Bernie Sanders is like the Iphone7.

There is a lot to digest from the rhetoric and the attacks being thrown at Bernie Sanders.  And for the most part most of it is based on mud slinging trying to paint democratic socialism as socialism, and anti-capitalist.  But what it is, is the new invention that should replace the unabated capitalism the United States has seen the past 40 years.

When it comes to economic systems like capitalism, socialism, democratic socialism, communism, feudalism, etc.  People need to recognize that all they are, are inventions, they are the latest technologies, sometimes they fail, sometimes they thrive and become game changers, sometimes the become obsolete.  When an economy is immature and needs to develop fast, capitalism seems to be the most effective way to mature that economy and put it into hyper drive.  But at some point hyper drive could cause you to crash and burn, and capitalism has shown to have that effect on more mature economies (frequent recessions and depressions).

Capitalism deserves its fair share of credit for transitioning from merchantilism to the major reason for bringing people out of poverty, although some may argue it was due to Industrial Revolutions (hard to determine causality there).  But I will digress and give capitalism the due credit it may or may not deserve.

The point I am trying to make here is that we should start to consider that capitalism, in it’s current form, is perhaps not the invention and tool we should be reliant upon.  We make and control our economy, and always have, there is no reason to rely on an invention to form it for us.  We would never allow another technology to run amok on us, but when it comes to economic inventions we seem to allow it.

What I am trying to say in laymen terms is that it is time to upgrade our Iphones.  It seems that democratic socialism could be capitalism 2.0.  When one understands what democratic socialism is they understand that it actually enhances economic freedom and helps capitalism, as evidence by the libertarian minded think tank Heritage, who lists their economic freedom index, almost all of them being some form of democratic socialism.

And what countries are on top of that list?  Hong Kong is number 1 (universal health care, education reliant on vocational schools paid for by government), Singapore number 2 (Essentially universal mandatory HSA’s, 20% of government spending on education), and if you look at the remaining on this list you will see similar set ups.  A high reliance on spending for health care and education, a massive investment on future generations.  All of these countries also have higher taxes to pay for these (although I would argue that is not necessary for the U.S.).

So when it comes to attacks on Bernies Sanders about giving things away for free (which is false, considering he is raising taxes), one can only imagine that these statements are made from a complete lack of understanding of what exists outside of the U.S.  It is like using the first issue of an Iphone from a decade ago and not being aware that Iphone 6s does a lot more and is a much better technology.

People need to stop looking at economics ideologically and start looking at it as a technology and a tool to better serve you and humanity, because democratic socialism does exactly that.  And like all breakthrough technologies, eventually they change the world to create a better standard of living.