The Totally Doable Slate of Economic Reforms That Conservatives Are Losing Their Minds Over

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The Totally Doable Slate of Economic Reforms That Conservatives Are Losing Their Minds Over

Posted by Matt Bruenig at Demos. org on January 4, 2014

http://www.demos.org/blog/1/4/14/totally-doable-slate-economic-reforms-conservatives-are-losing-their-minds-over

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Jesse Myerson has a piece at The Rolling Stone detailing five economic reforms he believes Millennials shoud be fighting for. His proposed reforms are a job guarantee, a universal basic income, a land value tax, a sovereign wealth fund, and state banks. I do not generally care for framing that talks about what Millennials should be fighting for because it does not really make any sense, but the five reforms he lists are basically doable and have been written about here and elsewhere before.

Nonetheless, a massive conservative backlash ensued on Twitter in response to the piece. On some level, this kind of reaction is to be expected. Conservatives prefer our institutions as they exist and the way they distribute power, income, and wealth in society. But the conservative backlash did not center around how they just prefer another system. Instead, it was almost universally premised on the idea that these reforms are fundamentally impossible. This is a popular conservative rhetorical move because declaring impossible all of the things that are so much more appealing than what they have to offer is the only real way to advocate the terrible things they support.

Nonetheless, with the exception of Myerson's call for a job guarantee, all of the other reforms he proposes—a universal basic income, a land value tax, a sovereign wealth fund, and public banks—are clearly possible because they already exist in the world.

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Conservatives that loudly claim that these reforms, which to repeat already exist in the world right now as we live in it, are total economic impossibilities are obviously wrong. But with any reforms as downright pleasant and awesome as these, denying that they are possible is the only option conservatives really have.



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