Welcome to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Greetings Comrade Reader! No, but seriously, it looks like we are well on our way to a Communist America, with this latest round of financial bailouts by the Government. It’s not the bailouts that are so problematic, per se, but the fact that the U.S. Government now owns (or has warrants to own) significant portions of the financial and credit system in this country (Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG are new; the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the FDIC are old news).

For those of you who don’t know the details of Karl Marx’s writings (as I assuredly do not) I managed to dig up the ten key measures required to attain the “First Stage” of Communism, also called “the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”. “Stage Two” or the final stage is “Full Communism”. (These points are generally available on the web. Simply Google “marx 10 measures communism” and you’ll get a half dozen or so hits on the first page of results).

Here are the ten key measures, let’s see how we’re progressing (or not progressing, depending on your point of view).

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all Rents on land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state, the bringing in cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc., etc."

Now that you’ve seen the list, let’s compare to our current situation:

1. Well, in a roundabout way, taking ownership of all the mortgages and sub-prime mortgages in this country actually gets us pretty far down this path, without even realizing it. The movement from significant partial ownership (via property lien) to full ownership is not nearly as big a leap as you might hope.
2. Check!
3. Well, the current estate tax still allows for the rich to stay mostly rich. And it’s full of loopholes. But a few tweaks to this existing law by a Filibuster proof Democratic Congress and Democrat White House could get this one done pretty quickly. I suspect it would really take the form of, “OK, if you’ve got $500K or less, keep it that. Otherwise, hand it over.” At least to begin with. Ask yourself, would the silent majority, for most of whom ever having a $500K net worth is an impossible dream, really protest such a move?
4. Hmm. This is a tricky one. But DHS has certainly got some crazy new fangled powers of late (many of which they don’t even have to tell you about!). The anti-immigrant crowd could probably get suckered pretty easily down a bad, bad road here.
5. Oops. Well, we’re sure as hell a lot closer to that today than we were a week ago. Give it another two weeks and I suspect we’ll be much closer still. Which, by the way, is the Federal Reserve a monopoly? (Check!)
6. This one is tough when there are millions of private automobiles. BUT, the Government does own the roads (for the most part) and a lot of the rails as well. Planes not such much, but the airspace? (Check!) But really, all you’d have to do is control the fuel supply and you’d have things well in hand. Sad thing is, if gas prices keep going up, the American people might actually BEG the Government to take over the energy sector!
7. OK. We’re safe on this one (I think), at least for now. But maybe if the economy sours more, we can get some “New” New Deal programs going to get a start down this particular road. Seems like I’ve heard some grumbling about that already but I can’t recall where.
8. Except for the super-rich, do you know anyone who doesn’t have to work for a living? If they close the loopholes in the Estate Tax (see #3) then this one is a done deal for sure.
9. Now, Will is the expert here, but this one doesn’t sound very “sustainable” to me. Or is it the opposite? Either way, forced migrations are bound to not go over well. They’ll have to get the “New” New Deal programs going to get people moving around. But I’d argue that this point isn’t really critical, or even relevant in a society with a significant service sector in which all the urban residents work (or slave away). I think China is also making my case for me here.
10. Check!

Alright, so how did we do? Let’s tally it up. We’re 100% there on points 2 and 10, and 99.9% of the way there on point 8. I’d say we’re about 50% of the way there on 1, 3, 5 and 6. I’ve made the case for throwing out 9, and that only leaves 4 and 7 needing a lot of work (0% there). So, rough math, I’d say were more than halfway there (55% or better on average).

I suppose I should follow up this article with one that argues the flaws in these “ideals”. Or I suppose, the “flaws” as I see them (remember, I’m a self proclaimed DCP or “Dirty Capitalist Pig”).

Is this scary to anyone other than me? Not that I think there aren’t significant issues with our current brand of grossly, negligently unregulated Capitalism, but surely we know enough history to see that Communism isn’t the answer either. Is it?