Rand Paul Proves His Ignorance, says “Liberals Have No Idea of How Capitalism Works”

by Allen Clifton

  

In all the hoopla over just how ridiculous Texas Senator Ted Cruz has been lately, along with his seemingly endless onslaught of asinine statements these last few months, I had almost forgotten about Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.  For all the attention Ted Cruz has received, we really shouldn’t forget that Rand Paul was one of his cheerleaders during the whole shutdown fiasco.
Well, Paul did an interview with Sean Handjob where he decided to continue his attack on “Obamacare” (shocking, I know) and claimed that if “Obamacare” is so good “why do they have to advertise to get you to do it?”
Funny, I’ve often asked the question, “If “Obamacare” is so terrible, why do repugicans keep lying about it?”
He also went on to say that, “Liberals have no idea of how capitalism works.”
Actually, here’s his full comment on liberals and capitalism:

“Liberals have no idea of how capitalism works.  They have no idea why, when you go to Wal-Mart, products are cheap, how they get from one point to the other, and how they’re distributed in such a cheap fashion.”

I wanted to put his full comment out there, because of the sheer irony between his statements about the need to advertise “Obamacare” and knowing how capitalism works.
First, the Affordable Care Act is not socialized medicine, it’s health insurance reform.  Maybe Mr. Paul needs to learn how the law works before commenting on it?  Just a thought.
Second, according to Rand Paul, if something is good—there’s no need to advertise it?  Using that mindset, Apple, Google, Samsung, Honda, Toyota, Southwestern Airlines — they’re all “bad.”  After all, if their products and services are so good, why do they have to advertise them?
Attention all Business majors: Forget what you know about sales, marketing and advertising.  If any company must advertise their product or service to get people to use it, it’s a failure.  Well, at least according to Rand Paul.
Now let’s move on to, “liberals have no idea of how capitalism works”—are you serious?
As a liberal, I think I have a damn good grasp of how capitalism works.  I also have a pretty good grasp of how flawed capitalism is.  ”Pure” capitalism is every bit the failure as communism or socialism.  Unchecked, and unregulated, capitalism will build a society (as we’ve seen since “Reaganomics” took the U.S. by storm in the 1980s) where a small percentage of the population has everything and the vast majority has next to nothing.
Now, I’m not saying capitalism is all bad, but it has its flaws like every other economic ideology and needs oversight and regulation for it to be successful.
Capitalism is also driven by consumer spending, not tax cuts.  If demand for a product is there, jobs will be there.  Cutting taxes sounds good to those who lack the ability to think for themselves, but what these tax cuts really do is line the pockets of the rich executives while they cut and slash their workforce to “streamline” the process and increase their profits.
Another thing capitalism does well is feed greed.  The more you give it, the more it wants.  The richer you make the richest among us, the richer they’re going to want to be.  Profits in the millions get replaced by profits in the tens of millions.  Profits in the tens of millions get replaced by profits in the hundreds of millions.  Profits in the hundreds of millions get replaced by profits in the billions.
It’s perpetual and it’s never ending.
But unfortunately for 98% of us, money is not infinite.  There’s only so much to go around, and the more we allow the top 2% to hoard most of it, the worse off the rest of us are going to be.
People like Paul often talk about the greatness the United States once displayed and how we need to get “back to traditional American values.”  Well, during the strongest periods of growth our country has seen, taxes were much higher (and oddly we had balanced budgets when they were higher) and unions were much stronger than they are right now.
Why is it, in the 1950s, we could grow as a nation with much higher taxes and stronger unions, but now both of those are tantamount to “crazed socialism run amok” according to wingnuts?
Rand Paul’s “Ayn Rand” Libertarian tribal beliefs are an absolute failure in practice.  ”Survival of the fittest” and “every man for himself” is not a feasible philosophy with which to build a successful nation.  That’s why in all of human history we’ve never seen a successful society built on Libertarian principles, and the closest examples we have are nations like Somalia (small government, little or no taxes, no regulation) which are absolute disasters.
Liberals are also well aware of how it’s possible to produce cheap products.  And yes, unfortunately it’s necessary to outsource some jobs to keep costs lower for American consumers and keep our economy going.  That’s not always the “PC” thing to say, but it’s the unfortunate truth.
However, for Paul to act as if greed has nothing to do with the issues that are going on in this nation is absolutely absurd.  He blames hardworking people, sometimes working 50 or 60 hours a week to survive, for being drains on our economy because they need some government help.  All the while, he fiercely defends the companies that these individuals work for which pay such a lousy wage that, even when working full-time, they’re still unable to survive without help.
All while the executives at most of these companies are being paid absurd salaries.  Depending on which study you look at, the CEO to average worker pay ratio currently sits anywhere between 185: 1 to 325:1.
Yup, that’s capitalism alright.  And that’s with regulations.  Imagine how much worse that ratio would be if there were no regulations on capitalism?  You really think the median household income in the United States would rise if there were no minimum wage?  If you believe that, you’re insane.
But that’s exactly what individuals like Rand Paul believe.
So, while he might sit there and say liberals don’t understand capitalism, I think it’s pretty clear judging by the policies Senator Paul supports—he doesn’t understand much of anything.