The Green Party is Further From Liberty Than You May Think
Many people are familiar with Jill Stein. The Green Party candidate seems like the natural successor to Bernie Sanders’s revolution. For far-left socialists, this may be the case. For those interested in a free and productive society, however, Stein falls far below par. Here are just a few reasons not to waste your vote on Jill Stein.
1. No One Wants to Foot the Bill for Her Energy Policies
The first thing that stands about Jill Stein is, of course, her “green” agenda. You can find her radical agenda on her campaign page. Among other things, Stein wants to convert to “100% clean, renewable energy by 2030.” That sounds all well and good, up to the point where you consider what that means.
Green energy can hardly stand on its own legs. Solar, one of the most popular sources of renewable energy, can only peter along with huge tax breaks and subsidies. Most of the solar units installed in this country are leased through another company. You can see some of the numbers here. Companies often sell these leases in predatory and dishonest ways, trapping consumers in a failing scheme where the taxpayer foots the bill.
While many people support a theoretical carbon tax, and there may be economic arguments for doing so, the thought of bearing the cost is vastly unpopular. At the end of the day, the biggest plank in Stein’s platform is not only unpopular, but unworkable.
2. Her “Free” Education Proposals are as Impractical as They are Stupid
It isn’t enough to say that Stein is simply pandering to former-Sanders supporters. In reality, free education has long-held as a plank of the Green Party. However, just because it is a long-standing tradition of the party doesn’t make it any smarter.
Stein wants to guarantee free public education. She wants to abolish student loans. She wants to keep public schools from privatization. All of these are recipes for disaster. Education is a service just like anything else in the economy. Keeping out the market has the same effect as it does on most things: a higher price and poorer quality.
Life as a student is hard enough. Now, Stein wants to increase taxes to pay for these goodies. If people don’t, or shouldn’t, go to college, there’s no recourse. Student loans rates, in fact, should be high because unlike with a bank, the government can’t repossess the assets you acquire (your brain). That being said, Jill Stein does make us wonder.
3. The Most Vulnerable Among us Will Be Hit Hardest
Jill Stein does a great job talking about the poor. If you listen long enough, you might think she actually cares. This isn’t to say that, in her heart of hearts, she doesn’t like the poor. It just means that she doesn’t care to take the time to learn the devastating effects of her policies on working families.
Stein says she wants to eliminate poverty. Aside from the notion of waging a war on a relative term, she also wants to install a “living wage.” She can probably string along a few millennials and working-class laborers who feel that they’ve been left behind. However, if she were to assume office, those people would take a hard lesson in economics real quick.
It’s a virtue to feel sympathy for the impoverished and hard working families that can’t seem to get by. It’s a malicious tragedy, however, to actively pursue policies that will wrench opportunities out of their waiting hands.
4. Quality Jobs Will Fly to Greener Pastures
Reform Paryt candidate Ross Perot once spoke of a “giant sucking sound” regarding jobs flying from Mexico to the United States. While he may have been operating on a flawed premise, he did seem to forecast the noise we would hear under a Stein administration.
It is an impossible to task to name a single Stein policy that will make it easier to hire workers in the United States. Her energy policies are an implicit tax on manufacturers and those in the conventional-energy sector. Her proposed rules for businesses will lead to increasing automation. We’re seeing the effects of this already.
As it stands, jobs are already flying to China and India, among others. It’s hard to make a case that businesses want to do this. If, however, Stein assumes office, there’s no reason to believe that firms would be able to bring any of these jobs back.
5. Federal Bureaucrats Will Bind the Country in Red Tape
Imagine the entire country run by the DMV. This vision is the natural consequence of a Stein presidency. The EPA is already a nightmare for small business owners. Increasing their power to quash business practices as they see fit would be a truly destructive path. The angry acronym agencies of the government would bring this country grinding to a halt.
The country is already experiencing slow growth. It’s impossible to see how Stein thinks more restrictions are the answer. The libertarian philosophy is to let individuals do as they please without harming others. This has been a tried and true formula for a prosperous society.
Jill Stein’s philosophy is to hog-tie you with a mile of red tape until her bureaucratic cronies decide what to do with you. Without a doubt, this is a recipe to send America backwards.