George Rebane

On this Labor Day our Union columnist George Boardman takes a particularly dim view of the state our economy and its workforce (here).  He recounts economic news only to continue the socialist narrative of envy and promote some dismal legislation, while decrying the evil and uncaring capitalist system under which Americans are forced to suffer.  Mr Boardman is not breaking any new ground here with his reportage of the dire straits of the American worker – that kind of news has come from the Left like clockwork since at least the roaring 20s, and reached an apex when the federal government put and kept the county mired in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Along with the Pelosi, Schumer, et al school of economics and social justice, Boardman discounts the sea change in economic growth and unemployment under President Trump.  What he chooses to trumpet is how the Left sees our workers fairing, abetted by the false flag stats that horribly misrepresent the quoted official US poverty rate of above 14% (with some more rabid leftwing outfits claiming a 28% to 50% rates) that compares poorly with other OECD countries (here).

What the casual reader should keep in mind when reading this leftwing blather is that all the other countries include in their citizens’ income the contribution of the government checks and benefits they get for this and that.  The poverty rate calcs for US workers totally omit the $1.1T annual benefits that our federal and state governments dispense.  Over the years it becomes clear that the more our government spends on transfer payments (aka welfare), the higher goes our poverty rate – go figger.  Detailed analyses of this propaganda have been provided by organizations such as Heritage, Cato, and the Mercatus Center.  (more here and here) The Left cannot refute the facts that destroy their narrative, so they put up a smokescreen that these numbers come from right-leaning outfits, and therefore none of them are to be trusted.  End of story.

Today the effective US poverty rate is actually below 2% to near zero – that is the news that no leftwing outlet would ever report.  But this fortuitous state of affairs is corroborated by the economic behavior of both our alleged impoverished and those millions seeking entry into an America that the Left likes to characterize as being under the zero-sum heel of our 1% greedy and uncaring capitalist class.  Again, students of history will recognize this narrative as echoes of what communists and their derivative fascists were purveying across Europe and America between the world wars.

As we approach the midterm elections, it doesn’t advance the Left’s prospects for regaining power to acknowledge the good news of America’s real poverty rate.  Their working solution for bamboozling voters has always been to do everything to increase all forms of welfare so as to keep their constituents off worker rolls, working part time, or at less demanding low-pay jobs knowing that if they vote correctly, then government checks will maintain them at a comfortable quality of life.

As was shown by Charles Murray years ago and more recently reported in Forbes (here), our official poverty rate is more of a measure of inequality of workplace income than actual consumption-based poverty.  The trillion plus that we dispense annually in checks, food stamps, and services would be much more effectively spent if converted into a guaranteed national income which would net every person around $10K a year.  This would then lift almost every household above even the most stringent measure of poverty.

In the meantime, today’s government licensing regulations continue to erect high barriers for the poor and less educated, that prevent them from taking well-paying, accessible jobs and/or starting their own businesses. (here) These restrictions are the visible handiwork of leftwing politicians ensconced in about half of our state legislatures.  California is among the leaders in keeping our poor out of the labor pool, thereby gracing our state with America’s highest poverty rate.

As a final shot in the shorts to both the American worker and taxpayer, Mr Boardman joins the chorus of leftwing journalists who promote Bernie Sanders’ latest announced foray into expanding socialism through his cleverly camouflaged bill to increase business tax rates.  As our guileless columnist notes, “Senator Bernie Sanders proposes to take that burden off the shoulders of taxpayers and put it where it belongs — on the well-padded shoulders of corporations. Sanders plans to introduce legislation this week to require large employers such as Amazon, Walmart and McDonalds to fully cover the cost of food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and other federal assistance received by their employees.” (emphasis mine)

What Boardman conveniently ignores is that businesses count taxes and other such diktat expenditures as legal business costs, which they either pass on to their customers (i.e. Sanders’ ‘unburdened’ taxpayers) or reduce their spending on R&D, expansion, product improvements, etc if they don’t have sufficient pricing power in their markets.  One way or the other, the real burden of socialism always falls on the taxpayers whose buying power and choice of products/services is reduced, while politicians ballyhoo that they’re making the dirty capitalists pay their ‘fair share’ to fund government benefits.  But for some reason across the globe and in America, this burden on taxpayers and the poor never shows up in leftwing ledgers.

Happy Labor Day!