OPINION & EDITORIAL
UW socialist noble but wrong
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Also by Corey Sheahan:
- Prognosis poor on hospital tax (November 5, 2007)
- Giuliani's impact on NYC overrated (October 23, 2007)
- Senators step perilously toward war (October 8, 2007)
- Religious group funding not 'according to the gospel' (September 24, 2007)
- UW socialist noble but wrong (September 10, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Readers keep it real (September 14, 2007)
- America needs socialist values (September 6, 2007)
- Socialists misread Israeli history (September 29, 2006)
- Stop fearing socialized health care (September 28, 2007)
- Readers drop gloves, bust some skulls (September 7, 2007)
by Corey Sheahan
Monday, September 10, 2007
For all I know, Ben Daniels, of the International Socialist Organization, is a great guy. In his Sept. 6 guest column in The Badger Herald, he seemed genuinely compassionate and interested in helping the less fortunate in our country and around the world. He seems to be a patriot and seems to care about making America the best country it can be. He's accurate in saying that the policies of the current administration are harmful to our nation and should be reversed immediately.
Ben's problem — and that of socialists in general — is that they see companies making profits and assume the masses are being exploited, somehow. His diagnosis of the problems facing our nation is wrong, and the solution he prescribes would undoubtedly make the lives of the people he wishes to help decidedly worse.
By stating the production and distribution of goods is controlled by a self-interested minority, Ben implies that most people have no choice in what they buy. Socialists think a majority of people should have a say in what goods and services are produced.
Contrary to what the ISO would have us believe, every single American has an important say in what goods and services are produced and sold in this country. In fact, we have the only say in what gets produced. Every time you go to Walgreens and buy a bottle of Gatorade, you're casting a vote to have more Gatorade produced. Every time a farmer orders a new tractor, he's telling John Deere that he thinks new tractors should be produced. When a particular class fills up within the first few hours of registration, UW students are telling the administration that they should offer more classes similar to the one that already reached capacity.
The system I described above, the one in which we participate every day, is far more democratic than anything socialists have to offer. Our capitalist system lets every American have a say in what goods and services are produced and at what price those goods and services will be sold. At times it may seem cold and calculating, like when businesses lay off a large number of employees or discontinue a certain product consumers really enjoy. But these apparently heartless events are the necessary side effects of our incredibly efficient system.
When these side effects happen to a relative or loved one, the promises made by groups like the ISO sound incredibly tempting. It's easy to envision an unfortunate layoff of thousands of employees as the result of some scheming executives in a dark boardroom. It would be nice to think state-controlled production would create a better world with equality for all.
However, believing an idea because it is comforting does not make that idea any more or less truthful.
The socialist analysis of the problems facing our country is clearly wrong, but the harm caused by socialism doesn't stop there. The solutions proposed by the ISO actually lead to a worse standard of living for the very people they wish to help.
In practice and in theory, state control of production leads to an inefficient allocation of resources and inevitably causes the scarce resources at our disposal to be wasted. Lower output in the economy obviously leads to lower consumption of goods and services by the citizens of the socialist government, which is precisely what Ben and his organization wish to avoid.
Our country is far from perfect. There are serious economic and political problems that need to be addressed and solved if we wish to make America a great nation for all its citizens. However, the solutions provided by the International Socialist Organization are severely flawed and exacerbate the very problems socialists wish to alleviate.
Corey Sheehan (csheahan@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in economics and history.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 7:04am):
Corey assumes Ben is merely a "useful idiot" (still open to persuasion) and not a devoted disciple of Marxism.
It's equally likely the Trotskyites of ISO ernestly believe in the virtue of their tiny cadre of self-annointed malignant narcisists. If only the working class rise up and give (surrender) them political power, they'd employ pseudo-scientific "reasoning" to benevolently rule the unthinking masses.
These delusional cultists imagine they will (one bright day) impose an aristocracy of arrogant intelligentsia. They need to be made aware of their group psychosis (not coddled as seriously worthy of argument) before they can get the help they really need-- like the discipline and humility of hard work at a regular job.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 7:08am):
Evoking the Communist tradition of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, the Chicago-based International Socialist Organization (ISO) aspires to "organize activists in workplaces and communities and on campuses in order to mobilize opposition to all forms of oppression and exploitation." The chief source of this oppression and exploitation, in ISO's view, is capitalism -- whose inevitable by-products are poverty, environmental degradation, war, famine, and most other ills that plague humanity. ISO places the blame for international strife largely on the United States, and more specifically the Republican Party, calling President Bush the "bigot-in-chief" and characterizing the "dynasty" of the Bush family as a "virus."
Founded in 1977, ISO traces its intellectual antecedents to Trotskyism and to a rejection of Shachtmanism, so named after Max Shachtman, the onetime head of the Socialist Workers Party; Shachtman and his followers generally supported the hard-line Cold War-era stance against Communist expansionism. Still, ISO rejects the state-sponsored Communism found in China, Cuba, and the old USSR, on the grounds that those states merely create structures to alienate workers from their labor and the sources of capital in the same way that the Western democracies do.
ISO claims the need for permanent workers' revolutions, in the tradition of Trotsky and his denunciation of the Stalinist state. The organization maintains an educational program calling for socialist workers' revolutions in a variety of venues, including workplaces and college campuses.
ISO's website maintains links to the websites of numerous socialist groups in France, Australia, and Ireland. In 2000, ISO attracted a large number of new members when it worked for the presidential campaign of the Green Party's Ralph Nader. The following year, a small group of ISO members broke away from the group and created a new organization called Left Turn. Currently, ISO claims a membership of approximately 1,000 and publishes the weekly newspaper Socialist Worker, whose articles condemn capitalism and imperialism, and whose editorials call on "militant workers" to form a "revolutionary socialist party." It also publishes the journal Socialist Review. In addition to its national office in Chicago, ISO maintains six regional branches.
Among ISO's official policies are a rejection of U.S. military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan; an effort to inspire anti-war sentiment on college campuses (particularly by creating fears of a renewed draft); a push for expanded rights for illegal immigrants and unregulated, open borders; and the condemnation of capital punishment.
ISO disparages the Patriot Act and other government efforts to strengthen national security as malicious assaults on civil liberties. It is a member organization of the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition led by Leslie Cagan, a longtime committed socialist who aligns her politics with those of Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba.
ISO views terrorism against U.S. targets and those of America's allies (most notably Israel) as the justified actions of desperate people who have been mistreated for too long by those nations. With regard to the 9/11 hijackers and Palestinian suicide bombers, for instance, ISO asserts, "They weren't born wanting to become suicide bombers. But their lifetimes of humiliation ... made them open to terrorism as a means to avenge their oppression."
In 2002, ISO joined the C. Clark Kissinger-led organization Refuse & Resist, a subsidiary of the Revolutionary Communist Party, in condemning military tribunals and the detention of immigrants apprehended in connection with post-9/11 terrorism investigations.
The ISO website discloses no names of the organization's leadership.
Discover The ISO Network @
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6399
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 7:09am):
Columbia Coddles Campus Fascists
By David Horowitz
March 27, 2007
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/Columbia%20Coddles%20Campus%20Fascists2.html
I have always said that the university administrations are complicit in the attacks on civility and academic discourse on college campuses. Now the administration at Columbia University has confirmed my view. After months of deliberation they have given a slap on the wrist to the campus fascists -- in particular the International Socialist Organization -- for its thuggery and disregard for Columbia's rules in rushing the stage to shut down a scheduled campus speech by Minuteman Jim Gilchrist. The International Socialist Organization is a group of Marxist loonies who hate America and are deluded into thinking they can set up a dictatorship of the proletariat in this country, destroying its freedoms and making it vulnerable to the Islamo-fascists they admire. I have personally been the target of their violent attacks and disruptions on numerous occasions, including at the University of Texas where an associate professor named Dana Cloud who is a member of this crackpot group had to be hauled out by campus police so I could continue with my speech. Like the Columbia vigilantes, Cloud got off unscathed. Appeasement of foreign terrorists goes along with appeasement of domestic terrorists and their fascistic allies.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 7:16am):
Yeah, look how well the airline industry did after deregulation. Mattel did a great job finding someone to use lead paint on their toys. If it weren't for this damn Nanny State, Enron would still be in business.
Private industry is perfect and should be left to itself... the invisible hand has 6 fingers.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 8:29am):
Wow, an econ major writing a column about the FREE MARKET? I'm shocked.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 9:13am):
Straight on, Corey. Socialism is all but dead. It's time the ISO accepted that fact and moved on. They're just a bunch of kids that need to grow up, that's all.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 10:22am):
I am glad Corey wrote in and I think his approach to this (should be ongoing) debate was very honest and fair. It is obvious he has a sincere wish to work through the problems we face today. However, his analysis of the capitalist economy contains the same shortcomings as the economics courses he has probably been taking. (It is unfortunate that, of all the social sciences, econ. is the only one to present only one school of though--that being the neo-classical model, which, btw, had probably got good 'ol Adam Smith rolling over in his grave!) Supply and demand can work well in certain circumstances, but what neo-classical econ. fails to recognize is that demand is only registered where there is money to be made. It does not reflect real human need. For instance, there is little doubt that the 50 million people in America with no health insurence actually need some. (i.e. it is a demand the market has proven itself incapable of responding to.) If you want to get rid of homelessness, build homes. Easy, but not profitable. Currently, according to UN stats, there is enough food in the world to provide over 3,000 calories per day for every person in the world. An yet millions go without daily requirements (with 10s of thousands simply starving to death) while untold quantities of food rot in storage drums. There are many other examples, too.
It our mainstream memory, the USSR, Cuba, and China are taken as examples of "socialist" planning. They were, in fact, furthest from. Rational planning, based on people's collective, democratic control of the means of production/distribution has never been tried where it was not immediately attacked and/or isolated by global capitalism. Supply and demand, however, has been given at least 100 years of unfettered breathing room, and has completely failed to create a justice and sustainable world. I would suggest Corey, and anyone else taking econ. classes at the UW, not take what they're told at face value, and give some alternative theories a good looking over.
Thanks, Corey, for the opportunity. The ISOs kick-off meeting is this Wed. Sept. 12, TITU.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 10:54am):
It is inevitable that in a society with free speech, you will always have wackos and nut jobs that couldn't possibly survive in the real world. The socialist vision of a "utopia" could only work on the scale of a tiny village. Everyone gets 1 loaf of bread from the baker, 1 gallon of milk from the famer, 1 pair of pants from the taylor. How could that possibly work in a modern society? Hell, I'd go into Best Buy right now and clear out the shelves. On the way home I can pick up a couple BMW's. Everything is free, right? And why would I go to college for 4 years to become an engineer? That's hard! Let me bus tables, because no matter how hard you work, you get allocated the same resources by the dictators--I mean, "people's republic."
Let's say you want to make some extra money. You plant a lemon tree and sell lemonade. No, says the government. Your stand will get shut down so that all the people can enjoy the fruits of your hard work.
The socialists don't give a damn about poverty, war, hunger, racism, hatred, or justice. They have been brainwashed by this extreme lefits propaganda. They have been sold on a vision that the world will be at peace if we all just give up our freedoms. No more war (because Russia never invaded or meddled in the affairs of other countries), freedom for all (because Chavez never shut down private news outlets), no poverty (no Russian has ever starved), civil rights (no Chinese have ever been arrested for demanding democracy). It boggles the mind how people can be so stupid as to buy this nonsense.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 12:11pm):
Soviets, Cubans, and Chinese... ooh, we wouldn't want to be like them. I guess you made your point without any possible counterpoint.
-Love, Europe and Canada
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 1:24pm):
China's doing alright for itself.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 1:35pm):
I read an interesting blog regarding children and health insurance at
http://www.dmiblog.com/archives/2007/08/not_caring_for_the_health_of_c.html
A few good points were made there. A very good point made was the fact that socialists are trying to impose their belief system on others by playing emotions or fear, which sinks them down to the same level as the "pigs" they condemn (i.e. The same thing neo-cons already do.) (If you don't believe that, just listen the next time what the ISO people say when they peddle the Socialist Worker. That is, they say cheap stuff to incite emotion like "war," "health care," and "Katrina.")
The irony is that most of these acolytes are, in fact, young college students still full of rebellion and teenage angst, who go to college because of our capitalist system (i.e. For most of us, the parents had to work hard to provide their kids a higher eduction that they themselves may or may not have.)
Furthermore, without a direct threat to student life any socialist movement or organization will remain of little influence to the culture in general. And I mean direct, for example, as in the 1960s when the government proclaimed that college students were no longer exempt for the draft (i.e. They realized they were being forced to go to Vietnam, and that they would die.); on the other hand, we don't currently have such a direct threat to student life and the similar.
Lastly, the mainstream American public no longer takes socialists or anything related to Communism within the U.S. seriously. And when it comes to American politics, such a presence only alienates voters and only causes them to vote more conservative or, at the very least, mainstream. For example, if you look at the last few Presidential campaigns you don't see the Democratic or Republican candidates preaching overly liberal or overly conservative values, respectively, in fear of losing their support from their respective regular voters.
Anyway, in the words of Dennis Miller, "That's just my opinion; I could be wrong."
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 1:50pm):
Free market has no place for real democracy. We as consumers cannot decide what is socially beneficial, we can only "vote" among the lesser of evils (sound familiar?). If the company doesn't outright lie, we can chose the company that pollutes, abuses its workers, and tests on animals... or the one that pollutes, abuses its workers, and tests on animals. Huh.
As much as I disagree with the patronizing, elitist vanguardist politics of the ISO, it's still several steps up from the atrocities caused by unrestrained capitalism.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 1:59pm):
How sweet would be an ISO-Spart cage match?
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 2:25pm):
Hey, for all you ardent free marketeers out there, remember this: libertarianism is nothing more than right-wing socialism. Both sound good in practice, both rely on humans to behave in a way that they never do, and both always fail in practice.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 7:23pm):
I like the idea that mentioning the US gov't's utter failure to provide for its own citizens, as demonstrated via Katrina, is "cheap." Whenever I talk to folks from New Orleans about the subject, they're damn happy we're bringing it up, cuz Bush and co. are sure as hell trying to forget about it.
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 8:05pm):
"Whenever I talk to folks from New Orleans"
Ask 'em about the corrupt Democrat political machine that did jack about disaster planning, did nothing worth-while during the disaster and is now sucking up the billions of dollars coming out of taxpayers' pockets.
Why the hell should I pay for them to live in area destined for disaster?
Anonymous (September 10, 2007 @ 9:27pm):
all i can say is that i sure as shit haven't been buying any cluster bombs, smart bombs, helicopters and machines of death and i guarantee that the majority of americans haven't either. So, how does the very tiny group in this country who are in fact buying things casting so many darn votes? Or do 'purchases' count more than my abstention?
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