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Scourge of socialism is rampant
(by Dave Lange - November 19, 2008)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Scourge of socialism is rampant
The recent presidential election campaign brought howls against the scourge of socialism. But even hypocritical howlers love socialism.
It was no mere happenstance that one of the largest socialistic programs in our nation's history occurred smack dab in the middle of the campaign with the $700 billion bailout of the lending industry. When the primary victims of the foreclosure crisis were mortgage borrowers being forced out of homes they could not afford, nobody was whining for a bailout. But when giant sub-prime lending institutions began to sink and their financial cesspool spilled onto Wall Street, the capitalists begged for government aid.
Wall Street is not alone. Plenty of other streets leading to capitalistic comforts are paved with the socialistic redistribution of wealth.
This time, I'm not just talking about that $280,000 state-government grant for the relocation of Brainard Road in Pepper Pike to provide more exclusive access to new million-dollar homes in the gated Sterling Lakes development. I'm talking about billions of dollars spent to build and maintain suburban highways such as Route 422 and Interstate 271, enabling privileged commuters to live farther away from cushy jobs in the city. Imagine if a tiny fraction of that government largesse had been used to replace crumbling roads on Cleveland's east side. That might be called socialism.
Every Mercedes, BMW and Lexus heading out to Gates Mills or Russell Township along those highways, as opposed to a Ford, Chevy or Dodge, is a vote for socialism over capitalism. A big reason why those foreign cars are so attractive is that their home countries provide socialized medical care and generous pension plans for workers, while the capitalistic American auto makers have to add those costs to their products.
But let's not stop there. People with high incomes can afford bigger, more expensive homes partly due to the redistribution of wealth through mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions from their income taxes. If you qualify for a $500,000 loan to buy a 4,000-square-foot home in Solon, the government will give you great rewards. But if you only get a $50,000 loan for a small home in Garfield Heights, your reward will be much smaller. And if you rent an apartment in Cleveland Heights, forget about it.
Most property taxes, by the way, support socialized public schools whose resources are directly related to the prosperity of their communities.
While residents of Hunting Valley can count on their village police to respond in a flash to any suspicious individuals in their community and even check on their homes when they're on vacation, citizens in East Cleveland may have to wait in line when it comes to crime. Socialized police protection tends to work much better in wealthy neighborhoods.
The rugged individualism that supposedly made America great is alive and well in much of Geauga County, where many homes remain on individual septic systems, and some people even have them maintained. But one neighborhood in South Russell recently voted to make the socialistic switch to government-owned and operated sewers. If the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature had its way, a lot more citizens would be forced into socialized sewage treatment.
Thank God Americans can still choose their own religious beliefs. But some theocratic socialists want the government to control that too.
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