President Trump and Vice President Pence won 2016 on ‘Making America Great Again’ (MAGA). They are now in the 2020 race on ‘Keeping America Great’ (KAG).
Save the Soul of America, say opponents, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. What is the pre-requisite of Keeping America Great or Saving the Soul of America? That is to save the USA’s market or capitalistic system of economic management.
In four words: Save America From Left.
The soul of America is not immigration, or undocumented workers or more government regulation or more welfare, it has been market or capitalistic system of economic management, the reward for merit and talent, which have supported rest all above like immigration, jobs and welfare.
Migration has happened and will continue to happen, all over the world, since the very first humans migrated from the African Continent to India, at the beginning of civilization. To know more about that story please watch BBC’s, ‘The Story of India’, Part-1, by Michael Woods.
People move to lands of opportunity and hospitable lands. America is America, the land of the free and brave, love of the immigrants, because of its systems of economic management that encourage merit, talent, human freedom and risk-taking. U.S. Dollar has been fairly strong despite huge U.S. current account deficit, year after year because the world still has great faith in the market and capitalistic system of the USA. The world including ‘left’ economies of the world pour huge investments in this country leading to huge capital surpluses. Why do Chinese avail the highest numbers of EB-5 investment visas of this country? Why do they invest in vast tracts of land in this country?
Because this country has model private property rights. Foreigners can buy land in this country without visiting here and their property rights are as safe as that of the residents. Not only your investment is safe but also stable and rewarding as US Dollar has been a consistently strong (hard) currency.
Data Speaks
Left is great at words, but not on the ground. Here is the data that speaks for itself.
Between a communist and a capitalist country, where would the wealth inequality be more?
Capitalist. Right?
Wrong!
That is what the Left has been drumming up from the days of ‘haves and have-nots’; ‘Workers of the World Unite; You have nothing to Loose but Chains’. Or, ‘Religion is the Opium of the Masses’.
Take the case of Russia and the USA, leaders of the two blocks, two ideologies. If you say China is the new leader in making, we shall review that also and a socialist India, next in line. In terms of wealth share of top 1%, Russia has clocked higher than USA, observed over four different points of time during 2000-2019.
Please take a look at the following graph:
Let me quickly add that this is not a graph prepared by some partisan think- tank. It is prepared by Credit Suisse, which they regularly do as part of their market research for their own strategic decision making.
Agreed that wealth inequality may be viewed in different ways. Someone may prefer Gini Coefficient or Gini Index, or something more exotic. But wealth share of top 1% is simple and robust, easy to understand and interpret for everyone. I have been involved with the banking industry, all over the world, for years. There have been tens of metrics of bank performance analysis. But one single ratio, Texas Ratio, has been the most simple and robust, easy to understand and interpret for all. Because that captures the soul of a commercial bank operations, that is the problem loans.
What does the above graph show?
- United States of America, the leader of the market or capitalist ideology, has wealth share of top 1%, nearly 35% in 2019.
- Russia, the leader of the left block, on the other hand, has wealth share of top 1%, nearly 58% in 2019.
- Watched at 4 points of time over 2000- 2019, in USA, the share of top 1% has varied in the range of 33- 35%.
- Watched at 4 points of time over 2000- 2019, in Russia, the share of top 1% has varied in the range of 57- 62%.
- Watched at four points of time during 2000-2019, in China, wealth share of top 1%, has increased from 20% in 2000 to 30% in 2019.
- Take a look at the socialist India. The share of the top 1%, is much higher, ranging between 38% and 42%, than the capitalist USA of 33- 35%.
- If you see Obama (Democrat) year 2016 in USA, compared to Bush (Republican) Year (2007), wealth share of top 1%, had only notched up a little higher. Now the most interesting, wealth share of top 1%, during Trump (Republican) year (2019) is a notch down from Obama (Democrat) year (2016).
‘Left’ in the modern lexicon are also known as Progressives, Liberals, Democrats, Communists, Socialists, Left-wingers and Globalists. Capitalists, on the other hand, you may meet as Republicans, Right-wingers, Conservatives, Nationalists and sometimes as Deplorables. Perfect centrists actually don’t exist and if existed, would be a perfectly confused and confusing entity. A little to the left or right of the center would be perfect fence-sitters or opportunists.
Dr Sat Parashar, PhD is former Director, IIM Indore. He teaches at University of California, San Diego, and is a Financial Services Professional. He may be reached at writetospp@gmail.com