In elementary school I was taught that America was founded by the thirst for freedom. The power to make your life. The power to carve your spot of wealth in the world. While the original picture may have changed from having your own piece of property and freedom from England, the American dream is still alive. This dream has taken many faces. Freedom from slavery. Freedom to vote. Equality of genders. Equality of races. Freedom of expression. With freedom and the American dream, does not come a green card to success. America may be the land of opportunity, but it must be worked for, and it must be earned. Call it opportunity, call it chance, but either way- this one of the key ingredients to the unique taste of the American melting pot. However, somehow a large amount of millennials are screaming Bernie. But here’s what they’re ignoring.
He’s a socialist. America is a republic. That issue was dealt with when we got rid of the Articles of Confederation. Socialism can be a daunting term. Bernie is framing it as “democratic socialism.” In other words, he wants to force economic equality. He believes economic equality should be a given. So that everyone is given college education, and that everyone is given health care. Economic equality is not mentioned in our constitution. We all have the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I find that the pursuit of happiness is following opportunity. Enabling yourself to be able to reach your goal, not riding the Bernie train there.
Taxing the wealthy. Sanders plans to tax the wealthy 54.2 percent. That is the government going into someone’s pocket and taking more than half. Some scoff and say they already make millions. But what about success stories like Mark Zuckerberg? He was a nobody who took a chance on an idea he had. He jumped at an opportunity. Yet he will now be taxed more than 20 percent more than a household bringing in 150k a year. A married couple will almost double in taxes if they get that fabulous promotion and raise income from $75,000 to $152,000. This number game could go on. In the end, more success, even of reasonable proportions, means serious increases in taxes. It is almost as if being punished for being successful. While the pay gap is increasing at an alarming rate, these measures go against the American ideal.
Better paying jobs. Yes, this seems awesome. But how will it be accomplished? Bernie wants minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour. This sounds great, but in reality, could it work? Increased minimum wage is increased payroll, which increases production costs. Increasing production costs, will increase prices of goods and services in order to keep a large enough margin to make a profit. So, we are increasing the price of goods and increasing taxes. Another threat is layoffs. If small businesses cannot afford to pay staff, while keeping prices competitive enough to stay open, they may resort to cutting back on staff. This could raise unemployment.
Sander’s plan will bring in over $10 trillion more in tax money over 10 years. This could help his utopic ideas such as free education, better paying jobs, healthcare, and affordable housing. While some point at the benefits and jump aboard, I remain reserved. At first glance, Bernie’s goals seem good. But they dilute the opportunities into a wide middle ground. Maybe it’s just time for us to change "the dream." We may start off better than we were. But soon we will reach a ceiling of taxation called socialism. I don’t think that’s what the American dream is about.
