Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

If Bernie's European-style socialism does come to America, it will be an utter disaster. Euro-socialism works because Europe still has a socially stratified society. A British girl who is born a princess or a baroness knows from the time she is a toddler that she is a princess or baroness – and the daughter of a working-class soccer yob knows from the time she is a toddler that she will never, ever be a princess or baroness. The purpose of European socialism is to buy off the lower classes to maintain the existing social order, and the European elites do a reasonably good job of managing socialist programs because maintaining their superior status depends upon it.

But in the United States, everyone is born equal under the law. The American attitude was always that any individual could enrich himself beyond his wildest dreams – but his ambition was tempered by the fact that he could just as well fall into complete destitution. Socialism in America would eliminate the latter – but not the former. American socialism would turn into the same kind of corruption, plunder, and special-interest favoritism that Sanders decries in the private sector.