Unforeseen Contingencies

What good is he, after all?  So far as I can tell, his main contribution is that he's a carbon footprint.  And those ought be minimized, Sanders himself says.

Bernie Sanders lamented the possibility of consumer choice so long as any person suffers misfortune.  Bernie Sanders also laments inequality, ummm, except for his own.  Comrade Sanders earned his profits.  After all, he's a literary genius...or perhaps people simply bought his book because he's a well-known ideologue and attracts buyers' attention.

Though he's not a literary genius, the latter is perfectly legitimate.  But Comrade Sanders would deny this same right to others.  Deodorant sellers attract buyers' attention, sufficiently so that there are 23 brands, if Comrade Sanders is correct.  And there must be at least 18 brands of "sneakers."  And that's no more lamentable than the fact that there's more than one book written while "children are hungry."

But let's get to the point.  No one needs Bernie Sanders.  I can live perfectly well without him, and so can you, dear reader.  If "social need" is to be the basis for determining what exists and what doesn't, Sanders is in trouble.  He creates nothing of value.  He feeds no hungry children.  He lives a lifestyle that is well beyond the reach of the vast majority of us Americans, never mind the rest of the world.  If egalitarianism is the standard, Comrade Bernie is one of the rich who should not exist.  By his own standards, he should be eliminated.

By my standards (or "our" standards, the entire staff of Unforeseen Contingencies marches in lockstep, after all) (except for those who don't), this conclusion is not legitimate, because Sanders' principles are wrong.  Individual human beings are ends, not means.  Individuals have inherent rights, beginning with each individual's right to his/her own life.  That's the libertarian/classical liberal principle on which America was founded.  But Comrade Sanders disagrees and wants to replace this principle, and by his standards, it's hard to fathom why he should be allowed to exist at all.  He's just a carbon footprint.

He should hope he doesn't convert us.