The Socialistic Qualities Of Bernie Sanders

First, the author will evaluate the socialistic qualities of Bernie Sanders. These socialistic characteristics include the Green New Deal, student debt relief, and a minimum wage of $15.

Bernie Sanders, a socialist democratic candidate, has drawn criticism for these kinds of socialist policies, however, he has pointed out that Nordic countries like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark do it, therefore, the United States can do it as well. According to a Forbes magazine article written by Jeffery Dorfman where he talks about how Bernie’s platform is a lot more socialistic then these nordic countries disagree. He writes, “ Socialism can take the form of government controlling or interfering with free markets, nationalizing industries, and subsidizing favored ones (green energy, anyone?). The Nordic countries don’t actually do much of those things” (Dorfman). Although these countries may provide government-paid healthcare, sometimes tuition-free university educations, and rather generous social safety nets, all financed with high taxes. There is still room for the private sector to receive no interference from the government and are able to function in which they produce high corporate and personal incomes which supports tax collections while having government run healthcare for all and free education (Dorfman). As Dorfman puts it, “ The Nordic countries are smart enough not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.” With Bernie’s socialistic platform, however, he will hurt the private sector a lot more than the Nordic countries do and in reality, and he has a lot more socialistic qualities than the nordic countries have, so one can’t use them as to why these policies will work.

So, the author will now evaluate how much these policies will have an impact on our country’s economy. First, the author will analyze Bernie’s version of Medicare for all plan. According to a Vox report written by Sarah Kliff who examines Bernie’s healthcare plan says that when emplaced, those who qualify for the universal healthcare plan receive benefits which include hospital visits, primary care, medical devices, lab services, maternity care, and prescription drugs as well as vision and dental benefits. Additionally, long-term care benefit that would cover care for Americans with a disability at home or in community settings (Kliff). This is much more than the Canadien healthcare system offers and more than what the Dutch system offers which are some of the most progressive healthcare systems in the world. Although Bernie has presented ways he can pay for this it’d be an immense challenge to try and pay for everyone and according to the author, who pays how much more is a key question this Sanders bill doesn’t answer yet. Until there is a version that does, no one can’t know whether the health system the Vermont senator envisions could actually become a reality. One can draw a conclusion from above that since this proposed healthcare system offers more free entitlements to people of the plan, taxes will have to go through the roof on the middle class and upper class (Kliff). The question is: how much will taxes the taxes go up and will they cripple the middle class?

Now, the author will now analyze Bernie Sander’s GND proposal and its potential effects on the country. According to a Fox News article written by Gregg Re, The sweeping 'Green New Deal' could cost as much as $93 trillion, or approximately $600,000 per household according to a new study co-authored by the former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This amounts to around $9 trillion a year. According to the study, there are some other huge price tags. Green housing and renovation would cost from $1.3-$4.2 trillion, food security for every living person would cost $1.5 billion, the 10-year transition to a low-carbon electricity grid would cost $5.4 trillion, and establishing a light rail system would cost $1.1-$2.5 trillion. According to the study, the light rail system alone would take decades to pay off the capital investment (Re). Imagine how much time it would take to pay off the whole GND. According to Wikipedia, the spending for the United States in 2018 was 4.11 Trillion dollars. One can beg the question of how much money a year will the United States have to set aside to pay off this debt. If the United States spent $1 trillion a year to pay them off it’ll take 93 years to pay off and spent our whole budget on the GND it’ll take around 22 years to pay off. Although Bernie Sanders has said that he will pay for this, the amount of damage it’s going to do to the insurance sector, the amount of taxes that would be raised, and how much debt this country will go into would be uncontrollable.

Next, the author will analyze how much money it’ll take to relieve the student debt crisis. According to a Time magazine written by Senators John Thune and Mark Warner, the total student debt crisis comes to $1.5 trillion. To immediately forgive all of this money and the next generations after would be a huge economic burden to Americans because taxes would have to be raised even higher for the federal government to forgive all student loans.

Next, the author will look at Bernie’s plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 and the economic cost it could have on our economy. A Vox article was written by Alexia Campbell which analyzes a report released by congressional economists shows that a $15 minimum wage could raise 1.3 million people out of poverty and raise the wages of 27 million American workers. However, it could also cost Americans 1.3-3.7 million jobs. This would be detrimental to the economy as the unemployment rate will spike and prices will have to be raised on products since companies need to make a profit and can’t when they pay their workers more and more money. Instead, according to the same report, if one increased the minimum wage to $12, this would only result in a 300,000 job loss and $10 would only result in a job loss of 100,000 workers (Campbell). As one can see from above the socialistic quality of a “guaranteed living wage” of $15 would have a devastating impact on American jobs and one should realize that it'd be a lot less hurtful to the economy if the government raised the minimum wage to 12 or 10 dollars an hour or just keep it the same.