{"id":84755,"date":"2025-08-22T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=84755"},"modified":"2025-08-22T10:40:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:40:29","slug":"conservatives-in-favor-of-socialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2025\/08\/conservatives-in-favor-of-socialism\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives in Favor of Socialism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearly a quarter (23%) of the conservatives<\/a> in New York City are supporting the socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor.\u00a0 How can that be?\u00a0 The city is so liberal that New Yorkers who openly identify as conservatives must be true believers.\u00a0 So how could they support a far left Marxist like Mamdani?\u00a0 In what sense are they conservative?<\/p>\n

But we shouldn\u2019t be too surprised.\u00a0 Ostensibly conservative politicians are actually putting socialist policies into place.<\/p>\n

Recall that socialism<\/a> is the government owning the means of production.\u00a0 This can take place to greater or lesser extents, so that socialism can take many different forms<\/a>.\u00a0 But it\u2019s basically the state owning or controlling or directing what used to be private property.<\/p>\n

\n

So consider these developments:<\/p>\n

\u2013The Department of Defense has used $400 million of taxpayer money to buy shares of MP Materials, makers of rare earth magnets, making the federal government the company\u2019s largest shareholder.<\/p>\n

\u2013The Trump administration approved the sale of U.S. Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel.\u00a0 Reports the Wall Street Journal<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cThe pact with the Trump administration includes an issuance of a so-called golden share to the U.S. government, giving it authority over the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker\u2019s production and trade matters.\u201d\u00a0 Trump said that he had the Golden Share<\/a>, giving him veto power over the company\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

\u2013The Trump administration will now allow AI-chip makers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices to sell their products to China, as long as the U.S. government gets a 15% cut<\/a> of the profits.<\/p>\n

\u2013In order to keep the manufacturing of computer chips in the U.S., the government is considering buying a stake in computer-chip-maker Intel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013In his negotiations of trade deals, the president is requiring countries to invest money in the United States in order to score lower tariffs.\u00a0 And he is the one telling the countries what they must invest in.\u00a0 So far, according to the Wall Street Journal, President Trump is said to have raised $1.5 trillion in promised investment, which he will allot at his discretion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What would you call this\u2013the government buying ownership of private companies, taking a share of their profits, telling them how they must conduct their business, and telling investors where to put their money\u2013if not socialism?<\/p>\n

Actually, there is a better name for it.\u00a0 \u201cThis isn\u2019t socialism, in which the state owns the means of production,\u201d explains the Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u2018s Greg Ip. \u201cIt is more like state capitalism, a hybrid between socialism and capitalism in which the state guides the decisions of nominally private enterprises.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, as Ip shows, this state capitalism is very similar to China\u2019s \u201chybrid between socialism and capitalism,\u201d though not nearly to the same degree, at least not yet.\u00a0 The Golden Share<\/a> is a tactic used by Communist China to keep control of the nation\u2019s companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ip\u2019s article is entitled The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics<\/a>.\u00a0 He comments,<\/p>\n

\n

China calls its hybrid \u201csocialism with Chinese characteristics.\u201d The U.S. hasn\u2019t gone as far as China or even milder practitioners of state capitalism such as Russia, Brazil and, at times, France. So call this variant \u201cstate capitalism with American characteristics.\u201d It is still a sea change from the free market ethos the U.S. once embodied.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is true that European welfare states often practice this sort of thing.\u00a0 So do Democrats.\u00a0 Says Ips,<\/p>\n

\u201cFormer President\u00a0Joe Biden went further, seeking to shape the actual structure of industry. His Inflation Reduction Act authorized $400 billion in clean-energy loans. The Chips and Science Act earmarked $39 billion in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. . . .Biden overrode U.S. Steel\u2019s management and shareholders\u00a0to block Nippon Steel\u2019s takeover, though his staff saw no national-security risk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem with state capitalism, says Ips, is that \u201cthe state can\u2019t allocate capital more efficiently than private markets. Distortions, waste and cronyism typically follow.\u201d\u00a0 European and Latin American countries that practice this kind of system have much less economic growth than the United States has had with a free market system.\u00a0 China has fared somewhat better, though its economy is now facing problems.\u00a0 In the United States, says Ips, \u201cInterventions made in the name of national security or kick-starting infant industries lead to boondoggles like\u00a0Foxconn\u2019s promised factory in Wisconsin<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Tesla\u2019s solar-panel factory<\/a> in Buffalo, N.Y.\u201d\u00a0 Or just about every facet of\u00a0 Joe Biden\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act.<\/p>\n

I suppose the New York conservatives who are going to vote for Mamdani just want to shake things up, as do President Trump and his supporters.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not sure how a marriage between big government and big business shakes things up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illustration by Gwydion M. Williams<\/a>, via Flickr,\u00a0 CC by 2.0<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our government is buying ownership of private companies, taking a share of their profits, telling them how they must conduct their business, and telling investors where to put their money. What would you call that, if not socialism? 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