Socialism is a Boo Word

When the New York Times reporter asked President Barack Obama whether he was a socialist, this certainly wasn't a productive way to foster healthy debate over the appropriate role of the state in our crisis-ridden free market economy. One would have to be tone deaf to think that our President isn't a champion of the free market. Regardless of what the reporter intended, Socialism is a Boo Word.

We use a 'boo' to express disapproval. To show contempt, derision. To end a conversation. To get the performer off stage. In the 1970s, NBC brought the 'boo word' idea to television with the Gong Show hosted by Chuck Barris in which a panel of professionals ended a mediocre amateur contestant's performance by striking the gong.

President Obama can of course take care of himself. Gravitas is the best armor to deflect boo words.

We are still left though with a difficult policy question: What is the appropriate role of the state in our free market economy?

Government has always actively participated in our free market economy. The Internet, that intersection where civil liberties meet corporate freedoms, is itself the product of Defense Department contracts during the Cold War. The Global Information superhighway, those fiber optic cables linking up the world in a civil society without borders, was laid by companies with the help of US government loan and insurance programs. Many of our greatest scientific achievements have been incubated through long term strategic government investment in our world-class universities. In other words, the foundation of our free market economy has always been importantly part public.

The use of boo words like socialism make it difficult for us to have useful discussion about how best to model and implement temporary government intervention in the economy. We paint instead in primary colors--nationalized banks or survival of the fittest--when instead the reality is that our governments and banks are inextricably enmeshed through the FDIC, SEC, and almost every single federal agency. We don't just regulate our banks; we provide them with subsidies to promote public values. The question then is not 'to intervene or not to intervene'-instead, it is whether the various ways that we combine government and private power in a free market economy advance the public interest both in word and in action.

Comments

[tompoe]

Likosky is still trying to grasp the concept that free market economy is a failed term. We don't have a free market economy. It failed. On September 19, 2008, Paulson demanded entitlement to $1 trillion dollars for Bush's going away present to cronies. That is not a free market economy. That is corporate welfare. America does not tolerate corporate welfare. Likosky needs to rephrase his question. "What is the appropriate role of the state in our corporate welfare economy?"

Of course, the answer is obvious. America does not tolerate corporate welfare.

[caphillprof]

Socialism is a word you throw out when capitalism has failed.

[fpie]

Somalia is a wonderful example of the free market opperating without intrusive government intervention. Sure no socialism there. There the best, brightest and toughest thrive until some tougher leutenant sneaks up behind him and pops a cap in his head. A true meritocracy. And they don't even need to bribe cops and judges because they don't have any (don't need to pay them either).
Somalia: a libertarian paridise on earth.

[Tubby]

The Great Socialist Experiment failed miserably with the deaths of National Socialism and Communism. Good riddance..

[standard]

One little problem: neither National Socialism nor Communism are actually Socialism--any more than root beer is actually beer, Christian Science is actually science or New England is actually England. You've apparently fallen into the very linguistic trap that totalitarian militarists set for us.

Nazism is a form of fascism, not socialism. Communism is Marxism-Leninism, not socialism, and although its followers commandeered the word "socialism", redefining it for their own purposes, they've never adopted the open, democratic, gradualist, and often pacifist tenets of socialism. Historically, Nazis and Communists have exterminated whatever Socialists they could, whenever and wherever they could. Actual socialism has existed for a century in New Zealand and across Scandinavia. Socialists of various stripes have led, or strongly influenced, the governments of many of America's closest and most trusted allies--including the U.K. and Canada. The socialism of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas has even had a positive influence on life in America at large, and in Milwaukee in particular. It's worth reading about.

The Republicans want us to believe that universal healthcare, progressive income taxation and drinking espresso-strength coffee are socialist activities and that Socialists are Communists. It's time Americans learned that socialism isn't scary, isn't totalitarian, and isn't even dangerous to Republicans. Hell, we already have state-run universities and public golf courses (operating alongside private ones) and many Republicans routinely avail themselves of both, unharmed.

[Hazelnut]

Excellent. Well said. Thank you.

[MagisterLudi]

The system will only elect a leader committed to it.
Obama never was and never will be a socialist. Alas.