‘The Wall Street I Have Known’
15th April 2016
Joe Rosenberg takes Bernie to the woodshed.
Bernie Sanders should ask people like me—refugees from collectivist paradises—about income inequality.
Oh, I don’t think that will ever happen. Bernie doesn’t like to ask; he likes to tell.
It takes an immigrant like me to parse the poison that Bernie Sanders is peddling to the naive youth of this country. It takes someone who has experienced socialism’s failures firsthand—as I did, initially as a small child, later as a young adult—to see why Sen. Sanders is succeeding: We elders, immigrants and native-born alike, have failed to teach our children and grandchildren about the economic history and false promises of the myriad forms of socialism that infest our world.
Very true.
As an example of kibbutz ideology: Does it make sense for a person running the washing machines in the laundry to be receiving exactly the same pay and living benefits as someone who might be the community doctor after going to medical school? That may sound like an extreme example, but the same principles apply throughout the economic structure of a collectivist economy. Unlike Chinese or Russian collectivism, Israel’s was voluntary—but insane nonetheless.
You could never get me into an arrangement like that. The whole ‘voluntary collectivism’ was tried by innumerable hippies in my generation, and it all invariably came crashing down.
My experience is far from unique. I have many colleagues who left supposed paradises, socialist countries like China, Russia and Greece, and now strive to succeed on Wall Street. They’re seeking not a handout but a piece of the American Dream, just as I did. When I entered the business Wall Street was a far clubbier place than today. It has increasingly become a meritocracy open to people of every background.
Not to listen to Bernie and Hillary it isn’t.