According to Bernie Sanders'
office, he's keen to introduce a new legislation that would:
"Create a 100-percent
tax on large employers equal to the amount of federal benefits that the
employers’ low-wage workers receive. For instance, if an Amazon employee gets
$300 in food stamps, Amazon would be taxed $300."
In the mind of raving
simpletons like Bernie Sanders, nothing could be more rational than this idea.
Those nasty billionaires like Jeff Bezos get richer and richer, while ordinary
workers rely on taxpayer-funded programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and
subsidised housing - so the obvious solution is to force the likes of Bezos to
pick up the bill for this disparity.
Like most socialist ideas,
it suffers from the stupidity of not understanding knock-on effects, and how
legislation changes incentives to society's detriment. These people claim to be
on the side of the poor - but that's just fantasy: they must despise the poor,
given the repeated efforts they make to ensure life is more difficult for them.
Let me tell you what this
legislation will achieve. It will make it harder for poorer people to find work
- which is a real shame, because work is far and away the best route out of
economic hardship. And given that it's the big firms that give the most work to poor people and lower-skilled workers, this legislation is going to cause a huge ripple in terms of foregone opportunities. Work is not a perfect solution to being poor, but it's the best
we have by a long way.
A legislation that
penalises firms for giving work to poor people will ensure that less work and
fewer opportunities are given to poor people. Someone who really needs a job
because she has dependents and costs society more in welfare is now less likely
to be given a job next to someone who needs the job far less, doesn't have
dependents, and costs society less in welfare. With friends like Bernie on their side, who needs enemies?
