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Tuesday, June 02, 2015

It's Socialism, Not Deodorant, That Starves the Poor

What this country needs, says Bernie Sanders, is less deodorant.

The 73-year-old senator from Vermont, now running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told CNBC’s John Harwood in an interview on Tuesday that because American consumers can choose from so many brands of personal-care products, kids are going to bed with empty bellies.

“You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country,” Sanders lamented. He didn’t explain exactly how the profusion of toiletries and athletic footwear leads to childhood hunger, but for the only self-described socialist in Congress, it is no doubt a matter of faith that the abundance of capitalism must generate poverty and undernourishment.

In the real world, the opposite is true: Hunger and deprivation are rarest where markets and trade are freest. Food in America couldn’t possibly be more plentiful; no one starves because too many economic resources are being channeled into marketing Old Spice instead of oatmeal. But in the socialist delusion, centralized control is always preferable to voluntary enterprise. Better that government czars should decide what is produced, and impose their plan from above. After all, when buyers and sellers are left free to choose for themselves, grocery and department store aisles fill up with “too many” goods that consumers desire to buy. And that’s not the worst of it: In the process of fulfilling those desires, some capitalists may be getting wealthy.

Sanders’s suggestion that more kids would eat if only deodorant came in fewer varieties was roundly mocked. Wherever his collectivist ideology has been enforced, however, the consequences — shortages, rationing, bare shelves, long lines, grinding austerity — are anything but funny.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hillary must be paying hi to run so she looks good!

Anonymous said...

Socialism just like the Confederacy is DEAD and will never save humanity but only further enslave it..

Anonymous said...

434 you live in a socialist state.

Anonymous said...

Well, we have capitalism now and look where it has us. It's not doing so great is it?

Anonymous said...

He will get the support of Obama.

Anonymous said...

"Well, we have capitalism now and look where it has us. It's not doing so great is it?"

Huh? We've had socialism under Obama for going on 8 years. It is this that has brought us to where we are today you dummy. All that Obama has done for us is help rid those rude smokers who expose us to their 2nd hand vise. I am using OC's program to record and turn in puffers to the OC Smoking Police.

Anonymous said...

508 capitalism made our country the strongest nation on earth and gave us the highest standard of living the world has known. Creeping socialism is what you are noticing.

Anonymous said...

"Well, we have capitalism now and look where it has us. It's not doing so great is it?" Wrong - we have not had capitalism for a very long time in this country.

Anonymous said...

It's idiots like 5:08 that are the problem. They can't recognize the damage that has been done by "democrat" socialist philosophy to the capitalist model that lifted most of the third world to at least second world status while being the driving force behind the industrial and technological revolution on earth.
The success of capitalism scares the socialist/communist and shakes them to their hysterical core.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with the replies to 5:08.

I will add that the latest pitch by Hillary is just MORE STALE rhetoric that the white Republicans are out to get you. She's wrong. The white Republicans and many others are out to get the Democratic liberals that have made us suffer these past 8 years. That's Town, City, State, and National. Washington needs to be cleaned out.