Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) revealed a fascist vision for America at this weekend’s South by Southwest film festival.
Ocasio-Crazy’s own words:
We should not be haunted by the specter of being automated out of work. We should be nervous about the toll booth collector not having to collect tolls anymore. We should be excited by that. But the reason we’re not excited is because we live in a society where if you don’t have a job you are left to die, and that is at its core, our problem. And there are a lot of different solutions, a lot of different proposed ideas about how we go about that.
Bill Gates has talked about taxing robots at 90 percent. What he’s really talking about is taxing corporations at 90 percent, but it’s easier to say “tax a robot.”
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Whether you want to call it “Democratic Socialism” or “Techno Futurism,” or like whatever it is, it is because our technological advancement as a society has outpaced our system for handling finite resources. Because now we are approaching infinite resources.
Much to unpack here, so let’s start with the overall aspect of this.
Basically, Ocasio-Crazy envisions a world where the government takes 90 percent from the rich and distributes it to hundreds of millions of American who no longer need to work due to automation.
Her ignorance, at least on this specific point, comes from two places: 1) Ocasio-Crazy believes people fear automation because they fear starving to death, and 2) she believes the unemployed are left to die in America.
Sure, there are people out there who would love to have a robot take over their jobs, become wards of the State, and live happily ever after high on medical marijuana and cable TV — but those people are in the minority.
Most people fear automation because their work, even if it is in a tollbooth, offers a sense of purpose and pride. For most people, work is more than just the means to survive, it enriches the human spirit and fulfills those of us who provide for ourselves and our families.
Now, my point is not that we should oppose the progress of automation; my point is that Ocasio-Crazy, like most on the extreme left, has no basic understanding of human nature, or at least no respect for it.
In her second point, the ludicrous notion people are left to die in America… What nonsense. Unless you are mentally ill or dealing with an addiction — in other words, beyond help — American capitalism has eliminated poverty.
Oh, sure, we can create an arbitrary number, an arbitrary poverty line, but here in America there is no actual poverty. Everyone has access to K-12 education, everyone has access to health care (yes, even if you cannot pay); there is so much food obesity is what plagues the so-called poor, and the poor not only have a comfortable place to live, they have microwave ovens, TVs, video games, air conditioning, and a number of other luxuries only the wealthy could afford 75 years ago.
Later in her talk, Ocasio-Crazy reveals what she means by this buzz-phrase “infinite resources:”
Capitalism is based on scarcity and what happens when there is enough for everyone to eat, what happens when there is enough for everyone to be clothed, then you have to make scarcity artificial. And that is what has happened. We have created artificial scarcity and that is why we are being driven to work 80 hours a week when we are being our most productive at any point in American history. We should be working the least amount we’ve ever worked if we were actually paid based on how much wealth we were producing. But we’re not. We’re paid on how little we’re desperate enough to accept, and then the rest is skimmed off and given to a billionaire.
This is even beyond socialism and capitalism, which are based on the idea the “workers” are in charge.
Ocasio-Crazy wants to sell us the snake oil of a world where workers are no longer necessary, where if we surrender to automation, we won’t have to work. You see, the robots will produce the goods we need, complete the services we need, and the government will support us by taxing the robot-staffed companies producing those goods.
Obviously, we will still need people to maintain and produce the machines, but that is what illegal aliens are for. As far as the factories that manufacture the machines, that’s what the Chinese are for — at least until the factories that make the machines are automated Terminator-style.
Ocasio-Crazy’s America is one where no one has to do anything; the machines and the government do it all.
Let’s pretend, for just a moment, that this economic system is feasible. It’s not. For a million big and little reasons, it’s bonkers, but let’s pretend otherwise… That does not change the fact that what Ocasio-Crazy is really selling has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics. Hers is a political philosophy, not an economic one.
What happens to us if no one works and the government supports us? Where does that leave us as a society? Well, obviously it leaves us totally reliant on centralized government for everything, which means the government (and those in it) have complete control over us.
That’s Ocasio-Crazy’s goal here, that’s the true agenda — CONTROL, and in order to achieve that monstrous end, she’s spewing Brave New World gibberish about “Techno Futurism,” which reminds me of the Brave New World gibberish about Obamacare.
If you recall, Obamacare was supposed to make everything easier, more centralized, and less expensive. But look at what happened with Obamacare — the reality of it: it’s a disaster, a bloated, choice-killing, wildly expensive disaster, but — and this is by design — it is a disaster that gives centralized government more control over our lives through our health care.
It’s the same thing with Ocasio-Crazy’s “Techno Futurism.” In order to grab more and more control over our lives, she’s selling a lie about being able to organize and control human nature through altruistic automation and altruistic taxes and an altruistic government that knows what’s best for you. There is another name for this…
Fascism.
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