Target: Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Goal: Cease government takeovers of private businesses.
Politicians who have long decried socialism are taking America’s government in an increasingly socialist direction. Shortly after the Trump administration demanded a share of the profits from private company Nvidia’s sales to China, the administration — with taxpayer funds — has bought a 15 percent stake in electronics company Intel. They have announced intentions for a similar move for private defense contractors. Recently, the administration also approved a major merger between two steel companies on the condition that the government receives a so-called “golden share” – thereby granting it immense power over – the newly merged private company.
These maneuvers have prompted accusations of socialism (government control over private production) from both sides of the political aisle, including from individuals typically sympathetic to this administration. “Washington is embracing what can only be called corporate socialism — profits privatized, losses socialized, and taxpayers held hostage to the fortunes of politically connected firms,” said a former economic policy adviser of President Trump’s first administration. Critics are also concerned increasing government influence in private businesses will lead to political pressure on the businesses to fall in line with dictates, from price interference on products to demands about changing the composition of products (as the president has suggested for a popular soft drink).
Also ever-present is the worry that moves made in the name of the government and the people are truly for certain politicians’ personal profit. The president, for example, has pushed cryptocurrency because a boom in this sector could greatly enrich his private investments. Perhaps the president summed it best in his response to criticisms about the Intel buy-in: “’I want to try and get as much as I can.”
Sign the petition below to remind a current top economic adviser that the American economy is not an “I” but a “we.”
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Lutnick,
“Socialist,” “Marxist,” “communist”: these politically charged words have been thrown about quite a bit in recent years. Why does it now seem that the very individuals who screamed them the loudest are fulfilling the identities and the philosophies to the fullest? Intel, MP Materials, Nvidia, AMD, Nippon Steel, Lockheed Martin…where will the government intervention in private enterprise end and the return of free market capitalism begin?
Hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money is being invested in these pet projects that will make the rich and powerful more rich and powerful. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans will be left holding the bag if these businesses falter or if political pressure forces them to work against the best interests of consumers. You have the ear of one of the world’s most powerful men. Advise him that the U.S. economy is not a game of Monopoly to be played on Americans’ dime.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Anete Lusina
