Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Capitalism ‘Irredeemable’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said during a Saturday interview at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, that the ideology of capitalism is “irredeemable.”

“Capitalism is an ideology of capital — the most important thing is the concentration of capital and to seek and maximize profit,” Ocasio-Cortez said during the interview, before making the argument that capitalism is destructive because it aims to hurt people and the environment.

“To me, capitalism is irredeemable,” she added.

The self-described Democratic socialist then told the audience that they “should be scared” about corporations taking over the government:

“Just as there’s all this fearmongering that government is going to take over every corporation and government is going to take over every business or every form of production, we should be scared right now because corporations have taken over our government,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

The freshman Democrat lawmaker proceeded to define Democratic socialism as having an emphasis on “democracy” and workers’ rights.

“It’s just as much a transformation about bringing democracy to the workplace so that we have a say and that we don’t check all of our rights at the door every time we cross the threshold into our workplace,” she said. “Because at the end of the day, as workers and as people in society, we’re the ones creating wealth.”

Although Ocasio-Cortez spent plenty of time pontificating about the evils of capitalism and big corporations, she failed to mention that she owes $1,870.36 in corporate taxes on a company she founded in 2012, Fox News reported.

Public records show that Ocasio-Cortez owed New York State $1,870.36 in corporate taxes for her children’s book publishing company Brook Avenue Press.

According to New York state law, all businesses have to pay a corporation tax based on how much revenue they make. The state issued the tax on a sliding scale and mandated that companies pay a minimum of $25.

New York state dissolved Ocasio-Cortez’s company in October 2016 for failing to pay the taxes and then served the company with a warrant in July 2017, two months after Ocasio-Cortez mounted a primary challenge against then-incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY).