When the Dust Settles, Leftists are all the Same

The Austrian School economists have long held that moderate government involvement in the economy always leads to total government, and that it is merely a matter of time.  It seems that there is a corollary: all Left/Centre-Left politicians are merely Marxists constrained by their political climate, and that given the chance, they would all become a Chavez or a Castro.

Our closeted Marxist of the day is none other than Gordon Brown, the bumbling buffoon who, thanks only to the fact that he was a necessary tool in the grander political designs of Lord Mandelson, continues to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (or, in a post-Lisbon Treaty world, perhaps we should begin referring to it as the United Fiefdom).  

Anybody who follows the British press will know about the near-mass hysteria over Kraft's attempted buy-out of British candy maker Cadbury.  Much of the hysteria has simply been popular nostalgia over the continued loss of Britishness, but today, Gordon Brown has decided to insinuate himself in the matter, by warning Kraft not to make any money in its investment by trimming costs:

"We are determined that the levels of investment that take place in Cadbury in the United Kingdom are maintained and we are determined that, at a time when people are worried about their jobs, that jobs in Cadbury can be secure."

Such populist muddle should not be surprising from a beleaguered politician whose days at No. 10 are growing few, but what we should recognize is the remarkable parallels between Mr Brown and the recent actions of the glorious leader of that bastion of stability and prosperity euphemistically known as the "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela."

Mr Chavez recently took steps to devalue the Venezuelan currency (which anybody with an elementary understanding of economics will know leads necessarily to inflation), and then declared that any companies, large or small, that dared raise their prices (a requirement, if they had any desire to stay financially viable) would be shut down and assets confiscated.  Nobody can possibly be permitted to thwart the political designs of the central planners, because the history of government-imposed industrial and pricing policy has such a record of success--like the 30 million people who died as a result of Mao's Great Leap Forward, or the catastrophic poverty in the Soviet Union.

So Mr Brown may not be dispatching Scotland Yard to shut down a Kraft-owned Cadbury in the event of some cost-trimming, but we shouldn't be surprised if he concocts a specialized bonus tax that only applies to American-owned subsidiaries of food conglomerates who acquired their British operation in the last 5 years.  Rather than a total confiscation, it would merely be a partial confiscation, in the form of tax.  Alas for Mr Brown, his central planning would be so much easier to implement if he were the dictator of an oil-rich country.  But, at least for now, the remnants of English law and the political will of the Britons will constrain him. 

Posted via email from The Invisible Sand