Monday, September 18, 2017

LOL Bernie's Silly New Book on Political Revolution: A Review

Rah, rah Bernie.

By Robert Wenzel

When I first heard that Bernie Sanders was coming out with a handbook on political revolution, I was concerned.

This is it, I thought, Bernie is going to give the millennials a playbook on how to move the country toward more socialism.

I need not have been concerned. Bernie's book, Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution, is a
heap of nothing. It is not Saul Alinsky 2. It is not advanced Gene Sharp.

The closest thing that is in the book to political revolution advice, and I am not making this up, is this:
Many of the necessary changes in our economic structure and rules will be made at the national level...

Your elected officials need to know what your position is on the bills...Their staff keep records of opinion messages...

A list of senators and representatives is at congress.gov/members.
For the most part, the book is simply a rehash of Lefty interventionist demands: a higher minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, free college tuition.

He backs up these claims with flaky data that anyone who has ever read How to Lie with Statistics  would see through in minutes.

Bernie starts his book off by writing:
[H]ealthcare costs are going up, child care costs are going up, and housing costs are going up.
But he never makes the obvious connection that these sectors, for the most part, are sectors highly regulated by the government and where the government does a lot of funding.

As former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has pointed out, prices have collapsed in sectors where the government has not become involved, for example, toys and televisions. It is the sectors where the government is heavily involved that prices soar.

As I have noted:
 In the free market, competition pushes prices lower. Where governments get involved and are willing to pick up the check, crony vulture opportunists circle around government power centers, not to cut prices, but to increase them and gain crony profits. It is no longer about competition but schmoozing the power center operators.
And I have two videos out that detail the specific problems with Bernie's higher minimum wage advocacy. SEE:  How to Smash Slick Lefties Who Advocate the Minimum Wage and 2+2=4.

One thing that should be an embarrassment to libertarian Trump supporters (if there are any left) is that in the book, Bernie uses the same justification for trade protectionism that Donald Trump does. The problems with this view are obvious.

Bottom line: The book is lightweight, It will be of no use to millennials and will probably put most to sleep who try to work through it.


Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of  EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics and on LinkedIn. His youtube series is here: Sunday Morning with Robert Wenzel.The Robert Wenzel podcast is on  iphone and stitcher.

3 comments:

  1. Bernie Sanders knows perfectly well what his role is, to give the proggies hope and out voting for the corporate sock puppet party stooge. He the bait and switch candidate.

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  2. Bernie is a one-percenter. Nothing wrong with that except how he got there; by being part of the powers that should not be. The last thing those in Bernie's position want is revolution. The title of his book is pure government speak.

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  3. "The first duty of a revolutionist is to get away with it."
    -- Abbie Hoffman

    This is the guy whose political campaign got a mortal wedgie from Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

    ReplyDelete