By Chris Rossini
This morning, a very ominous tweet was sent out by Presidential contender Bernie Sanders: I've got a message for corporate America: if you want us to buy your products, you better start producing them here in the United States.
That's a very scary message on many different levels. First, it lumps "corporate America" together into one big blob that must obey a politician's edicts. Is there no such thing as private property anymore? Is there no more free will? Are we to produce what politicians tell us to produce? Are we to hire those who politicians say we must hire?
Is a worker from another part of the world any less of a human being than an American? I hope that your answer to that question is a resounding NO! Ahhh...but the cries will immediately stream from the "Democratic Socialists" that workers around the world are "low-wage" workers! So? Bernie Sanders makes $174,000 per year (of taxpayer money) as his salary. When he goes to get a haircut, does his barber have to make $174,000 per year as well? How about when Bernie is served by waiters and waitresses....Do they have to make $174,000 per year in order for him to dine with them? Then why is Sanders "taking advantage" of low-paid workers? They should make what he makes in order for him to exchange with them, right? Of course not. Bernie can make contracts and trade with whomever he wishes. It doesn't matter what their skill-levels are, or what they earn per year. The same should apply to people who are lumped together as "corporate America". An employment contract is nothing but an exchange of money for labor performed. Corporations should be allowed to contract with, employ, and exchange with whomever they want. It doesn't matter what their skill-levels are, where they happen to live, or what they earn per year. Bernie has a problem with people voluntarily contracting with one another. "Corporate America" must make employment contracts with people that he approves of. Here's a good question: Should foreign corporations take Bernie's advice and do the same? Should they close up shop in the U.S., and layoff all American employees? Should they head back to their home country? Bernie's stance shows a complete disregard for voluntary interactions, freedom and liberty. Sanders seeks to embrace force and use it aggressively against others. That's dictatorial, and not the philosophy of a friend of Liberty. If Bernie really wants "corporate America" to stick around, then the U.S. government must be peeled away like an onion. Layer after layer of red tape must be removed. America is a bureaucratic swamp, employing ever-growing numbers of apparatchiks. Thomas Jefferson wrote of King George III in the Declaration of Independence: He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
Well, it has happened again, except this time the "swarms of Officers" are homegrown.
Sanders should focus on that, instead of spouting out dictatorial edicts that further erode whatever is left of our liberty. Comments are closed.
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