Reason’s J.D. Tuccille does a decent job of pointing out the glaringly fascist / national socialist impulses behind Jonathan Alter’s desire to see American corporations — who, let’s remember, aren’t people, according to the left, and so don’t have speech rights — take “loyalty oaths” (how would that work, exactly?) promising to remain in-country, over-taxed, and less profitable for their shareholders because, well, the government deserves more money for providing roads or some shit, and besides, economic patriotism!
But I think it unfair of Tuccille to excerpt from Alter’s article as it’s been translated into English. Because you really do miss some of the nuances of calls by American progressives for a revival of national socialism when you don’t read them in their original German.
Und das ist nicht richtig.
(h/t geoffB)
Jonathan Alter’s desire to see American corporations… take “loyalty oaths”
The following sounds like Alter’s and every leftist’s dream world:
…the state, through official cartels, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Planning boards set product lines, production levels, prices, wages, working conditions, and the size of firms. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and “excess” incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or “loans.”
How eminently reasonable and rational. Wouldn’t it be a better world if we actually planned for things instead of just letting people run around without reason?
Oh, I left out the two words that begin that excerpt.
“Under fascism.”
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html
And the answer to Alter was summed up by a –literally–learned jurist many years ago:
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands” — Judge Learned Hand
Alas, I forget the case cite, as it’s been awhile since I took Federal Taxation. Of course, the Progs have a tendency to ignore judicial precedent which they find inconvenient to their agenda.
Everything old is new again.
Forward! Into the past.
Heck, I thought it was Italian: Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato.”
I hear Alter’s next column will be a harangue to ensure the trains run on time.
I hear Alter’s next column will be a harangue to ensure the trains run on time.
Let’s guess Alter goes for a wrinkle: Hamas’ tunnel trains need to run on time, so we Americans need to pour money into Gaza.
Sending corporations to Gaza in search of a plentiful labor force, low taxes and wage scales, not so much.
Oh, go ahead and take the oath, lots of people take oaths. President Obama for instance.
Oh hey! My first Instalanche, of sorts.
Retweeted by Insty, this got a bunch of views.
i got your economic patriotism right here, food stamp
you fascist piece of shit
Oh Great #IWonPenPhone. Use the force to slay these evil dragons.
LizDickJack.
…gets even creepier
Kirsten Dunst has babies on the brain.
on her effing brain is where the babbies are
(!)
on a side note
it’s awesome that she finally hooked up with the superlatively uneducated yet highly successful herbalife representative Garrett H (“don’t underestimate the power of kale”)
“I think 33 is a good age to have your first baby.”
David Harsanyi: Have you taken your Obama Loyalty Oath?
Thing is — given the infinite plasticity manifestly exhibited in ObaZma since 2004 to today — oath to, for, about what? Oakland, California?
Loyalty Oafs
ObaZma shows his loyalty: to Hamas.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/08/as-negotiations-begin-obama-sides-with-hamas.php