Why the DSAs agenda actually promises misery for all

The Democratic Socialists of America are proving an old principle of politics: You can win a lot of votes by promising “free stuff” — and not worrying if you could possibly deliver.Analyst Adam Michel of the free-market Cato Institute just tallied up the DSA’s agenda, and guess what: “The entire wealth of the richest Americans, plus every dollar of corporate profit and maximum top income tax rates” fails to pay for the socialist program.The DSA vows to provide universal health care (cost to the government: $29.9 trillion to $75.4 trillion over the next decade), slavery reparations ($13.5 trillion to $28 trillion), jobs guarantees ($4.4 trillion to $60.4 trillion), housing for all ($3.4 trillion to $16.6 trillion) and several other big-ticket goodies.The mind-blowing total: $71.2 trillion to $211.6 trillion, spiking federal spending to 57% of GDP on the low end, and 92% on the high end.The higher figure means spending the equivalent of the value of everything produced in America every year.“No comparable country on Earth spends anywhere close to that amount,” Michel wryly observes.More: Confiscating every penny held by the richest American, plus every penny of corporate profit, and raising income-tax rates to the max would still leave DSAers short by $29 trillion to $169 trillion. So it’d be tax hikes all around: Each dollar that Uncle Sam now collects from middle-class Americans now would have to become $4.36, meaning today’s 24% bracket would have to be more than 100%, and the top rate 160%-plus.Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email.

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In reality, such monster tax rates would backfire — people would move abroad, shift to black markets, work less, etc.— leaving the gap bigger still.This is precisely why any time any government has tried socialism, poverty and mi...