Sensible people have watched in horror as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has risen to an unlikely prominence over the past year. Her supporters say critics are “obsessed” with her.
A more charitable interpretation is that they’re flabbergasted that a set of ideas virtually designed to impoverish society has gained so much traction.
To people who haven’t given the matter much thought, there could be a certain plausibility to AOC’s ideas. After all, what could be the harm in providing “free college” or more “affordable housing,” or fighting “climate change,” and having the rich – who have plenty of money lying around – pay for it?
That’s the major barrier here. Most people who support AOC genuinely cannot comprehend how any well-intentioned person could oppose any of those things. Aren’t they self-evidently desirable, and can’t they be provided costlessly – or at least at cost nobody should really care about (the rich can afford it, after all)?
Real Dissent: A Libert...
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Now like AOC, I believe my positions are correct. But unlike her, I can correctly describe my opponents’ point of view. I may not agree with it, but I at least know what it is, and I can explain it in a way that they themselves would recognize their views in my description.
AOC, by contrast, genuinely cannot conceive of what the arguments against her might be. As far as she can see, she is on the side of “distributive justice,” and anyone who opposes her is a lackey of the wealthy who is merely defending the immediate self-interest of avaricious people.
Not once does AOC appear to consider that what she proposes might have undesirable side effects. There is no acknowledgment of any trade-offs involved. Her program is a juvenile list of demands, and that’s it.
Want higher wages? Why, mandate them! Want everyone to have benefit X? Why, seize the funds to provide it!
AOC further claims that we can painlessly tax the rich at much higher rates because she thinks we’ve done it before without ill effects. As usual, she has not seen the numbers: the effective tax rate on “the rich” was much lower than the high top marginal rates we’ve all heard about, thanks to various loopholes and deductions that no longer exist. Were we to reintroduce those rates under current conditions, we would be in uncharted territory.
Beyond that, she has no conception of what “the rich” do for the economy. She thinks they just roll around naked until their money sticks to their sweaty bodies. She has no conception of capital maintenance and capital investment, which maintain and expand the structure of production – in the absence of which we would revert to barbarism.
I spell all this out much more thoroughly in my new (and free) eBook AOC Is Wrong: The Upside Down World of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
To be sure, many libertarians may be confident in their ability to shoot down clearly destructive and idiotic proposals like the Green New Deal. But under pressure, are you sure you have a completely convincing argument, that would work on non-libertarians, against “free college,” or more government involvement in health care, or “affordable housing,” or the whole laundry list of progressive demands?
Well, I’ve done the work for you in this book, and it costs you nothing.
There are no personal attacks or name-calling in the book. Instead, it is – if I may say so – a relentless demolition of the entire AOC program.
Download your copy of AOC Is Wrong here:
