America’s most conspicuous political clown has finally overestimated the ignorance of his followers.

I’ve always doubted Bernie’s ability to do arithmetic, but his appeal for cutting another day off the work week without reducing a worker’s pay goes well beyond a “normal” conceptual defect.  Stepping on his own screed, he also blamed the decline in workers’ purchasing power on inflation.  Really?  What causes inflation?  Oh, yeah...Bernie and his fellow demagogues in D.C. are doing it by borrowing and printing more paper money so it can be embezzled by their cronies.

It is true that lefties have blinders on when dealing with numbers.  Years ago, I was visiting some lefty friends who both happened to have MBAs.  They strenuously advocated the four-day work week as a means to reduce unemployment.  I asked them if they would be willing to take a 20% cut in their pay in order to let this happen.  They looked at each other and blurted out, “Of course not!”  Hence the triumph of ideology over quantitative analysis.

Time passes, and Bernie’s nonsense is losing its appeal.  Americans, especially, are very, very jealous of their standard of living.  Making it more expensive for businesses to produce goods and services makes life in general more expensive.  Commies like Bernie believe that businesses should be social instruments, with the elevation of the common person as their reason for existence.  Profit, to them, is a dirty word.

Guess what, Bernie: employers are not in business for their health.

Bernie’s entrance into the national spotlight marked the beginning of the Democrat party’s profound lurch to the left — this in spite of his remaining an independent Democratic Socialist and not actually a Democrat.  So what?  “The Squad” followed his lead while also remaining under the Democrat tent.

A while back, when Bernie was considered by some to be a contender for the Democrat presidential nomination, he took tremendous offense at what he witnessed in the typical retail establishment.  There were multiple forms of what he considered the same product.  Different brands compete for the consumer’s preference.  Imagine the inefficiency!

This brought to mind a passage in Nikita Khrushchev’s memoir.  When he succeeded Stalin as general secretary of the USSR, he was tremendously disappointed to become aware of the many empty shelves in stores throughout the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, the stations of the Soros Radio Network (formerly known as CBS-Audacy Radio) are taking Bernie’s latest rant with the utmost seriousness.  They are emphasizing the increased access to overtime pay that would come with a 32-hour work week.  What they are really trying to do is maintain the myth that prosperity comes from government edicts — rather than the improved productivity that advances in technology have been providing for hundreds of years.  True, some jobs are eliminated, but new jobs are also created.  We experienced a major shift in the late eighties and early nineties, with the introduction of the desktop personal computer.  Middle management took a big hit — but it didn’t last long.

Today’s world is wondering itself silly over what actual impact artificial intelligence (A.I.) will have on the workplace...and the rest of our lives, as well.  Meanwhile, the quest for A.I.’s development is putting many people to work.  Then what?  Ah, life goes on.  From the wheel to virtual reality, human curiosity and other mental skills continue effecting change.

Being a street-corner commie from Brooklyn, Bernie is straight from Central Casting.  He’s got the accent, the laughable dogma, and the continuing pursuit of a nonsensical utopia that are all needed to play the part.  He is a wish that won’t ever come true.

Image: Praveenp via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).