Or: Why The “Democratic Socialism” Sold By The Democrats Isn’t All It Seems To Be
Gloom and doom! Deception, misdirection, and grim-Christmas! For our normal readers, seeing some of the worst traits mankind possesses being dissected piece by piece is what you normally get when coming to the site. But today, I wanted to do something a little more lighthearted. Something that I had formulated a few years ago, but never really found the correct way to articulate it until now. Before I go too in-depth, I need to put up a disclaimer. I’m not endorsing this political/economical plan or process.
Written By: Anton Sawyer
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Though I’m going to break it down into digestible pieces, none of this is a positive affirmation of its success. The reason being is that I know it can’t work. If you get down to brass tacks, the reason why no socio-economic programs can work fully is the same; humans, emotions. What it means to have that blessed feature we call “humanity” and having “free will.” If you took that singular element away and practiced every ideology, without the burden of desires that people foster in their hearts, they can all work. Capitalism could legitimately function for all classes. Taking the thought that you cut taxes on the wealthy, and they use that to increase jobs and increase salaries to comfortable wages, it would be great. People wouldn’t be as depressed over the thought of some life emergency sending them into bankruptcy. More disposable income allowing inventors or entrepreneurs to invest in an idea that would bear the fruit of jobs for their fellow man, thereby repeating the cycle. In theory, outstanding. But it never works that way in practice. Throughout world history, time and time again wealth has done nothing more than begotten wealth for its own sake. Jobs may be created, but there’s a reason a minimum wage was even enacted in the first place; because very few job providers were willing to give their employees enough money to afford to live.
Socialism, Communism, Marxism, any other "ism" that can be used as a pejorative for anything that isn’t American has the power to work, once you remove all free will. Even in the book “The Republic” by Plato, one of the philosophies brought about was that a utopian society can only exist once you find what a person is good at, and then exploit it. From childhood, if a youth shows a propensity towards drawing or the arts, they are whisked away to perfect that craft—their lives already being destined. Now if that same child who is good at art, has a passion for science, and wants to pursue that instead, too bad. The society would get the most from its citizens and would function at optimum capabilities … until the citizens would eventually revolt due to suppression. In essence, how half of America’s citizens acted during the Covid-19 pandemic is all I need to say when it comes to this. Please keep this in mind as you continue.
The Democratic National Committee is terrible at Public Relations. Time and time again, I have shown how they have said one thing and done another, but that’s not what this is about. It’s about their ability to sell people on their notion of “Democratic Socialism.” In a nutshell, the DNC is trying to push the idea of wealth distribution under the current capitalistic economy as the minimum wages aren’t enough to sustain the basics of life: clothing, food, shelter. Voting and all other democratically-based institutions would remain the same, along with the US Constitution. The point of persuasion is to get those who disagree with you to, at the very least, have a clear idea of what it is they oppose and how their arguments may, or may not, be correct. Especially, when it’s due to fundamental ideological differences due to misunderstanding. Once you do that, it’s easier to convince them that you could be correct. There are tens of millions of Americans who see the phrase “wealth distribution” and immediately cling to their American flag like it will protect them against Communism (or whatever) in the same way a cross protects against a vampire. That’s why I'm going to take a crack at explaining what this means in a way that will be most understandable to the largest amount of people: NFL football—the business, not the sport itself. I know it seems counterintuitive to use the sport which has been cast by many as “unAmerican” as the model for my platform. The point isn't whether someone hates the NFL or not. The NFL's concepts are really easy to understand, and most Americans kind of know the basics already.
I might miss some of the intricate, more minute details of the business, these broad strokes I’m using should still give you a pretty good idea. The business model the NFL uses has been around since the mid-1960s and was key to keeping certain teams in smaller markets afloat; wealth distribution. At the end of each season, the league takes every single dime from every source of income and puts it into one huge account. And I mean EVERY source of income they are legally entitled to. If a local channel in Kenosha, Wisconsin pays a couple of million for NFL rights, it gets added in. For every paying customer that attends a live sporting event, it’s another addition. The reason this was done so early on was that the league could see if they didn’t, then smaller markets would vanish. A 50-yard line, front row ticket to see a game in Kansas City, Missouri is going to be a lot less expensive than it would be for the same seat to watch the New York Jets. The leaders knew that if they didn’t level the playing field this way, some franchises that started the league could fall by the wayside. At the end of each season, they divided all monies amongst the 32 teams. This means that every team is given the exact same amount of money to pay their players and personnel for the upcoming season. How the team chooses to spend it is entirely up to them. So think of the league as the government and each team as a business.
One of the most prevalent conservative arguments against this kind of wealth distribution is that everyone will be paid the exact same, no matter how good or bad they perform their task. That if you are an overachiever, you will not be recognized for your additional contributions. But that’s not how it works. If you have a business (team), with hundreds of employees (players/personnel), those who are the best at what they do are very well compensated. I’m pretty sure that Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes makes more than Cincinnati Bengals backup quarterback Brandon Allen (fast fact: he does). So your job performance directly impacts the amount of money you make. But, they do also have league minimums (like a minimum wage) which allow every player to make a living wage while they play (are employed). If a business isn’t wanted in an area—low consistent attendance—then the owner is able to sell the business or move it to a different geographical location where it will have success. Also, for that racist uncle, or cousin, or other family members you may have that are still hung up about Colin Kaepernick using his freedom of speech to make an issue known, remind them that an overwhelming majority of NFL teams are currently owned by white men.
I know that all of this is kind of a pipe-dream. As a nation, we have accepted Capitalism as our economic standard. To change everything to mirror what I’ve written about would require a complete overhaul of the Constitution, taxes, public perception, etc. The sheer numbers game when it comes to getting half of the country to even understand basic history and science shows that a complete overhaul is nigh impossible. But, if you realistically understand what is at the heart of wealth distribution, it’s not as terrifying. Hopefully, the realities of what benefits could come from such a thing can be more easily tolerated by the masses once all of the boogeymen are stripped away. Maybe, this article can be step one.
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