Warren Has Repeatedly Said She Believes in Capitalism, But Don’t Believe Her.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has built her political career by proclaiming that government has been working well for the benefit of the rich and powerful, but not for the rest of us. That’s a pretty bold claim coming from someone worth $8 million, and who scammed her way into a job at Harvard Law School by fabricating a Native American heritage. Warren’s claim has worked well for her lately because recent polls show she is now the runner up in the Democratic Presidential race. Part of the reason for her success is that she is an idea factory, and we all know how Democrats love a candidate offering “new ideas.” But when your ideas originate in an alternate reality where the Constitution imposes no limits on government, and where one believes you can repeal the laws of economics, thoughtful voters should be wary. That’s because if Warren has her way, America would cease to exist as we know it. Here’s why.
Elizabeth Warren Believes Capitalism is Fundamentally Unfair and Exploitive.
During her 2012 run for the United States Senate, Elizabeth Warren was quoted at a campaign rally in Massachusetts detailing her vision of capitalism. One only need scrutinize her words closely to understand why Warren fundamentally does not understand either the Constitution or the benefits of free markets. Warren said:
In this single statement, Elizabeth Warren summarizes everything that is wrong with her political and economic ideology, one that is decidedly un-American.
Warren’s View of Capitalism Reflects Karl Marx’s Theory on the Value of Labor.
Warren’s words, properly dissected, reflects economic thinking that closely aligns with that of Karl Marx’s “labor value theory.” Marx’s theory suggests that the true value of any product is directly proportional to the amount of labor employed to create it. Marx held that the investment of capital used to create a product, whether it be financial or just know-how, is irrelevant. He believed that it was labor alone that adds value in a product’s manufacturing process. Therefore, he believed that laborers are entitled to keep all profits from a product’s sale, not a company’s owners or shareholders. This is a foundational tenet of Marxism adopted by every communist dictator throughout history including Mao Zedong in China and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. This tenet, when put into practice, justifies government taking private property from companies and individuals so that it can be redistributed by bureaucrats in a manner they determine to be fair and equal.
Does America Have a Social Contract with its Citizens as Warren Claims?
Elizabeth Warren speaks above about a social contract as if it is a document sitting on the shelf at the National Archives, one we can pick up and read. There is no such document or contract. Her concept of a social contract involves her political assertion that in a just society it is government that has primary authority over the individual. But this assertion is diametrically opposed to what is stated in the Preamble of the Constitution. When the Preamble says, “We the People” ordain and establish this Constitution, it is saying that we as individual citizens have primary authority over government, a government we establish to protect our individual rights and freedoms. We as individuals owe nothing to government other than to fulfill the responsibilities of citizenship, and government is there to serve us in this regard.
What About Warren’s Assertion that Companies Owe Something to Our Government?
Warren suggests that entrepreneurs and the companies they create are benefiting from investments made by government. Therefore, she believes government has the right to take resources from private companies because they owe something to the rest of us. But Warren’s argument is seriously flawed. The entrepreneurs and companies she refers to have paid their fair share of taxes for public services, whether directly through corporate taxes or via payroll taxes paid by employees. She is apparently ignorant of how private companies contribute to economic growth and how their profits benefit workers that she thinks are being exploited. Companies create jobs not because the government tells them to but by sharing their wealth in a voluntary exchange with employees who create their products and services. The notion that government can simply confiscate private sector resources conflicts with America’s respect for private property rights, regardless as to whether those resources belong to companies or private individuals. In America, both have the right to keep the fruits of their own labor.
Warren Has Proposed a Bill to Force Large Corporations to Accept Her Social Contract.
Warren is not simply pontificating about a social contract. She plans to implement one if elected President. The terms of her contract are embodied in her bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in August 2018 called the Accountable Capitalism Act (115th Congress (2017-2018) S. 3348). Her bill would legalize many tenets of progressive social engineering and apply them by force of law to American corporations with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. Among the obligations of her bill would be that such corporations are required to obtain a new federal charter that forces directors to consider the interests of “all stakeholders” (e.g., employees, customers, local communities) and not just shareholders. By interests, you can assume that means corporations must redistribute more of their wealth in ways that are determined by government. One way her bill would enforce its obligations is by requiring 40% of corporate boards to be elected by employees.
Reaction to Warren’s Proposed Bill Has Been Less Than Enthusiastic.
Denise Kuprionis, President of Governance Solutions Group, posted a memorandum on the Harvard Law School Forum website highly critical of Warren’s bill. Kuprionis wrote that she could not think of anything “sillier” than requiring large companies to secure this new charter from government, and that such chartering would likely become a requirement for all corporations over time. Professor Jeffrey Miron, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, was a bit bolder in his criticism. Miron said on CNBC’s Power Lunch that Warren’s bill could help destroy capitalism. Finally, Robert Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, said the type of government intrusion Warren is proposing in her bill has the potential of channeling Karl Marx. Johnson is spot on because Warren’s bill would effectively nationalize large corporations by turning them into government utilities.
Elizabeth Warren is Telling Us She’s From the Government and is Here to Help.
Senator Warren’s point of view is typical of progressive Leftists who support a more invasive role for the federal government in private-business affairs to end income inequality. But such arguments do not pass credible scrutiny. Warren believes that government is somehow an entity that is separate and distinct from the people it serves. In America, citizens are not beholden to government; government is beholden to “We the People.” If government has built roads and educated our kids, it is because we as citizens have authorized it. We have no moral obligation to the government, and no social contract exists with government. Instead, we simply owe our fellow citizens the obligation to pay our taxes, to obey the law, and to fulfill the responsibilities of citizenship (e.g., voting; serving jury duty). This is an American civics lesson that Elizabeth Warren has yet to learn.
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Eric A. Beck
Editor-In-Chief
Free Nation Media, Inc.
Greenville, South Carolina
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