The Dictatorship of the Proletariat Ain't What It Used to Be

Whatever else you think of the election result in Spain, Slate's Chris Suellentrop notes that it does at least provide a comforting reminder of how decisively the economic battle's been won:

Here are some of the economic promises on which Zapatero's Socialist Workers Party campaigned: lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 30 percent, cutting income taxes, and reducing the value-added tax. Oh, and they're going to balance the budget and control inflation. The man expected to be the Socialist finance minister, Miguel Sebastian, is a U.S.-educated economist with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He's promising to put his faith in the Invisible Hand. "There will be a strict separation between politics and business," he told the Financial Times. "We will be a market-friendly government." These are socialists?

Now, maybe they're actually pure evil, but it's nice (not to mention amusing) to see self-described socialists forced to adopt at least the rhetoric of market economics.

Comments

[Mark Fox]

I took econ at the U of Minn. Apparently my comment that the instructor's roommate was a "neo-Keynesian douchebag" had global repercussions.

[shanep]

Kevin, they don't sound like anarchists to me. More like "third way" social democrats.

[shanep]

So don't apply for your visa just yet. 😉

[Ruthless]

Zapatero

Hey, I love you, man!

[Jean Bart]

Andrew,

You vaguely remember this because I wrote about this issue a few days ago.

[Alexander Orlev Crawford]

Golly,

Considering the threat to the Spaish economy from privatization and global capitalism, wouldn't it be advisable for the United Left leadership to assure themselves that the Spanish Peoples bullion reserve was stored somewhere absolutely secure? At least until it can be distributed to the masses?

Obviously I can't promise anything in President Putin's name, but I'm confident that with Moscows assisstance there'd be no problem transporting Spain's Central Reserve, and it's Euro note plates and what ever other things like Piccaso's or Velasquez's or anything valuable... transporting it to a safe place... where no global capitalists would use it to exploit the Spanish people or corrupt them...

[Jean Bart]

karl,

EU-skeptics are long on rhetoric and short on real criticisms.

[Jones Janice]

EMAIL: [e-mail]
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DATE: 05/21/2004 05:30:38
It's never right to say always, and always wrong to say never.