The White House on Socialism

It is not often that the US Government makes an official pronouncement on socialism but they have in a new report that has been released.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Opportunity-Costs-of-Socialism.pdf

It is not dealing with what the Socialist Party describes as socialism/communism but what the Leninists mean by “socialism”, i.e. state capitalism which is neither socialism nor a step towards it or what the social-democrats like the Labour Party ascribe the meaning of socialism to the welfare state

 It is, in fact, a criticism of any state intervention in the working of the competitive, profit-seeking capitalist economy (whether through state ownership or through state regulation) to redirect production,  redistribute income or introduce free services (education, health care). According to the report, this leads to a misallocation of resources (ie not what the unregulated market would bring about) resulting in a lower standard of living all around. Hence “the opportunity costs of socialism” of the title.

The report says this applies just as much to the milk-and-water reformism practised in the Nordic countries as to what went on in the USSR under Stalin and China under Mao. It states explicitly that it has been drawn up because “socialism is making a comeback in American political discourse” and it attacks “Senator Sanders” and “Senator Warren” for standing, in a moderate form, for the same sort of thing as Lenin, Stalin, and Mao.  The “mad marketeers” such as  Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Margaret Thatcher are cited approvingly.  There may be a debate between right-wing capitalism and leftwing reformism but, as it’s not a debate between capitalism and socialism we don’t need to take sides, especially as we know that reformism doesn’t and cannot work. 

Nevertheless, it is a good sign that the word “socialism” has made “a comeback in US political discourse”. That gives us a chance to get a join in if only to say that socialism is not about state ownership or regulatory legislation. In fact, by stating that communism (which equals socialism for Marx and us) has never been tried and is “a social arrangement where there is neither a state nor private property” as the report explains the White House has given us a perfect cue to intervene.