The Democrat’s Green New Deal spearheaded by rookie representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is undoubtedly ambitious. It calls for free healthcare, free college, guaranteed jobs, 100 percent renewable energy use, zero emissions, and eliminating fossil fuel use within 10 years. While the proposal is unrealistic, a deeper delve will show that the programs are not only impossible — they’re destructive.
Free Everything
If you want a better deal on your health insurance, you go to an insurance FMO. This allows you to get the best deals tailored to your needs for a price. The Green New Deal will do away with all of that and put every U.S. citizen into a blanket healthcare program regardless of their specific needs. It takes away your choice and the extra benefits of choosing your own healthcare program.
Free college? Without the need to compete for students — since everything is free — colleges will stagnate into oblivion and go the direction of state-run high schools in Democratic states. Competition allows colleges to charge higher fees in return for a higher quality of education. Making college free will require massive amounts of resources that have to come from somewhere. Nothing is Free. These “free things” will come out of your pockets and make your taxes skyrocket.
Guaranteed Jobs and the $15 Minimum Wage
The government cannot guarantee jobs, and those wages will need to come from corporations and small business owners. Corporations can always leave the country and set up shop in a friendlier environment, but small businesses will likely take a massive hit. Mom-and-pop stores will need to close up shop, and citizens will rather be an employee than an entrepreneur. Guaranteed jobs are a pipe dream as there will be no jobs without corporations and entrepreneurs. This proposal will likely cause a massive shift in the economy that will lead to disastrous outcomes.
The “Green” in the Green New Deal
Fully renewable energy? Possible. Zero Emissions? Also Possible. But not through a government edict. Drastic changes are best done naturally through changes in free market demands. Once the technology is available at an affordable price, people will switch.
Forcing change, especially in just 10 years, is almost impossible and will meet effective resistance from an unwilling populace. Getting rid of fossil fuels? Will it force Americans to ditch their beloved cars and revert to cooking in wooden stoves? Realistic proposals for clean energy in the U.S. must include nuclear power, but this is not mentioned anywhere in the plan. Instead, we have a bill that seeks to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from farting cows.
In the end, the Green New Deal gives the government too much power over too many things. The government controlling the economy, healthcare, education, and how people live their lives in their own homes sounds a bit like socialism. This new deal will raise taxes through the roof, stifle businesses, remove choices from its citizens, and give too much control to a government over its people. It is unrealistic and unsustainable.
