Good for Elizabeth Warren. She’s letting us know where she stands. No oily evasiveness for her, or at least less than usual from politicians.
Here are her eleven tenets of today’s progressivism, outlined in a July 18 speech before Netroots Nation. Below each tenet are a few questions for her.
1. “We believe that Wall Street needs stronger rules and tougher enforcement, and we’re willing to fight for it.”
Will you fight to end government bail-outs? How will you end them if Wall Street is operated as a subsidiary of Washington? How will you end them if Washington needs big Wall Street firms to buy its bonds with money created by Washington?
The real problem here is that government control, tough or not, is destroying the market’s own internal discipline. Markets aren’t just about profits. They are also about bankruptcy. Wall Street firms must be allowed to fail.
2. “We believe in science, and that means that we have a responsibility to protect this Earth.”
So-progressivism is backed by science and other political philosophies aren’t? People who disagree with you don’t care about the earth?
3. “We believe that the Internet shouldn’t be rigged to benefit big corporations, and that means real net neutrality.”
Rigged to benefit big corporations? No. But are you just benefiting some big corporations at the expense of others? What do you mean by “real net neutrality”?
4. “We believe that no one should work full-time and still live in poverty, and that means raising the minimum wage.”
What if someone can’t get a full-time job, perhaps because of Obamacare. Do they get no help?
And how will an increase in the minimum wage help those who can’t get any job because of the minimum wage? How will this help teenagers or other young people get their first job?
The great progressive president Franklin Roosevelt intervened to keep wages high during the Great Depression. The result was that those who succeeded in keeping their jobs were even better off than before while millions of others were thrown out of work and had nothing.
5. “We believe that fast-food workers deserve a livable wage, and that means that when they take to the picket line, we are proud to fight alongside them.”
Hm. How are you “fighting alongside them” other than giving speeches? Are you fighting for the workers or for the unions? And how much money have you received from unions?
6. “We believe that students are entitled to get an education without being crushed by debt.”
Yes–and then what? Hasn’t the federal student loan program driven up the cost of a college education, leaving many students worse off than before it existed?
And why is the federal government borrowing at a low interest rate and then charging the students a much higher rate? How can it be right to make a profit off the students and then apply it to the federal budget under a line called “deficit reduction.”
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Hunter Lewis is co-founder of AgainstCronyCapitalism.org, co-founder and former chief executive of Cambridge Associates, a global investment firm, and author of nine books on economics and related topics.