More on the Shift Back to Progressivism (Away from Trickle-Down)

There exists a popular false dichotomy that only two economic structures exist: pure capitalism or pure socialism. It is often assumed that if you don’t support a pure, unbridled style of capitalism, with low taxes on those with the most wealth, then you are a Communist, or Marxist, or Socialist (take your pick, because they are essentially used as synonyms in these accusations). 

The truth is there are an infinite number of in-betweens and that both pure systems are fatally flawed. Since 1933, our own economy has been a blending of the two. The relative weights of the two have varied over the years. In more recent years, we have been moving further and further toward a very pure, unbridled version of capitalism, which was the style that ushered in the Great Depression. Thankfully, we still have leftover social securities from an earlier period, namely 1933 to 1981, from which we have continued to benefit, albeit not nearly as much, and continuously less, since the 1980s. I believe that as we allow those safeguards to erode further, that capitalism itself will self-destruct.

Many historians believe that Roosevelt saved capitalism with the New Deal. That is, he saved it through Progressive ideas. I agree with them. I believe, and I believe this strongly, that we should tame our capitalism, which will necessitate some change in our taxation policy, and thereby save capitalism again, as Roosevelt did. I ask my more conservative friends to not then jump to the conclusion that I am a Communist. I am absolutely not. Nor do I know anyone who is. I am running for Congress as a Democrat, and I know many Democrats. None are Communists. Please don’t listen to those who say we are Communists, or Marxists. It is not true! 

I believe in free enterprise and entrepreneurialism. I also believe we need a strong public sector. I strongly believe we need a strong public sector. I will be addressing that in a future post. We must recognize that pure capitalism has both good points and bad. We shouldn’t ignore the bad points. That won’t make them go away. Pure socialism also has both good points and bad. I believe it is not only correct, but quite achievable and desirable to build an economy that keeps the good characteristics of each, and throws out the bad. And we’ve done it in the past and were well on the way to perfecting the idea (to the extent that that can happen), when we suddenly reversed course during the 1980s.

In a previous post I said that I am in no way advocating abandoning capitalism as a component of the economic structure (the word component is important). I mean that sincerely. I am simply advocating a return to the type of economic philosophy we had from 1933 to 1981. Free Enterprise was alive and well. The public sector was alive and well and getting even better for most of those years. We built the greatest middle class the world had ever seen by partnering the private sector with the public sector, by creating things like Social Security and the GI Bill while encouraging entrepreneurialism and free enterprise. I will say more about this partnership in a future post as well. But for now, I just say that for all of our lives we have blended the ideas. But the blend is being strained now, and moving too far to one side. Both capitalism and socialism are self-destructive in their purest forms. Our “close to pure” capitalism of the 1920s led to a depression with immense human suffering. Then the blended economic approach pulled us out of it and eventually gave us Social Security and the GI Bill and the means to pay for and win a War against fascism and I could go on and on. These protections have helped prevent all out depressions for 90 years now.