When the “Economic Justice” sentiment involves federal handouts

A certain kind of leftist has a tendency to think in a certain kind of way. I’m referring to statist-oriented socialists and full-employment advocates of Modern Monetary Theory. The former want the means of production socialized under the auspices of the government; the latter say print money to fund full-employment policies.

During the pandemic they both want to see the federal government “mitigate the economic devastation” by providing free healthcare, subsidizing payrolls, suspending rent payments, sending everyone money every month, and preventing businesses from going bankrupt. But, hey, if the government is able to do that now (by printing lots of money) why not always, under any circumstances, do all of that for everyone? In fact, to extend the concept of “everyone” . . . why not propose that the World Bank provide universal healthcare to people everywhere, universal employment, affordable rent, basic income, and universal business solvency?

The logic of this dependence upon the federal governments and central banks of the world seems to me to be the opposite of a better idea that the Greens — distinctively — advocate. One of our Ten Key Values is: “Community-based Economics.” That’s indicative of a truly paradigm-shifting idea: Let’s move away from dependence upon the federal governments and central banks. Decentralization. Bioregional economies. Rejuvenation of local community life. Communitarian support instead of reliance upon the state. Attention and responsibility kept local, kept human-scale, kept real.

There’s something a little too magical and divorced from reality about the spewing of money from the central printing press. For one thing, it seems to have a tendency to buttress Wall Street instead of Main Street. But even if we could get the money re-directed (unlikely), well, we’d still be fostering an economics that’s dependent upon a governmental money tree. Lots of green, but the wrong kind.