Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known by her initials as AOC, is apparently the new leader of the Democrat Party. She is now 36 years old and still the Representative for New York's 14th congressional district. She has done nothing for her district, but they don’t seem to care. The district includes the eastern part of the Bronx and portions of north-central Queens in New York City, a dysfunctional Democrat-controlled city.
While AOC is a member of the Democrat Party, she is also one of the first female members of the Democratic Socialists of America ever elected to serve in Congress. She is an intelligent woman. In high school she came in second in the Microbiology category of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a microbiology research project. She attended Boston University and graduated cum laud in 2011. At the university she majored in international relations and economics while also helping in Senator Ted Kennedy’s office.
Her initial post-collegiate experience was as a community organizer. Her business experience is limited to employment as a bartender. She has absolutely no experience in management or governance at any level. She is still not old enough or experienced enough to be wise. Having an above average command of social media with a significant following means nothing with respect to leadership at the National level. But she is young and enthusiastic. So were Lenin, Marx and Mao once upon a time. Their wrong-headed philosophies caused the deaths of millions of innocents. So will AOC’s Social Democrats. Democratic Socialists are communists. They promise everything to everybody but only deliver to themselves and their friends in power. Their only virtue is persistence.
AOC is an enthusiastic believer in Modern Monetary Theory. So is Bernie Sanders, well sort of. Sanders probably accepted this idea because of the youthful enthusiasm of AOC. It fit his political agenda much in the same way that Lenin’s Marxism fit with Stalin’s desire to take over the government of Russia. So, what exactly is Modern Monetary Theory?
Modern Monetary Theory or (MMT) is a macroeconomic theory and practice that describes the practical uses of fiat currency in a public monopoly from the issuing authority, normally the government's central bank. Fiat money is a currency established as money, often by government regulation, but that has no intrinsic value. It is the government that gives it the power to serve as a medium of exchange. Previously, paper money was backed up by a government guarantee. If you took the paper money to a bank it could theoretically be exchanged for gold or silver. The idea was that the government would have a stockpile of precious metals to back up the dollar. So, gold would be dug up from the ground somewhere and essentially be put back in a vault in the ground somewhere else (Fort Knox). Also, in theory, the money supply would be limited by the precious metal supply. But, no more. Now there is no limit on the ability of the government to print money. Actually, there is no limit on the ability of the government to enter keystrokes into the electronic ledger, that’s even cheaper than printing.
MMT advocates such as AOC argue that the government could use fiscal policy to achieve full employment (socialist utopia) thereby creating new money to fund government purchases. According to MMT advocates, the primary risk once the economy reaches full employment is inflation, which can be addressed by raising and gathering taxes and issuing bonds to reduce money and the velocity of money in the system. And what is the velocity of money in the Crypto Age? Perhaps the speed of light?
The only thing that actually limits MMT is inflation and, in theory, inflation only occurs when there is full employment. But the basic requirement for MMT to succeed is increased long term productivity. That is its Achilles’ heel. And the increased productivity has to be real, not government make-work programs that do not increase real GDP. That is what AOC and Sanders have failed to understand. While Elon Musk pursues true productivity increases and increased government efficiency, Bernie Sanders and AOC promise more “free stuff” from the government. When they contrived the Green New deal, it wasn’t about climate change action. It was to replace a Capitalist economic system with Socialism then Communism.
Can you really get something for nothing? The Greatest Generation didn’t think so. They witnessed the Great Depression and the domestic rationing of World War II. The only money they saw printed were government War Bonds to support the war effort and rationing cards. But that generation is leaving us quickly now and so are the Boomers. Both generations fought for Capitalism and against Communism. They were right to do so.
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