America fails Marx communist test

A communist country is a centrally planned economy. Every aspect of the country’s economy is planned from the ruling elite. The state owns and controls the means of production. Karl Marx is considered the founder of communism, his book “The Communist Manifesto” he laid out the framework to turn a capitalist society into a communist economy. Marx could be considered the first community organizer, as his theory is based on convincing the middle and lower classes that they are being exploited by the upper class. The lower classes must rise up against the oppressors and take control of the means of production. Then, as the famous communist saying goes; from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The key to Marx’s theory is the country must first be capitalist, capitalist societies are the only ones that produce capital and innovation; something needed if the lower classes is going to take over. Karl Marx created a test to see if a country was communist and according to his ten planks, the United States has become a communist country. Here are the ten planks and the American counterpart. Plank 1 - Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes. The United States equivalent – The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, Bureau of Land Management, property taxes. Do we really have private property? If you don’t pay the government, they will take your land. Americans also have to deal with eminent domain laws, where the government can take private property from private individuals, originally compensation was required and the taking had to be for public benefit. Now, the government has been unconstitutionally taking private property and not for public benefit. Instead it’s being used as payback, continuing the cycle of crony capitalism, at the expense of the people they are supposed to protect. Zoning laws also adversely affect private property; they regulate what a person can or can’t do on “their” property. Plank 2 - A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. The United States features the 16th Amendment, the social security act, state income taxes. As the liberals like to call it, paying your fair share. Exactly what is considered “fair share?” Nobody has been able to explain that, just that rich people are not paying their fair share. It’s not about paying their fair share; it’s about trying to make everyone equal. High progressive tax rates in France have driven high earners to abandon their citizenship and move to other countries. We have seen this in California and New York as well, as high progressive state income tax rates have made people leave their states in search of more tax friendly states. The high progressive tax rates also provide incentives for high earners to search for tax shelters or tax havens. Plank 3 - Abolition of all rights of inheritance. Americans call this “the death tax”, or the inheritance tax, probate laws, federal and state estate taxes. While in America, the government does not take all of a dead person’s estate, they certainly appear more than willing to take all of it. The government does a good job of breaking up family businesses and family farms when the heirs cannot afford the taxes being charged. So all the hard work to earn a nice house and/or car, savings, investments or businesses are now subject to a 40% tax, just because of the misfortune of dying. This puts a larger burden on the heirs at the worst possible time. There are many stories where the heirs cannot pay the death tax without liquidating everything that they just inherited. What is the point of working hard, saving money or owning anything if the government is going to take nearly half of your children’s inheritance? Plank 4 - Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. Government seizures, tax liens, RICO laws, and asset forfeiture laws used by the IRS, DEA, ATF. Everybody has heard the stories of the celebrities in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service and the stories all end the same way, with the government taking everything, the one I remember the most is Red Foxx. The Drug Enforcement Agency holds auctions where they sell all of the assets of those they have arrested. The RICO laws allow the government to confiscate anything they want as long as those assets could have been purchased with money earned through illegal activities. The Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives does its fair share of property confiscation, working with other police agencies disarming those that cross the government. Federal asset forfeiture laws allow the “police” agencies to profit from taking property from just about anyone. Plank 5 - Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. Very simply, the Federal Reserve. Every state bank is connected to the federal system. The Federal Reserve issues currency, even though it now only produces fiat currency. This plank is a little different; the Federal Reserve is a private company that the government gave power over the United States economy. Through the manipulation of interest rates and “printing” of money, the Federal Reserve creates the boom/bust cycles that create depressions. The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 to prevent economic downturns and actually does the exact opposite. The manipulation of economic indicators presents false data that distorts the law of supply and demand. These indictors promote borrowing which creates a bubble that eventually will burst. Look at the housing bubble that caused the Great Recession. Plank 6 - Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State. America has the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration and DOT regulations. The Federal Communications Commission is in charge of all communications throughout the country, they regulate phones, radios, cable television, and satellite. Now they are even grabbing control of the internet. The FEC regulates what a television program can say and do, what a radio station can broadcast. They are also promote competition through such scams as net neutrality and just recently obtained the power to shut down the internet in what the government may determine as a national emergency. The Department of Transportation created a national highway system that criss crosses the country and keeps the authority to shut them down and use them for government purposes. The DOT also forces states to comply with federal regulations by withholding funds until compliance and regulates all vehicles on the road. Plank 7 - Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. This is easily seen in these as well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency by far goes the farthest to implement the business crushing agenda of the central government, through regulation, basing most on politically motivated “research.” The Department of Labor is not innocent in the crushing of business, think about the case of Boeing being attacked by the Department of Labor because of its chosen location to open a new manufacturing plant. These executive branch agencies have one purpose, to regulate business; to make business comply with ridiculous rules and regulations that drain their coffers while enriching government. Plank 8 - Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. In America, we call this minimum wage, favored nation, Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce and national unions. The minimum wage laws disproportionately harm the low/non-skilled workers by pricing them out of the labor market. The equality of labor can be seen best in the national unions, more specifically, public sector unions. Think back to the death care bill debate, you see the seas of purple and red shirted union members; many bussed in to try and pressure/coerce others into their way of thinking. The same can be seen at the Walker recall election in Wisconsin, bully tactics, intimidation, property damage, assaults all promoted by the unions. The biggest problem with public sector unions is they negotiate with the very politicians they put in office, at the expense of the tax payer. Look at the financial trouble many states are in because of the promises made to unions with unsustainable pensions. Plank 9 - Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country. America has the Planning Reorganization Act, Zoning laws, corporate super farms. Zoning laws are created by government to control the people. Want to have horses on your property, too bad, you’re not zoned for that. Want to run a business out of your garage, better check the zoning laws. Zoning laws are governments way of making everyone live in a certain area, allows where and what type of business can be opened. Corporate super farms also help blur the lines of urban and rural by bringing big corporations and their employees out to the country where the crops are grown, processed and shipped throughout the country. What used to be family farms has been overtaken by corporations and their political cronies. Plank 10 - Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production. In America, we have the Department of Education, the teachers unions, and common core. Education in America has been in decline shortly after the creation Federal Department of Education. When the students can’t do the work, the government throws more money at it and changes the standards. Kids can’t do the math, let’s lower the standard. Kids can’t understand English, let’s lower the standards. Programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, create corruption as teachers teach to the test or like in Atlanta were caught changing the tests after they were turned in. Now we have Common Core, where the federal government is going as far as sending out curriculum and suggested lesson plans and discussion questions. By looking at the new textbooks, it easy to spot the propaganda and now it seems that the education department is more concerned with producing loyal “subjects” than thinking citizens.