The common complaint against the Green New Deal is that it amounts to socialism. In the US socialists are of course on the same plane as child molesters. Nothing they say can be good and nothing that could lead to socialism can possibly be good. Any government largesse in favor of the poor, but not the rich of course, is quickly labelled socialism. When massive subsidies are given to the rich this is not socialism. This is good for business. When farmers get huge subsidies somehow that is free enterprise. After all they deserve those subsidies.  The poor deserve to suffer and therefore should suffer in silence.

The most famous recent example, were the enormous subsidies to the rich by the Bush and Obama administrations after the 2008 financial collapse. This is a good example of what has often been called socialism for the rich.  John Kenneth Galbraith described such actions this way, “Socialism is deeply abhorrent in the culture of contentment but not for the financially most contented.“

This is perhaps one of the reasons Galbraith said, in another book, The Affluent Society, “wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding.” That is exactly the reason I am suspicious of their current objections to the New Green Deal. A good recent example of this phenomenon was the massive tax cuts the British Prime Minster Liz Truss advocated and led to her downfall today.  Fortunately, the British did not swallow her arguments.

I admit I am not an economist. That is a gross understatement. I am not trusted to make or endorse cheques or to reconcile our modest home accounts. As a result, I don’t really know if the ridicule heaped on the proponents of the Green New Deal are justified. I just know that I am deeply sceptical whenever I hear the well to do defending their turf.  I want to hear from independent impartial expertise without skin in the game. I will withhold judgment until then.

I wish John Kenneth Galbraith was still around to help. We need clear and independent thinking on this. We should be deeply sceptical about the spokespersons for the rich.