Boy-oh-boy! If you wanted to see socialism backfire before your eyes – proof that anti-capitalist sentiment leads no place good – I think we just saw it. In one of the oddest chapters in recent American politics, an avowed socialist and Democrat congresswoman, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, just spiked 25,000 to 50,000 jobs and tens of billions of dollars of revenue for New York City. She single-handedly vaporized one of the most sought-after economic opportunities in a decade – with strident, ill-informed, and ill-timed words.
That’s right, first Amazon canvased the country, creating an open and competitive process (that is how capitalism works) among dozens of hopeful US cities – for the second of two big headquarters. The promises made by this high-octane engine of American innovation, revenue and prosperity were large – but the Amazon track record for fulfilling such promises is also large.
So highly competed was this opportunity for upward mobility that 238 cities entered the competition. When the field was thinned to 20, those standing included Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Montgomery County MD, Nashville, Newark, New York City, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia Raleigh, Washington DC, and even Toronto.
With a long-awaited drumroll, New York City then won. The stakes were high and The Big Apple was understandably ecstatic. Then, like some nightmare, the November 2018 elections occurred – and Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who styles herself a force of nature, shot off her mouth. She and a handful of leftist Democrats lambasted the company, Amazon.
As if she did not understand basic economics, or power of government incentives and infrastructure to leverage growth for jobs to pay for food, homes, children and wealth creation, she attacked the company – for lining up three billion dollars in tax incentives. These incentives would have bought teachers, infrastructure, construction and jobs that she claimed to want – but she let her leftist vitriol fly: Socialism over capitalism, personal ambition over people’s lives, jobs and growth.
In one fell swoop, she killed the Amazon project, upending years of preparation and destroying the hopes of hundreds of thousands of workers and businesses in fellow-Democrat Carolyn Maloney’s (D-NY) district. This self-impressed 29-year-old socialist triggered a straight-forward response: If you don’t want our efforts, innovation, growth, jobs and revenue, we are out of here. Amazon is gone.
And there we have it. Personal ambition and aggrandizement delivered a socialist outcome – an economic dead-end street. Congresswoman Maloney was stunned, along with thousands of New Yorkers. The dumbfounded New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, last Sunday, decried the outcome. The proud-as-a-peacock Socialist, with no life experience, depth in history or economics, was apparently pleased to have triumphed over the American spirit of life, liberty, free markets and capitalist economics.
The actual news account: “Ocasio-Cortez was wrong to have claimed the collapse of the Amazon deal would free up $3 billion to fix the city’s subways and hire more teachers.” As New York’s stunned and glum Mayor explained to the prophet: “The three billion dollars would go back in tax incentives, only after we were getting jobs and … revenue [from the company]… There’s not three billion in money … there’s no money” – until capitalists make it.
And that is the socialist fallacy in a nutshell. If you do not make any wealth, there is no wealth to tax and redistribute. If you kill creators of wealth, you bankrupt the system – ala Venezuela and the former Soviet Union.
In the former Soviet Union, citizens indoctrinated to be good socialists would sometimes discover a community member had purchased a cow. What did they do? For the sake of assuring socialist equality, they would kill the cow – rather than ask how they might all get cows.
And so, well done “AOC.” Truth is simple: Socialism backfires, always does. The New York Democrat just did us a favor, demonstrating how socialism kills jobs, destroys businesses, impoverishes lives, and under-cuts everything from privately-inspired infrastructure and education to basic human self-worth and prosperity. These come from giving hard-working people jobs, just an honest day’s work and pay. Socialists are – collectively and individually – a piece of work. Socialism is about bringing people down, as they just did to tens of thousands of New Yorkers. But we also got an invaluable lesson: Socialism fails, and always will. Thank you Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
I wish you would send this article to CNN, NBC, CBS and all the others. Your description of what our country is facing, needs to get out to the people. Especially send it to FOX news, and to any other news media you can. Thank you for your article.
AOC’s first order of business should be to extract a refund from Boston University. She has a degree in economics and international relations cum laude. She does not understand the difference between a $3 billion tax credit and a $3 billion grant. She is a stereotypical millennial-confident and incompetent.
We are giving too much of our time to AOC. She is so naive, unsmart, her Ego keeps growing and she comes up with more non-sense.
I wish my grandson and niece would read this article. But I don’t know that it would make a difference. They are so sold on socialism and hate President Trump so much that they won’t listen to anyone. I pray that it doesn’t get to the place that they will see the fallacy of their beliefs. I pray that we don’t ever go down that road.
Please she’s the most entertaining and exciting thing to come along for the Democrats in years, let’s all enjoy her for as long as possible.
Extremely well said!
This is a great well written article.. Thank you
Occasional cortex is an idiot and a moron. May she be totally discredited and kicked out!
She’s an idiot, plain and simple!!
The really sorry thing about all of this is (besides AOC) a lot of dumboKrats and their constituents actually believe what she believes and will consider the loss of all those jobs and that tax base as something positive for NYC.
The really amazing (and totally disturbing) fact not mentioned in this story is that the freshman representative has an ECONOMICS degree from Boston College. Maybe that explains why she was working as a bartender before her election.
I don’t know much about Boston College but I’d certainly like to know where she placed in her graduating class.
Just another total socialist moron! Unfortunately, she reflects the very people who voted for her. Very sad.
Who owns the property in NYC now that was in Amazon’s sites ? I’ll bet, in some sneaky way, the mayor,governor, and the insiders do.
The problem is deeper… the youth of America see her as a leader they want to follow. They are puppies whose eyes have yet to open. They see elected officials as leaders instead of representatives. Elected representatives take an oath to uphold the law of the land, not change it. The constitution is that law, including the 2nd amendment and the electoral college. We are either headed down the wrong path or we’re headed for a second cival war in my opinion
Maybe NYC will become like Venezuela and be a shining example for the rest of the country.
As my sainted Aunt form Alabama used to say, ‘She hasn’t got a lick of sense’. Unfortunately with the ego AOC has she isn’t likely to come up with any ‘sense’ she begins to harken to her own recollections.
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And we thought Joe Biden was the gift that just keeps on giving..AOC has surged ahead. Conservatives, don’t let this chick’s words of wisdom go to waste. Great election fodder.
The saying goes “ignorance is bliss”. AOC is blissfully ignorant. She really believes that she
is the face of the new democratic leadership and that all should blindly follow her. For the GOP
she will remain the gift that keeps on giving.
She’s turning out to be the Democrats worse nightmare.
Well now this is a bit much. If she is such a nothing how could she nix the deal?
Cortez is nothing but a communist looser who’s only job was as a bartender ! What is to become of her ? If she is not recalled, impeached or (WHATEVER) there’s big trouble ahead !!
AOC is an idiot, and dumbocrats elected her. That says it all.
I loved this article. I was worried abut this AOC person but if this is how she and her people work There just may be hope the rest of them will wake up
While I don’t agree with AOC, she did make one small point with which I do concur: Corporate welfare is wrong! It is not capitalism and shouldn’t be used to lure companies to certain locales. Amazon can afford to locate wherever they want. They don’t need incentives to subsidize their business model. Amazon was right to pull out of a location that was not friendly to businesses.
Wonderful article. I agree with John. She is nothing. Has nothing. Nancy needs to shut her down. As a New Yorker I am disgusted with what she did. Shame on her.
We must stand against any move to become a socialistic country; even if it means laying down our lives. The blood of those men and women, who have gone before us, to secure our God given freedoms cry out to take a stand.
So many youth today have no real understanding of history, they simply respond emotionally to politics; The “elite” liberal left is counting on this. I believe Vladimer Lenin said: “Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”
Outstanding reporting. Good job!
How does this Congresswoman travel on her junkets? How does Muslim Congresswoman from Minnesota travel? From where do these Congresswomen get their financial support?
Please please listen all democrat/ socialists both in government and not. LEAVE! I’ve said it before and continue to say it. LEAVE, there are hundreds of failing countries that believe your same false beliefs. Go there PLEASE. Get out and leave us to our beautiful, republic! We do not want your ” change”.
This woman needs to be pulled out of congress. Wake up New York and America.
A woman, who needs to be pulled out of congress immediately. Wake up New York and America.
I know I shouldn’t be so ugly in saying this, but dammit, this stupidass AOC commie lefty is a waste of a Latina! I am Mexican American, and I would so enjoy going to the gym, or outside, having a boxing match with this marxist, commie skank! And whoever loses, has to genuinely become a Tea Party Conservative!!
This commie nazi ho has not the guts to tell the millionaire hollyweirdos, or the billionaire Floyd Mayweather and basketball players and football players that they have to pay 70 percent taxes! This kkk party-goer is a bug eyed hypocrite-alongside her demtard political colleagues-because are any of them going to tax themselves 70%?? Any of these demtards going to let go of their walled-secured mansions?!! Pos’s!
Give ’em enough rope and they hang themselves. Actually laughing at this, the term? LMAO?? Bernie et al might reconsider. lol
Pretty sad case of how AOC thinks wealth is created in the first place. When you really believe government “makes” money and then hands it out to corporations to attract their business you haven’t taken even the most basic economics course. Tax incentives aren’t cash, they are “breaks” on money that hasn’t been earned yet.
I moved to Colorado 10 years ago and watch it devolve into this depraved communist run state. With our gay democrat governor and with these lunatic democrats controlling both the senate and the house. They had a bill introduced that would legalize herion injection sites. Apparently that was even too whacky for even the democrats. Public outcry finally got this from being brought to vote.
They are not finished . They have passed a bill that would give Colorado’s electoral vote to whoever wins the NATIONAL popular vote. So your vote means nothing here. California, New York will decide it for you. They have a gun grabbing bill going to come here next week.
Who knows what else is coming down the pike. These commies must be stopped!!
Paraphrasing John Wayne in “Sargent Striker” –
‘You can’t fix stupid’!
Obama took almost 8 years to fully implement his “legacy”, the ACA. It took AOC less than two months to leave her legacy. I wonder if the Democratic Socialists in NY will remember what she did for their city in the next election. Once again they have proven that electing Socialist nobodies with no real world experience, is disastrous.
Wow. You said it all. I am posting this everywhere. Thank you for shining the spotlight on the failures and lies of socialism.
Cortez in the land of Oz. All she has to do is click her heels 3X and she magically appears in the land of green world.
I totally agree with you. My family lived in socialist situations prior to coming to America. They learned that in the U.S., you have freedom to make money. I did well for myself–due to the ability to make people rich through my efforts, and as a result, I had the highest paid sales force in the U.S.
AOC and the rest of the criminals in DC, that was just a preview if they should ever gain control. God Bless President Trump!
AOC- Another Oppressive Communist. This moron is about as stupid as they come. She is a perfect example of what is coming out of our Indoctrination Camps. We need to re-educate/re-program our youth who have embraced Socialism without any knowledge of what it is and the history of failure everywhere it has been tried. All they see is FREE this FREE that. You brainwashed idiots will not like it’s outcome. Only thing you’ll get FREE is your FREEdom being taken away.
Wise up! America will never be a Socialist country. People who promote it should not be in our Congress.
A giant ARGO to AOC.
Must demand a “Recall Election” and get this Un-American person out of OUR government. I cannot imagine
who would ever vote for anyone like her. She doesn’t represent our American values.
It’s my understanding that she has has a college degree in Economics from Boston College. What a joke!
Agree with article. The lack understanding and appreciation American business can achieve through mutual risky commitments to successful investments is difficult when you’ve lived in the poor house all ur life. AOC has good intensions – bless her heart – but lacks experience and understanding.
Wait till she collapses the whole country. I keep waiting for her to grow some fangs like the vampire she is. She will finish sucking the life out of us if we let her.
Right today I’ll we have to do is look at Venezuela
AOC clearly does not understand economics and the multiplier effect with jobs coming into an area. Those new workers, often buy local, they pay rent, buy houses, buy vehicles, buy groceries and other items. The money turns over 1.33 to 1.75% and all benefit. The jobs in this case are relatively high paying, and they in turn infuse money into the local economy. The incomes are taxed, sales are taxed, this is a huge boon to local governments. The revenue is used for services like education and infra-structure development/improvement. AOC does not “get it”, she hurt her district and she hurt New York. I truly hope the voters of her district are coming to appreciate how truly she is on this and many other issues. Do not return her to DC in the next election.