There are no socialists in power
I arrived at the Pentagon in February 2003. Whenever I could, I followed the official tours, learned every corridor, and later guided colleagues and friends through the building myself. Rank rules the real estate. The highest officials claimed the outside windows on the Potomac side. The office that allocated space sat on the inside ring, looking over the courtyard with its trees, benches, and the five-sided sandwich stand that served a genuinely excellent Philly cheesesteak. Even the people who decided who got the best views kept the second-best for themselves. Power allocates the good stuff. It’s not theory. People do what they do because they want what they want.
TL;DR
- Power and rank determine access to the best resources, as seen in office space allocation at the Pentagon.
- Even self-proclaimed socialists often act as personal capitalists, using political leverage to benefit their families.
- Examples like Zohran Mamdani, Harry Reid, Lindsey Graham, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders illustrate how personal connections and influence are used for financial and career advancement.
- Rent-seeking, where individuals profit from policies they help create or navigate, is a consistent pattern, leading to costs borne by taxpayers and future debt.
- The well-connected often receive preferential treatment and may be insulated from the full consequences of legal or ethical breaches.
- The author concludes that such systems, regardless of the language used, result in the same allocation of benefits to the connected, with costs ultimately passed on to future generations.