Robert Klitgaard

Governor DeSantis says young people chose socialism because the Republican alternative is crony corporatism which resembles the Soviet politburo funneling power and benefits to a handful of elites. “Is just screaming socialism going to work? Obviously, it didn't work in this election. And why? I think a big part of that is, what they're comparing is not free enterprise to socialism. What they're comparing is how government gets involved in business, and you have crony capitalism. So the best kind of indirect supporters of socialism are some of these corporatist Republicans who propagate these crony policies. Because the average person seeing that would say, wait a minute, you're trying to bend the government to funnel benefits to this corporation or that industry or this. What about having a competitive market? If you have a competitive market and you truly have free enterprise, that's going to benefit small businesses. It's going to benefit individuals. You are going to see the standard of living rise. The problem is these young people really aren't seeing that. They're seeing just a handful of companies that have an outsized influence on our economy and on our society. And they see government policy, for example. The Republicans in Washington wanted to do a 10-year effective amnesty for big tech where states and locals wouldn't be able to provide any type of regulatory oversight over artificial intelligence. And I'm thinking to myself, what other industry gets this? These hyperscale data centers that have become very controversial, you go to places like rural Texas, these are conservative people that are just beside themselves because these things are getting, in some of these instances, they're getting no property tax. People say they give money. Well, not if you give them tax breaks. So they're getting subsidies in some parts of the country. Now I think it's gotten so unpopular that they know they have to pay tax and everything. But a year or two ago, it's a much different thing. So the way you're going to end up having socialism is if you don't have a clear contrast between freedom and socialism. If it's cronyism versus socialism, there's going to be enough people who are going to choose socialism because on the surface, it seems like, well, it's government stepping in on behalf of people. Now we know a socialist society is going to be a highly cronyist society as well. Just look at how the Castro family lived in Cuba for all these decades while their people suffered. Look at how the Soviet Politburo lived back in the day or how the Chinese communists lived. It's human nature kind of at its worst. It's a different veneer, but ultimately, it's funneling power and benefits to a handful of an elite.”