Name: The privilege of wealth reveals the real threat of socialism
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The privilege of wealth reveals the real threat of socialism

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Gerald W. EaglesonIowa View contributor Donald Trump recently was hospitalized and given modern treatments for coronavirus infection. His treatment, thanks to science but not available to the general population, proved successful. Who paid for this treatment? The taxpayer (therefore, it was a result of socialized medicine). Several Republican senators also had to have treatment for COVID-19 infections. Who paid for their treatment? The taxpayer (therefore a result of socialized medicine). In addition, many retired GOP congressmen, like Paul Ryan and others, receive government pensions. Who paid for this? The taxpayer (therefore socialized pensions).To most conservative Republican thought, socialism means getting something for nothing at the overall expense of the taxpayer. Yet the present leader of the GOP, as president, promotes socialism,&nbsp;but only for the rich and privileged. Prior to his presidency he perfected the art of using&nbsp;bankruptcy to prevent paying taxes and receiving million-dollar tax rebates from the government. Meanwhile his employees paid for the consequences of his economic failures. Thanks to the Trump tax cuts, which allowed for massive bonuses for their CEOs while, at the same time, they laid off 4,000 lower-echelon workers. Also, due to these Trump tax cuts, corporations brought in billions of extra dollars (meant for federal tax revenues). Most of this corporate money was used for corporate stock buybacks to bolster the cost and value of their stock rather than the intended use of improving the company or increasing worker wages. These tax-cut handouts resulted in nearly doubling the previous record for corporate stock buybacks. Again this is a form of corporate socialism whereby potential tax revenue is released to the banks and corporations and the wealthy end up being the primary beneficiaries.As of 2017: $14.7 billion in federal tax subsidies and $5.8 billion in state-level incentives, for a total of $20.5 billion annually, goes to corporate socialist welfare. Of that total, . It is of interest that the major oil companies, like Trump, rarely pay taxes on their corporate profits, because they write off these subsidies and incentives.More recently, in order to offset his failures in negotiating trade with China, much like his economic failures as an entrepreneur, Trump has moved money around and given U.S.&nbsp;farmers $28 billion in taxpayer money. Such blatant federal socialism has gone unnoticed by the Republican fear-mongers. Overall it seems we should, yes!&nbsp;fear socialism, but it is the socialism of the sort of the GOP, whereby it is primarily aimed at their financial sponsors, the wealthy, while the rest of us pay the tab.Gerald W. Eagleson is a professor emeritus of biology from Loras College in Dubuque.

Gerald W. EaglesonIowa View contributor Donald Trump recently was hospitalized and given modern treatments for coronavirus infection. His treatment, thanks to science but not available to the general population, proved successful. Who paid for this treatment? The taxpayer (therefore, it was a result of socialized medicine). Several Republican senators also had to have treatment for COVID-19 infections. Who paid for their treatment? The taxpayer (therefore a result of socialized medicine). In addition, many retired GOP congressmen, like Paul Ryan and others, receive government pensions. Who...

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Gerald W. Eagleson

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