Got Labels?

I read a joke recently.  It seems that one little boy asked another, “are you a Methodist”?  The other answered, “No. I’m another abomination.”  This cute little story reflects our national discourse.  We too, have a problem with the meanings of words.  Take a minute to read this and decide what “abomination”, oops, “denomination” we are. 

“In a plutocracy, the influence the wealthy minority of the population has over the political arena includes campaign contributions, lobbying to achieve corporate objectives, threatening to move profitable industries elsewhere, and essentially any form of manipulation of the government, including the use of media, which can shape public perception of political issues.  Kevin Phillips, author and political strategist, argued that the United States is a plutocracy in which there is a "fusion of money and government."  Sound familiar? But at least we’re not socialists.  Let’s look at socialism:

“Socialism is a political philosophy that encompasses various theories of economic organization, which can and does include capitalism as a mixed economy.  Socialists generally share the view that unfettered capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital. This in turn creates an unequal society, that fails to provide equal opportunities for everyone to maximise their potential.”

Wow!  Now that’s scary; wanting a political philosophy that shares opportunity more equally.  But let’s don’t let definitions get in our way.  Let’s just keep shouting “Obama is a socialist when he’s really “another abomination”.  He’s really a “corporatist” as all the American presidents have been since at least since FDR. 

From the department of economics, San Jose State University, “Although Corporatism is not a familiar concept to the general public, most of the economies of the world are corporatist in nature. There are only corporatist economies of various flavors.”  “One of the most prominent forms of corporatism involves negotiations between business, labor, and state interest groups to set economic policy. Countries that have corporatist systems typically utilize strong state intervention to direct corporatist policies.”  Think of recent Republican and Democrat sponsored economic bailouts and the ongoing struggle to bring the financial industry to heel.  (Not that I disagree with it.)

Confused?  Me too.  So are we plutocrats, socialists or corporatists?  And all this time, I thought we were capitalists.  Well, let’s see: “Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned; supply, demand and price are mostly set by market forces rather than economic planning; and profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses.” 

This sure sounds like what we are.  Except that not all means of production are privately owned in America.  Supply, demand and price are not always set by market forces in America.  But profits do go to the owner and investors most of the time.  That makes me happy because I depend on dividends from my investments in American corporations for a good deal of my income.  Thankfully, I don’t have enough space to discuss, Communism, Fascism, Nazism, or any other “ism”. 

So what are we?  In my opinion, we are part plutocracy because there is an obvious fusion of money and government.  We’re part socialist because we provide social services thereby re-distributing wealth taken by taxation.  We’re corporatist because we bail out private industry with public funds and influence economic policy.  We’re capitalist because we do have private property rights and a publically traded stock market.

So to those who manipulate others by misapplying these labels;  Stop it.  You’re the ones who are taking our country away from us.  For those of you who fall for their shenanigans;  Stop it.  You’re aiding and abetting the real traitors in America.

The complexities, that are America, cannot be described by labels. Comprehensive political positions cannot be contained in sound bites or bumper stickers.  If you’re falling for the shorthand references use by political operatives, you’re part of the problem.  

Robert DeFilippis