In response to James McCusker’s Dec. 1 column (“Will ‘free stuff’ tempt Americans to try socialism”): He’s worried about the new wave of congressional representatives declaring to be socialists, not free market capitalists.
We seem to have forgotten that the free market capitalism system failed in 2008. We ended up socializing the banksters with free money from us. We the people had to give all of them “free stuff” to keep the economy from collapsing; socialism for the rich, austerity and strict capitalism for the masses. No CEO went to jail, and they later gave their senior executives bonuses.
During the buildup, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told us the markets would correct themselves. He was wrong, they didn’t. He also confessed later under oath that his “theory was flawed.”
A social democracy is where “we the people” decide how our money is spent. (A nurturing society, where we take care of one another)
Free market capitalism pits each of us against each other. If you actually care about the rest of us (including the least of us) you might want those social programs that serve their interests (Social Security, Medicare for all, free college, roads, bridges, libraries, public utilities, clean water, clean air, and more.
All of these are social programs that the “free marketers” would like to privatize.
We can do better, stay informed. Don’t believe everything they say. There are thousand of writers from think tanks that want to persuade or confuse you.
Patrick Rainsberger
Snohomish
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