Let me start with an apology. A Romanian that lived and worked under the communist dictatorship surely has more experience than me. I’ve worked in Romania and with Romanians for going on 15 years, but I’ve known very few that were working before the overthrow of Ceaușescu. My wife’s and particularly her parent’s lives under Czech socialism were maybe more similar to Romanians’ than those in the US at the same time, but it was a weak argument I should have left out. Apologies.
That said, it is completely disingenuous to compare a work program under communist dictator in a closed country where the entire economy including all means of production are owned by the state to a voluntary program where if you can’t find work on the open, capitalist market the government will find a job for you.
My grandfather (like his grandson) traveled short term to job sites to check the work. Local workers fulfill most of the jobs. Same with Bernie’s FJG. Engineering is hardly “working-class.” You clearly don’t know what the CCC was, or FDR’s other jobs programs were, or what Bernie’s ideas for a 21st century version are. Creating community broadband networks for example, will require a range of skills from pulling cable to high-level programming. At this point you appear to spend a whole lot more time dismissing what is standard practice around the world and what Bernie wants for the US as “pie in the sky.”
Most people want to work. Even in case studies of UBI (which show real promise), most people continue to work. A living wage for a full time job is a the basis for a fair labor market. UBI as replacement for living wages only works long term if the entire funding for UBI comes from non-workers. I’ve spent the time analyzing Yang’s policy proposals, particularly around UBI. I’ve already detailed my problems with Yang’s non-universal, regressive-tax-funded version of UBI that doesn’t address the underlying problems of the US tax code and income inequality.
You clearly still don’t understand how VAT works. Business don’t pay. Ever. No matter what the goods are, or from whom they buy them. If we start selling our data to Facebook instead of giving it away, we’ll have to charge VAT. And Facebook will get the VAT they pay us back from the government. That is how it works everywhere in the world that has VAT, and that is the basis for Yang’s VAT. No business will pay VAT. EVER.
Bernie beats Trump in every national poll. He just beat him in a Texas poll, FFS. If Bernie had won the nomination in 2016, he would have won the White House. If Bernie wins the D nomination in 2020, he’ll win the GE. Bernie’s strengths are Trump’s weaknesses. This is the polar opposite of the 2016 Clinton-Trump matchup, which is why it was such a tossup election, and turnout was lower than 2012. Bernie brings out people to vote who don’t normally vote. He gets people to donate who don’t normally donate. Bernie’s challenge is to overcome the election fraud, lying and manipulation in the Democratic primary. He’d crush Trump in a head to head matchup.
Bye now.
