We Are Already Socialists and the Politicians Smiling on Fox News Know It

Stop Pretending We Are Not Already There

I keep watching these pundits on television clutching their pearls about socialism like it is some distant threat on the horizon. Let me save everyone some time. We are already there. Have been for a while. And the people warning you about it on your screen helped build it.

Here is the number they will not put on the chyron: 168 million Americans currently receive a government transfer payment. That is half the population. Men, women, children. Half the country gets a check from the government. If that is not a socialist-leaning economy, I genuinely do not know what would qualify.

The Medicaid Math Nobody Wants to Talk About

In 1980, 22 million Americans were on Medicaid. Today that number is north of 84 million. That is nearly a four-fold increase. Where were the fiscally responsible Republicans during that run-up? Giving speeches about limited government while signing off on expansions. This is not a partisan attack. Both parties own this. Both parties built it. And here is the ugly truth about why:

• Dependency is political power, period
• When 168 million people rely on a government check, they vote to protect that check
• The greater the dependency, the more leverage politicians hold over the population
• No program, once established, ever gets eliminated. I said it about Obamacare and I was right

Capitalism Is the Actual Threat to These People

Real capitalism, not the crony variety we actually practice, is an existential threat to the political class. Think about what it produces:

• People who take personal responsibility for their outcomes
• People who build their own financial independence
• People who do not need a government check to survive
• People who cannot be controlled through dependency

That is why what we call capitalism in this country is not actually capitalism. It is a system of regulatory capture, barriers to entry, and rules written by lobbyists to protect whoever is already at the top. I have lived this. Want to get into institutional money management? Better hire a lobbyist. Better start paying the right people. That is not a free market. That is a racket with better public relations.

Every Regulation Is Someone’s Moat

Let me be direct about something I have said for years: every regulation sold to you as taming the market is actually an instrument of stifling competition. The established players write the rules. The rules then make it nearly impossible for new competitors to challenge them. The result is a system that calls itself capitalism while operating like a cartel.

And the political class loves this arrangement because it gives them two things:

• Campaign contributions from the protected industries
• Dependency votes from the recipients of transfer programs funded by the whole mess

Understanding the Terrain Is How You Survive It

I am not telling you this to send you into a spiral. I am telling you because denial is the most expensive financial decision you can make. I understand the terrain. I might not like it, but I understand it. That is how I have been able to navigate inflation, market cycles, and a financial system rigged against the average person for decades.

Here is what you need to internalize:

• This system is not changing because the people in charge benefit from it
• Inflation is built into a transfer payment economy and it is not going away
• Your only real protection is building genuine financial independence outside the dependency model
• The regulations and complexity you find confusing are designed to be confusing, they protect the insiders

I do not live in the comfortable fantasy that the cavalry is coming to fix this. The cavalry is on the payroll of the same people who built the problem. Understand the terrain. Build accordingly.