World's Second Largest Investor, Vanguard, Is Socialist

[fun n serious]

I’ve been watching Bernie Sanders describe himself as a democratic socialist these months and wanting to shout at him that that isn’t quite what he means. Over here in Europe, given that we live rather closer to properly socialist states and also came rather closer to it ourselves we’re perhaps a bit more attuned to the niceties of the nomenclature here. “Democratic socialism” was the way that the Trotskyites described themselves. The inner core of the party would vote on things, that’s the democracy, and then everyone else would have to do what they said or get shot which isn’t quite socialism but is what they meant. What Bernie actually means is what we over here call social democracy, some variant of which exists in just about all of the Western European countries. A largely capitalist and market based economy but with a higher tax rate than the U.S., the revenues from which are used to buy nice things for the voters. Free college education, free child care, free family leave and so on. Of course, none of these things are free; they’re just tax financed.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/02/10/memo-for-bernie-worlds-second-largest-investor-vanguard-is-socialist/#2b62a8a62ccb

[jmg257]

1. And?

[Cal Carpenter]

2. Uh, no

By definition, it is not. I wouldn't recommend Forbes as a source on anything that is actually socialist.

[Recursion]

4. No, by *definition* it is. All mutual funds are. That's the "mutual" part of it.

The shareholders own the company itself. Credit unions are also socialist, as are co-ops and employee-owned companies.

[Cal Carpenter]

8. No, a mututal fund *is* capital

If it were socialist, the *workers* would 'own' the companies the mutual fund is trading, not the shareholders. The shareholders are profiting because of worker exploitation. This is the basically opposite of socialism.

[Recursion]

9. Which would make Goldman-Sachs the largest socialist organization in the world

Since only its traders own its trading capital...

[Cal Carpenter]

10. I think you missed my point

Or maybe you're just fucking with me.

But either way, I don't really think I want to talk about economic theory in GDP on a Saturday night anymore.

[delrem]

11. I think the problem is an inability to understand the concept.

[revbones]

3. And?

[Recursion]

6. And the blogger's point that "socialist" doesn't mean "non-market" is a good one

and something that a lot of Team Sanders doesn't really seem to get.

[revbones]

7. I and most other understand the term "socialist". I doubt you'll find many if any that

think Bernie wants to nationalize all industry in the US.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Just like the MIC, Defense Contractors, Oil Companies, Big PhRMA, etc. Everyone is plugged in.

.


I love the Tea Party ilitary guys down my street who try to explain away their socialist job, their socialist pension at age 42, their property tax credit, and especially their secondary defense contractor jobs paying six-figures... all while they tap into the exchanges and subsudized commissary. Capitalism is just an illusion.


The problem is that those in power wrote the tax rules to benefit them. Small Business, Xe making over $30Billion is a small business, so is Koch Industries, so it multi-national KPMG, etc. They just need less than 100 owners. So when you hear about protecting 'small business' that's not who they are talking about, they want you to think about the mom&pop store, but really there are multiple tiers to the tax code that most small business can't take advantage of.

.

[beam me up scottie]

12. Why are you linking to a red baiting article from a right wing loon?

This is another one of his articles:


Food Stamp Eligibility And The Keynesian Welfare Ratchet

[JonLeibowitz]

13. The notion that one of the biggest institutional investors of capital is socialist is ludicrous.

and yes, having studied the Danon lawsuit I know better than most about its inverted corporate structure.

[beam me up scottie]

14. The op linked to legalinsurrection last night, a vile racist right wing website:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1629077

They are scouring the internet looking for hit pieces and don't care what they drag back here.