Going green good for capitalists

One of the things bothering conservative Americans these days is the “socialism” behind the Green New Deal being proposed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others.

But I think they’re ignoring a key point: Converting to clean and renewable energy is a golden opportunity for capitalists, if they’ll just seize the moment.

After more than a century of burning fossil fuels at an industrial level, we’ve now reached the point in which we must radically change our energy consumption. Science and technology are already beginning to move in that direction, and the economy is beginning to follow.

It’ll take years to convert to clean and renewable energy, but it has to be done sooner rather than later — and, believe it or not, it can be done.

The idea of a Green New Deal to rebuild our energy infrastructure and convert it to clean and renewable energy sources didn’t start with Ocasio-Cortez or this latest generation of leftists. It’s an idea that’s been floating around for more than a decade now. What Ocasio-Cortez did — and what is riling up conservatives in particular — was to add “economic equality” into the mix, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s original New Deal did to a lesser degree.

If history repeats itself, the Green New Deal won’t go as far as Ocasio-Cortez wants it to go, but it could still go far enough to make a big difference.

FDR’s New Deal, considered socialistic by conservatives of that time, may well have saved American capitalism.

After the 1929 stock market crash, the U.S. fell into a deepening depression in which about a quarter of the workforce lost their jobs. To a lot of Americans, socialism, even communism, was looking far more attractive than the free-market system that had crashed the economy and taken away their livelihoods.

Leftists like Louisiana boss Huey Long were pushing hard for a massive redistribution of wealth, but Roosevelt took a more tempered approach, by reforming the banking system, pumping government money into public works projects, and providing relief to out-of-work Americans through public works jobs and direct services that kept families housed and fed.

To put it simplistically, Roosevelt pumped just enough “socialism” into the economy to prevent the overthrow of “capitalism.”

The result was not only the survival of a depressed America, but a major investment in the nation’s future. Look at the infrastructure projects still standing as a result of all those CCC, WPA and other public works projects at that time.

As for the Green New Deal, it’s as needed now as the original New Deal was needed in the Great Depression — but it will only grow out of a free-market economy.

It’s in a free-market economy where science, technology and innovation work best, and that’s where the best ideas for mitigating climate change are already coming from.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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