morning I read a very disturbing article by David Harsanyi on the federalist.com entitled “Bernie Sanders is the Future of the Democratic Party“. Soon after that I read another article, equally disturbing on the same general subject, by John Stossel on reason.com entitled “Lots of Democrats Want Socialism“. The theme of both posts is that the Democratic Party, not just its politicians but also its base electorate, is moving very much to the Left – not just a little, but a lot. Both authors point out that Sanders is a self-described “democratic socialist”. Harsanyi declares that the “rise of Bernie Sanders is a completely predictable outcome of the Democratic Party’s trajectory. Or, maybe, the rise of Bernie Sanders portends a socialistic future for the Democratic Party.” He also cites a YouGov poll that among all Americans, 52% have a favorable view of capitalism while only 26% possess favorable views of socialism. If you ask for the same split among Democrats, you get an almost an even division: 43% for capitalism and 43% for socialism. Among independents  you get 52% for capitalism and 22% for socialism. Among Republicans the split is 79% for capitalism, 9% for socialism.  Just as disturbing is the split among different age cohorts:

• Age 18-29: 39% for capitalism, 36% for socialism
• Age 30-44: 50% for capitalism, 26% for socialism
• Age 45-64: 59% for capitalism, 24% for socialism
• Age 65+   : 59% for capitalism, 15% for socialism

The situation is beginning to look very perilous for capitalism in America, especially in the Democratic party. In order to protect her left flank from Sanders, Hillary Clinton is sounding more and more like a socialist. For example, she blamed the Baltimore riots on income inequality (see here on the Ferguson Effect). She also claimed that businesses and corporations do not create jobs! One has to ask what universe she is living in? From all this evidence it may not matter who becomes the Democratic nominee for President. Whoever it is will have to satisfy the Democratic Party’s base, which has substantial socialist leanings.

After all the disasters socialist economies have suffered in this century and the last, how could anyone think that a socialist economy could provide for a people’s needs better than capitalism? We have already discussed how government intervention in an economy tends to damage it because of the economy’s complex nature (see here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). We might also note that Russia, China, India, and Eastern Europe did not begin to have substantial economic growth until they emerged from socialism and adopted at least some aspects of capitalism.

However, the economic damage that socialism wreaks on a country is not the only thing to fear from socialism. Friedrich Hayek pointed out to us a long time ago in his book The Road to Serfdom (see reference[E2]) that once the state gains all available economic power, then over time those who are most ruthless in acquiring political power rise to the top to form a dictatorship (chapters 10 and 11). He also pointed out that it was illogical to classify the fascism of Italy and the National Socialists of Germany in pre-World War II Europe as on the opposite side of the political spectrum from socialists and communists (chapter 12). They were not, as many have argued, a capitalist reaction against socialism. They were instead just another variant of socialism that had the same roots in central planning and in allowing the state to dominate the individual. This agrees with the political classification of political movements, parties, and philosophies that I have adopted according to how much power is granted to the state. All of our historical experience since just before World War II to the present would seem to verify everything Hayek wrote in that seminal book.

If the Democratic Party should ever succeed in instituting socialism in this country, it would be the greatest catastrophe this country has ever experienced, greater even than the Civil War.

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