Alternet: Wall Street Bailout Takes Us Back to the U.S.S.R - Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace - by David Sirota

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Wall Street Bailout Takes Us Back to the U.S.S.R - Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace - by David Sirota

Unlike European comrades, our socialists rarely mandate returns on taxpayer investments. The same 19th century socialism that gave the Mountain West to railroad companies became a 20th century socialism subsidizing oil and drug industry profits. Now, our 21st century socialists propose giving financial industry con men the national credit card, confirming Marx's theory that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce.

Close a factory in socialist Denmark, and workers get immediate government help, along with their free health care. Shutter one in Ohio, and workers get nothing, except politicians saying their jobs are never returning and national health care is "unaffordable." But if investment banks teeter, those same politicians quickly find billions for bailouts.

Of course, socialist revolutions can share key traits. Many feature aspiring dictators like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs banker. He is pushing Hugo Chavez-style legislation demanding totalitarian authority to spend the $700 billion "without limitation" or "review by any court of law or any administrative agency." And surprise -- Paulson's scheme would enrich his Goldman Sachs pals.