Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Andy Stern, the former SEIU head, writes in today's Wall Street Journal that the United States must abandon our "free-market extremism" & and embrace the Chinese model.
The op-ed, comes with the sub-headline, "The free-market fundamentalist economic model is being thrown onto the trash heap of history."
Apparently Stern went on a visit to various Chinese Potemkin Villages and he's here to tell you that control economies are the future. He saw it with his own eyes. I do love that the Wall Street Journal published this. One wonders whether other newspapers would prefer that Stern and his fellow Chinese apologists wouldn't be so forward about their thoughts on what's wrong with freedom:
The conservative-preferred, free-market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model—so successful in the 20th century—is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century. In an era when countries need to become economic teams, Team USA's results—a jobless decade, 30 years of flat median wages, a trade deficit, a shrinking middle class and phenomenal gains in wealth but only for the top 1%—are pathetic.
This should motivate leaders to rethink, rather than double down on an empirically failing free-market extremism. As painful and humbling as it may be, America needs to do what a once-dominant business or sports team would do when the tide turns: study the ingredients of its competitors' success.
While we debate, Team China rolls on. Our delegation witnessed China's people-oriented development in Chongqing, a city of 32 million in Western China, which is led by an aggressive and popular Communist Party leader—Bo Xilai. A skyline of cranes are building roughly 1.5 million square feet of usable floor space daily—including, our delegation was told, 700,000 units of public housing annually.
Who are you going to trust? Our Constitution and founding principles or Andy Stern's lying eyes?
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Jun '10
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Stern doesn't like America that much. He tells Americans exactly what to feel and think, and because of "too much" free speech, it just doesn't stick. Not like in China.
Feb '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Isn't is usually the "ash heap of history?"
Sep '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Mama Toad, for shame!
Liberals don't speak of "ash heaps"--that's what's left after you either smoke, or burn coal!
Nov '10
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Watch our own Richard Epstein shatter Andy Stern's world here.
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Would that he could have detoured to Pyongyang.
May '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Average wage in Southern China -- about 80 cents/hour. Sounds good to me. Employees represented by the SEIU -- you go first. Let us know how it works out.
Mar '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Let Andy Stern loose to organize Chinese labor and see how long he'd last.
Dec '10
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
He must have skipped the part of the brochure that said collective economies don't allow collective bargaining.
Apr '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
China's economic boom started after they largely abandoned socialist economic principles. And yes, there is a building boom going on in China, but there are also a tremendous number of brand new apartments and condos that are sitting empty. Expect a bust shortly.
Jan '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
If the only alternatives are a planned economy or no planning at all, Stern’s argument isn't psychotic. But what a narrow range of choices. It shows the what happens when you’re on fact-finding tours led by parties with vested interests, who present their side, hoping that you’ll carry (and sell) their perspective back to where you came from. The phrase “useful idiot” springs to mind.
It's silly to imply that unless the government has the right to seize control of all decisions made by all individuals, no one will be able to “plan.”
Free-market business planning is the rational anticipation of what lies in consumers’ self-interests, on the hopeful theory that consumers are rational. The advantage of all free-market decisions over planned economies is that individuals are motivated by their own interests, which prompts them to produce goods in the first place. Planned economies expect individuals to produce for the welfare of the group … which, experience shows, they only do under threat of punishment. Market economies are more productive, and no one has to jail or kill anyone. So we have that going for us.
Feb '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Highly-questionable whether China should be called a socialist economy at all. A better description would be extreme crony capitalism or economic fascism.
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Jonah Goldberg (last month) on why envying China is ridiculous:
Feb '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
John Murdoch: Mama Toad, for shame!
Liberals don't speak of "ash heaps"--that's what's left after you either smoke, or burn coal! · Dec 1 at 7:33am
Well, I wonder if Mr. Stern has sorted his trash for recycling then.
How about "smoldering ash heap of history" -- that would describe much of China's recent past.
Jun '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Andy Stern isn't interested in organizing Chinese labor using the American model, he's interested in organizing American labor via the Chinese model.
Democratic centralism never goes out of style on the Left.
May '10
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Stern becomes the Walter Duranty for China, well done Andy. Ask to visit the prison work facturies that consititute much of the CPA more productive areas.
Perhaps Mr Stern should review this suppressed article from a Chinese economist.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinese-tv-host-says-regime-nearly-bankrupt-141214.html
Jun '10
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Amen. Gullible Americans routinely toured the Soviet Union and returned as heralds announcing that paradise had been found. Stern follows this historical pattern and has disgraced himself as a pathetic cliche.
Mar '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Is Andy Stern some sort of pseudonym for Thomas Friedman?
Aug '10
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
Let's see: Andy Stern visits China, sees stuff , eats the food , and spouts visions of grandeur. Chinese cuisine often features dog meat.
And like a dog ,Andy Stern .....2 Peter 2:22
Dec '10
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
My employer had Andy speak at a gathering recently. His partisan dismissal of EVERYTHING we stand for as a nation - freedom, rule of law, deliberation, democracy - was palpable. I just cannot understand how the Friedmans, Sterns, Rodgers of the world can be so blinkered by a regime that - within our lifetimes - MURDERED 10's of millions of its own citizens. That fact alone should keep us on a war footing as opposed to modeling ourselves after them. Our liberal elites are beyond contempt. They are the enemy.
Edited on Dec 1, 2011 at 10:52amFeb '11
Re: Former SEIU Union Head Praises China
The nonmaterialistic culture of modern China
Karl Marx wept.