Trump brought the crowd to its feet when he thundered, “America will never be a socialist country. Ever.”
— from Politico Magazine, March 7, 2019
This morning, I’m thinking about socialism.
We didn’t study that concept much, back in my high school days, as I recall. We were required to study American history, and we learned a bit about democracy and about capitalism. But socialism? Okay, yes, Eugene Debs was mentioned at one point, mostly in his role as an unsuccessful US Presidential candidate.
Whatever little I learned about socialism as a young man, however, was mainly from books I read outside of the public school curriculum, and from conversations around the dinner table. My father was fairly well-read on political philosophy, and was, for a few years, president of the local AFT chapter — the American Federation of Teachers — a union organization considered to be dangerously socialistic by certain conservatives. California’s then-Governor, Ronald Reagan, was among those who disapproved of the AFT, for example.
You might say I had a passing knowledge of socialism, growing up. Enough to know that America, in general, did not embrace socialism. Will not, and cannot, embrace socialism.
Or… do we already embrace it?
I’m thinking about socialism this morning for a couple of reasons. For one, everyone seems to be talking about it. There’s a March 3 article in New York Magazine:
Socialism is AOC’s calling card, Trump’s latest rhetorical bludgeon, and a new way to date in Brooklyn
The second reason has to do with the little rural town I live in, and the problems it faces. And the failure of democratic capitalism to solve those problems.
Last week, in Part Three of this editorial series, I quoted Town of Pagosa Springs Planning Commission chair Peter Adams addressing the Town Council on the subject of affordable housing. On March 5, the Council was preparing to accept a 56-page “Roadmap to Affordable Housing” written by the staff of a local non-profit organization, Pagosa Housing Partners.
Here’s another excerpt from Mr. Adams’ comments, when he explained how the Town of Breckenridge was successfully adding ‘workforce housing’ by doing the projects themselves. The local government was actually serving as the general contractor for various housing projects, he told us.
“The Town of Breckenridge realized they could [build affordable housing] at a much lower price point than hiring out a contractor or developer. What they learned is, they could do it themselves.”
Since discovering the cost savings of government-directed housing, Breckenridge has done several projects, according to Mr. Adams.
“They’ve done a 30-unit apartment called Denison Commons. They’ve done 18 units in a project called COTO Flats. They did 26 units, two-bedroom units, called Huron Landing. And they did a 52-unit town home project, which they sold. They do as much in-house as possible. That’s the Town of Breckenridge. They created the Town of Breckenridge Housing Authority. And guess what, the Authority board members are the same people on their town board…”
I don’t know how our Daily Post readers feel about socialism, but what Mr. Adams is talking about — a local government addressing a problem that a capitalist marketplace has failed to address — could easily be described as ‘socialism.’ No one is making a direct profit from these Breckenridge housing units, but they are getting built nevertheless. And I suppose our current US President can get his supporters fired up, by promising that “America will never be a socialist country. Ever.” But if we look around us with open eyes, we’re already half-way there.
From what I can tell, the fastest growing business in Pagosa Springs is the Pagosa Springs Medical Center. The only reason PSMC can survive in a rural community like Pagosa is that they’re generously subsidized by both the local taxpayers, through the Upper San Juan Health Service District, and by the federally-funded Critical Access Hospital program. And by other government programs as well. In short, socialism at work. For our health.
We can look around and see numerous other examples of socialism at work — tax-funded organizations that help keep the Pagosa economy alive and kicking. The reportedly-successful Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board, for example. The Archuleta County Education Center. Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District. Archuleta County Housing Authority. Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation. The Town of Pagosa Springs. The Archuleta School District.
These organizations provide services that the private, capitalist sector will not, or cannot, provide. And we won’t even touch on the ‘socialism’ that’s already integrated into our state and federal governments, for which we all pay — through income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and uncountable other fees and assessments. We don’t normally refer to these programs and organizations as ‘socialism.’ They’re simply part of the American lifestyle. We accept them, as necessary and good.
From what little I’ve learned about history, it seems that very few of the government services we benefit from, today, were envisioned as government programs when the American colonists got themselves into a nasty war, back in 1776. Back in those days, when the US Constitution was being developed, hospitals were private. Schools were private. Even roads were privately maintained. No one, back then, imagined a little town spending millions of dollars on ‘tourism marketing’ or ‘recreation and trails.’ No one imagined a federal government spending billions and billions of dollars subsidizing farmers, educators, oil companies, railroads, scientists, sanitation districts, hospitals, auto manufacturers, home builders.
Banks. (I guess maybe that’s the biggest subsidy of them all, at the moment.)
It’s not 1776. President Trump may get people excited about thinking of a world free of ‘socialism…’ But we already live in that world.
I’m thinking about all this, because Mr. Adams is not the only person suggesting that our rural community is in the midst of a serious economic crisis, and that our local governments and non-profits might be the only organizations capable of effectively addressing that crisis.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.