Why We Should Be Worried About an Obama Presidency

In today's Chicago Tribune, Charles Madigan, professor at Roosevelt University, attempts to defend Barack Obama by proclaiming that Socialism doesn't really exist and thus, Obama can't be a socialist.

What exactly is socialism? I actually lived for a couple of years in a socialist state called The Soviet Union, which, if I recall, viewed socialism as being kind of a stopping off point on the way to true communism.Production would be in the hands of the masses, society would be egalitarian, money would be slathered around like peanut butter on toast. Everyone would be jolly.

That is one definition of socialism. There are dozens.There was only one problem. It didn't work. There may well be some societies that view themselves as socialist, but my guess is they aren't. They may have some socialist-type icing, but there will always be another shadow system at work down below, a self-interest cake, if you will. That's where you get what you want.

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Which brings me to my socialist experience and why we capitalists have nothing to fear from Sen. Barack Obama, despite much boogah-boogah-boogah-boo arm-waving from his Republican opponents.

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The only way to survive in Russia under socialism was to tap the vast underground network of influence that actually achieved things. My new Russian car broke. An engine valve snapped in its first week of life.No problem, I thought, it's guaranteed. No. Big problem! The guarantee was just for show. You could take your car back and wait. As soon as hell froze over (an annual event in Russia) they might actually get to your car.

Or, you could bribe someone.

Now we're talking! Bribery in the Soviet Union was only a problem if they wanted to catch you. If they did, even if you didn't bribe anyone, they would make it look like you did. So you just might as well. Everything worked that way. It was wonderful.To replace the engine of my new Zhiguli sedan (the car was the color of butterscotch pudding and about 10 percent heavier than any car of its size I have ever seen) it cost me two cartons of Marlboro cigarettes, two bottles of vodka and three boxes of Champion spark plugs, with the spark plugs being by far the most valuable commodity in the exchange. There are no good socialist spark plugs.

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But the truth attached to the experience is eternal. Capitalism is a good system. It just gets out of whack every couple of generations because people become swinish about money.You don't need Karl Marx to fix that. Maybe you need a big, angry federal regulator to straighten out your bank. Maybe you just need a little help from the government you have been funding all these years.

It's not too much to ask. And it most certainly is not socialism.

Now, to me at least, Madigan's piece makes me more scared of an Obama Presidency not less. Madigan is right. Even in societies that fancy themselves Socialist, the only things that work are actually capitalistic in nature. How exactly should that re assure me about Obama? He dismisses Capitalism's winner take all philosophy as faulty, and he wants to create an economy in which wealth is spread. Madigan himself has seen first hand that this philosophy won't work. Senator Obama dismisses market principles in health care in favor of quasi socialist health care. In Canada, their socialized model works "so well" that a Member of Parliament was forced to come to our own "flawed" market system because she couldn't wait any longer to get treated.


In Madigan's own example it wasn't the government run system that worked but rather the market system created by the black market which was responding to the failures of the government's system itself. How is Madigan's example of fixing his car on the black market supposed to make me feel better about Obama's quasi socialist health care plan?

There's more. I also lived for sometime in Communist Soviet Union. My parents told me how they went about getting a job. Each job was assigned to them by the government. Because they were both Jewish, they were immediately assigned worse jobs than non Jews. My dad had a second problem. His father had spent the better part of two decades in a Soviet gulag. What was the reason? My grandfather had run a successful corner store and was deemed a threat by Joseph Stalin. As such, he was imprisoned on the eve of WWII. For this, not only did my grandfather spend twenty years in a gulag, by my father had more difficulty as well being given work. The Soviet experience is a great example of why we don't want the government leading the way in providing jobs.

How does Barack Obama plan on creating jobs?

Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday that as president he would spend $210 billion to create jobs in construction and environmental industries, as he tried to win over economically struggling voters. Obama's investment would be over 10 years as part of two programs. The larger is $150 billion to create 5 million so-called "green collar" jobs to develop more environmentally friendly energy sources.

Sixty billion would go to a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to rebuild highways, bridges, airports and other public projects. Obama estimated that could generate nearly 2 million jobs, many of them in the construction industry that's been hit by the housing crisis.

So, you say it is unfair and provocative to compare Barack Obama's job creation idea to the Soviets. Fine compare his government lead job creation idea to his previous government lead job creation idea. Take a look at this report from the Boston Globe.


Is anyone feeling more comfortable about an Obama presidency yet?

Finally, Mr. Madigan proclaims that all the capitalistic system needs is more regulation of banks. I take issue with anyone that ever makes that proclamation. What the system needs is more oversight of the most basic regulation, fraud. That's what is at the heart of this crisis. It wasn't a lack of regulations, but rather a lack of enforcement. What this system needs is someone divorced of influence from the banks. If you believe that Barack Obama is that person, you haven't been paying attention.