The United States now owns 10% of Intel, the chipmaking company. This is what was once called “owning the means or production,” an old socialist goal. By itself, one company wouldn’t be too big a deal, but there is evidently more to come. This was the headline in today’s business section of the New York Times: “Trump Seeks ‘Many More’ Intel Deals.” He is looking at both industries and technologies.
Think about that. The United States government will own portions or even most of certain American companies. This is sometimes called “state capitalism,” but the more usual term is socialism. Interestingly, most European socialists no longer support state ownership of private industry. It is considered both counterproductive to efficiency and unnecessary if certain regulations (worker safety, pollution control, consumer safety) are in place.
It is a measure of the spinelessness of Congressional Republicans that they don’t seem to care about this development. They are worried, however, that New York mayoral candidate Mamdani is supporting government-run day care centers.
No comments:
Post a Comment