by Dada Vedaprajinananda
During the height of Bernie Sanders’ run for the presidency in 2020 there was a lot of mention about the dangers or attraction (it depends how old you are) of “socialism.” And Joe Biden was also quick to say that the American people do not want a “revolution.”
Sometimes the labels get in the way of cogent thinking on difficult subjects. The dictionary definition of socialism is “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” Sanders never advocated for community ownership or regulation of “the means of production, distribution and exchange” but instead pushed for single payer health care and free college education, things which are quite common in many countries which are basically capitalist.
And although Sanders called his movement a revolution, I don’t think that adding features of what are normal parts of socially democratic capitalist countries really call for the use of that word. However, the slinging around of the nasty labels was in part due to Sanders own embrace of the terms and because his opponents wanted to get political mileage from labels that were once highly toxic.
Instead of arguing over these labels I think Sanders should have attempted to reframe the discussion to ask what are the areas of our economy and social life that we want to be under public management and what areas should be left to private enterprise? As it stands, we have police forces, fire departments, school systems and infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels, etc.) which have long been under public management and hardly anyone worried that were socialistic or revolutionary. These sectors were just an accepted part of American life.
Really what Sanders is saying is that there are some spheres in which we cannot allow private enterprise to operate, and health care is one of them. This is the main question, which are the areas of our economy and social life where we want corporations and private interests to hold sway and which are the areas that call for public management? Let the discussion revolve around this question, and not around words like revolution and socialism.
But while I am on the subject, the economy is tanking due to the corona virus pandemic and the airline industry has been hard hit. The industry is craving for a bailout, they want a government handout, something which many of their stalwarts condemn when it comes to food stamps and other features of the social safety net. OK, let’s look at their request carefully, but if they want help from the government, from the public, from you and me, maybe we should think about it in terms of our question “which areas of our economy should be run exclusively by free enterprise and where are the places where public management is called for?”
I’m of the opinion that infrastructure, telecommunications, transportation, power supply and similar key industries including the airlines should be under public ownership and management. Several European countries have flagship airlines and giant rail networks all under public ownership and management. I think we could follow their example and instead of bailing out the airlines, let’s put them under “community ownership and regulation.” Now that would be revolutionary!