Left vs Right. Are We In Trouble?

By Hank Silverberg
Those of you who are regular readers of “Time to Think” already know that I am not very fond of those on the far right. Their narrow view of the world and their drive to force us back into the past is moving the United States away from greatness and destroying much of the progress we have made at home and abroad over the last 40 years. 

We are a diverse nation filled with bountiful resources that, if properly managed, can continue to help us and the world for decades to come.

Many on the right deny climate change despite the overwhelming science behind it. They ignore racism, and its cost to us all, even when it stares them in the face, and they disdain the safety net for the poor, even though helping others is the American thing to do. 

The right, with the help of an ill-mannered, egotistical, incompetent buffoon in the White House has pushed many people to the brink. The political pendulum has almost reached the extreme right side and is now powered to move left again. But how far will it go?

Those of us in the center wish for a moderate swing back to somewhere in the middle, but the persistent attack by the right on America’s basic values may produce so much motion that the pendulum will pass the center and swing too far left.

And here I see a problem as well.  Those on the left are poised to use our fear of the extreme right to pull us where we may not want to go. So how far can the pendulum swing?

I have not seen any polls on this, but my gut instinct and my study of history suggests Americans will be just as edgy if that pendulum swings too far past the center on the left side. Republicans are already using the word “socialism” to try to scare us. The word should not be any more frightening than the word “capitalist”.

If I may be so bold, I have a few suggestions for candidates for office who are running now. Radical swings produce radical reactions, whether the pendulum swings right or left.   

1)   Forget labels. Tell us exactly what you plan to do, how much you calculate it will cost, and make the financing of such a plan transparent, and equitable, if not totally equal.

2)    Avoid pie-in-the-sky solutions that have no practical chance of gaining a consensus and progressing through the maze of diversified interests and political reality.

Health care for all, run by the government, is a good example of one of those pie-in-the-sky proposals. So is free college tuition.  We can start with a mix of government-run health care for those who can’t get it elsewhere, combined with private health insurance for those who can get it from their employer. (Perhaps subsidies or incentives for small businesses to cover their employees.)  Obamacare was the right idea, but poorly structured. (This plan must include price controls on pharmaceuticals.)

Instead of free college tuition for everyone, how about free tuition at community colleges, and federally backed, INTEREST FREE  loans, for four- year colleges.  I would add on "interest forgiveness” for those with current loans—meaning they only pay back the principal. The loan forgiveness program would have a massive impact on our economy, freeing up millions of dollars to be used for other things, like buying homes, cars or furniture for college graduates who have been economically choked because of high student loan debt. 

3)   A massive effort by the federal government to repair bridges and roads across the country that would stimulate thousands of jobs and lower the cost of general commerce, putting yet more money into the economy. Private companies would do the work—under government contract –with “on time”  and "cost control" incentives.  

4)   Federal investment in mass transit in our cities, like commuter rail, and reinvestment in interstate rail that will lower fuel costs and the price of transporting goods.  

5)   A federal mandatory minimum wage (actual amount is debatable), which can be tiered based on local economic conditions, and include exemptions for businesses with less than 25 employees.

6)   Clean energy incentives for all businesses, from the local dry cleaner to huge corporations, to cut their pollution generation dramatically. There could be incentives to go with alternative cleaner energy sources along with heavy fines and perhaps even stronger criminal prosecution for those who defy the rules. (Bankruptcy could not be used to avoid fines.)

7)   A corporate taxation system that rewards entrepreneurship but penalizes those who exploit consumers for excessive profit.   (This includes defective products.) 

I have many more suggestions, but you probably get the picture from these.

Yes. I know some of you are screaming “socialism” at these ideas. But it’s not. Nowhere in my practical proposals does the United States do what Socialism requires: the control of the means of production. Privater companies would still be private and stockholders would still benefit from profits. 

Free enterprise can thrive without unregulated greed.

For those of you who think all this would cost too much, I say poppycock. A slight adjustment in the income tax rate, not a redistribution of wealth, would produce the funds necessary.  There are people out there who are a lot smarter than I am who can figure out the numbers.

To my friends on the left: Yes, we do need to make some major changes. But we do not need to break up all corporations, overtax the wealthy, or cap every oil well in the country to achieve these goals.  Proposing radical and rapid change like the so-called “Green New Deal” only feeds the enthusiasm for those on the right to resist, and worries those of us in the center who know it’s not possible.

Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu said,  “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  We don’t have to jump off the cliff to get there.  A halt in the current downfall of ethics and fairness is the first step. Then a few steady steps year after year will get us there. 

News Brief:

How much credit card debt do you have?  A new survey from Bankrate.com says 49% of Americans have more savings than credit card debt.  That’s 4% more than the same survey last year.

https://wtop.com/business-finance/2020/02/survey-savings-still-lower-than-credit-card-debt-for-americans/

  

About 28 % have more credit card debt than savings, according to the survey, while 16% have no credit card debt at all, but also no savings. Forty-six percent of Millennials (24-30) reported having higher credit card debt as opposed to savings.

This pattern of overspending is considered dangerous for the economy and leaves millions of people one financial setback short of poverty.   

Then there is this:

                                              

(Super Tuesday States)

March 3^rd could be the day we find out who will be the Democratic nominee for president. That is Super Tuesday, when a total of 14 states have primaries or caucuses. Some of the pundits, who seem to be wrong most of the time, have said Bernie Sanders could lock up the nomination that day.

                                                 

But I am not going to make that prediction. The field will certainly narrow by then, but if you look at the results from Iowa (what we have), New Hampshire and Nevada, the moderates in the race have more combined votes and delegates than Sanders (with South Carolina to be decided this week). And that is before Mike Bloomberg and his millions of dollars in campaign ads has delivered one real voter. 


https://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2020-primary-delegate-count/

Delegate County after Nevada caucuses. 

Search
Candidate	Pledged
Warren	8
Steyer	0
Sanders	31
Klobuchar	7
Gabbard	0
Buttigieg	22
Biden	6
Bloomberg

As you can probably figure out from the first part of this blog, I am not a Bernie fan. I believe his nomination will turn off a lot of moderate voters, both Democrats and Republicans, and make them stay home on election day. That will give Donald Trump four more years in the White House and lead us down into a dark rabbit hole that could decades to climb out of. 
 Take a closer look at the moderates in the race. There are some good options.  

            (Your comments and suggestions are welcome)

(Copies of my book are available at BN.com, Amazon.com. Look for the new lower price on the paperback. Or you can email me at hanksilverberg@gmail.com for details on how to get a signed copy at an even lower price. )