Meet the Socialist I'll Be Debating Next Month at Texas Tech University
Meet Ben Burgis, a socialist who writes for Jacobin Magazine.
As some may already know, I’ll be in Lubbock, Texas on February 7 to participate in a debate on socialism and capitalism.
The person I’ll be debating is Ben Burgis, a philosophy instructor at Georgia State University Perimeter College who writes for Jacobin Magazine and co-hosts the Dead Pundits Society.
I came across this video of him debating Charlie Kirk, whose “conservative populism” in many respects sounds a lot like Burgis’s democratic socialism.
It brings to mind a quote from Bastiat.
“As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose—that it may violate property instead of protecting it—then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder,” he wrote in The Law.
Maybe I should send Charlie a copy. In any event, watch the debate between Kirk and Burgis and and let me know what you think in the comments.
Ben seems like an honest, cordial guy. Should be a good debate!
His opening statement is really where the major flaw in the socialism argument lies: the freedom from want. Such a freedom can never truly exist in this life, and if it did, man would not need to act. Social cooperation is guided by our desire to address an uneasiness. The best way to satisfy wants is not by taking from others and redistributing, but through innovation and production.
It’s always interesting to me how fascinated socialists are with Scandinavia, and how they view the crony capitalism in America as a model free market economy. Why don’t they ever talk about Liechtenstein or Switzerland? Low taxes, private healthcare, a healthy business environment, and great standard of living. Not exactly a free market paradise, but far freer than the rest of Europe, and better off as a result.
Labor laws in Europe tend not to have resulted from government enforcement but through labor unions establishing good relationships with business owners. In the U.S., the labor unions are notorious for making unreasonable demands, leading to a general distrust of them. If unions want European-like labor relations, then they need to adopt the collective bargaining tactics of their European counterparts.