On March 8, the Biden administration endorsed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021, which would allegedly “strengthen the Federal laws that protect workers’ right to organize a union and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.”

The bill, however, isn’t just about making it easier for employees to unionize. It would also require independent workers and the businesses they work with to pretend that the former are “employees.”

That measure is aimed “gig economy” workers — for example,  independent cab drivers who contract with services like Uber or Lyft to send riders their way.

There’s another good name for the “gig economy”:   “Socialism.” Not the state-substitutist variety in which the political class flaps its lips about the workers while screwing them with their pants on, but the real thing.

“Gig economy” workers own the means of production (in the rideshare example, their cars). They work when they want. They work where they want. They work longer or shorter shifts as it suits them. They don’t answer to bosses. They ARE the bosses. They can walk away from Uber or Lyft or Postmates or DoorDash or Grubhub any time,  taking the means of production with them and putting that means to whatever use they choose.

So why do Joe Biden — a supposedly “pro-labor” moderate — and America’s growing herd of self-proclaimed “democratic socialists” want so badly to drive independent workers back onto the capitalist wage labor plantation?

There are several reasons, starting with pleasing what passes for “organized labor” these days (FDR, big business, and AFL-CIO “leaders” got together and put a stake through the heart of the labor movement with the National Labor Relations Act).

But a new explanation just made its appearance — in, of all places, the $1.9 trillion federal “stimulus” package. As the old truism goes, if you have to ask why, the answer is usually “money.”

“Buried in the latest stimulus measure,” Lydia O’Neal reports at Bloomberg, “is a provision intended to help gig economy workers correctly pay their taxes and keep the IRS from losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.”

Yep, good ol’ Joe is just trying to “help” independent workers, by making sure they get different forms from the companies they work with each tax year, forms which might result in them sending more of their hard-earned money to him via his friends at the IRS.

It seems like a small thing, and it probably is. Its main effect will apparently be to make record-keeping more expensive for businesses, incentivizing them to return to the bad old days of what socialists used to call “wage slavery” before they sold out to The Man. But it certainly explains a lot.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “The Stimulus Bill’s Anti-Socialist Poison Pill,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Anchorage, Alaska Press, 03/11/21
• “The Stimulus Bill’s Anti-Socialist Poison Pill,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 03/13/21
• “The stimulus bill’s anti-socialist poison pill,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Havasu City, Arizona News-Herald, 03/19/21

On March 2 — the late Theodor Seuss Geisel’s 117th birthday — Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that, some time last year, it ceased publishing/licensing six of the popular author’s children’s books which “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”

Cue woke approval, deplorable outrage, investor interest, and low-information reader fear, all of which are good for business.

As I write this on March 9, Dr. Seuss titles constitute ten of Amazon’s top 25 “Best Sellers in Children’s Books.”

On eBay, sellers have copies of And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street on offer for as much as $1,105.76 (“Buy It Now”), with auction bids on other copies running as high as $143.50.

Some “woke” readers approve of the decision, and are rewarding it by buying non-discontinued titles.

Some “deplorable” readers disapprove of the decision, and want to get their hands on the discontinued titles. Ditto some collectors/re-sellers who see an opportunity to profit from current and future scarcity.

And, of course, some low-information readers (or parents) read only the headlines and fear that if they don’t snatch up The Cat in the Hat now they might not be able to find it later (if you’re among them, relax; it’s not among the casualties).

Do the owners of Dr. Seuss Enterprises really, truly, deep down feel that the discontinued titles might damage young minds? Well, maybe.

But the more likely motive for this move, it seems to me, is the bottom line. With one terse announcement and zero investment in advertising (that came in the form of free media coverage, friendly and unfriendly), the company has successfully created a run from all directions on its products.

New young readers for a book collection beloved by every generation since the Baby Boom. New viewers for its old cartoon specials, later live-action movies, and current Netflix series. New visitors (when the pandemic ends) to its traveling mall “Dr. Seuss Experience.”

And hey, more power to them! “Cancel culture” and “anti-cancel culture” are lemons. They tend to put sour expressions on everyone’s face for one reason or another and often for not much reason at all. Why NOT turn them into lemonade?

If you’re drinking that lemonade, might I suggest a tall, cool glass of The Sneetches and Other Stories? The solutions to some of the very problems that gave rise to this episode are in there for those willing to learn. Also, it’s a great book.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Dr. Seuss monetizes the culture wars,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Richmond, North Carolina Observer, 03/09./21
• “Dr. Seuss monetized cancel culture,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Greenville, North Carolina Reflector [web and print], 03/10/21
• “Dr. Seuss monetized cancel culture,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Martin County, North Carolina Enterprise [web and print], 03/10/21
• “Dr. Seuss monetized cancel culture,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Bertie County, North Carolina Daily Advance [web and print], (03/10/21)
• “Dr. Seuss Monetizes the Culture Wars,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 03/10/21
• “Dr. Seuss Monetizes the Culture Wars,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 03/12/21
• “Dr. Seuss monetizes America’s culture wars,” by Thomas L. Knapp, El Reno, Oklahoma Tribune [web and print], 03/12/21
• “Dr. Seuss Monetizes the Culture Wars,” by Thomas L. Knapp, CounterPunch, 03/12/21
• “Thomas Knapp: Dr. Seuss monetizes the culture wars,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Claremont, New Hampshire Eagle Times, 03/13/21
• “After controversy, Dr. Seuss books raking in the cash,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Kingsport, Tennessee Times News, 03/15/21
• “Dr. Seuss monetizes the culture wars,” by Thomas L. Knapp, New Rockford, North Dakota Transcript, 03/15/21
• “Dr. Seuss and lemonade,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Orangeburg, South Carolina Times and Democrat, 03/16/21

“Look, I hope everybody’s realized by now, these masks make a difference,” said President Joe Biden in response to the lifting of mask mandates in Texas and Mississippi.  “[T]he last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that [as vaccines roll out], everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters.”

Biden’s statement abandons “the science” in at least two ways.

Firstly, Neanderthals appear to have been about as smart as their Cro-Magnon counterparts (our most direct ancestors, although many humans have some Neanderthal ancestry as well).

More importantly, published, peer-reviewed scientific studies have yet to demonstrate any significant impact of masks on the spread of viral disease. “The science” doesn’t say that “masks make a difference.”

It’s important to remember that correlation and causation are not the same thing and that there can be many factors involved, but let’s look at some raw information:

America’s two  most “locked-down and masked-up” states — New Jersey  and New York — are also the two hardest-hit. They’ve  suffered, respectively, 264 and 245 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 population.

Meanwhile, Florida — where there’s no statewide mask mandate and where local authorities are forbidden by state law to enforce mandates on individuals with arrests and fines — is in far better shape at 146 deaths per 100,000 population.

Texas, which has been slightly more authoritarian on COVID-19 than Florida, is also in slightly worse shape than Florida (but in far better shape than New York or New Jersey) at 155 deaths per 100,000 population.

Missouri, which seemed ultra-casual about masking when I visited last August for my mother’s funeral (she caught COVID-19 in a locked-down, masked-up nursing home) is doing even better than Florida at 140 deaths per 100,000 population.

Like I said, correlation is not causation. There could be many reasons for those differences, including but not limited to climate, population density, prevalent disease strain, etc.

But for the same reason, what there is NOT is anything approaching certainty that masks in general, or mask mandates in particular, save lives. If there’s a plausible conclusion to be drawn at all, it’s that they don’t.

This time last year, the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams was scolding Americans to stop buying up masks, while National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci was telling 60 Minutes, “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask …. wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet. But it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.”

Adams and Fauci were right back then, before politics pushed them away from the truth.

In the future, the most interesting topic related to COVID-19 will probably be not the disease itself, but the question of how an initially voluntary and seemingly commonsense measure snowballed  into a fad driven by politically cultivated mass hysteria, then into what can only be described as a government establishment of religion.

The Cult of the Sacred Mask is disintegrating. Joe Biden should resign its ceremonial papacy and focus on merely being president.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Mask Mandates: Pope Joe versus ‘The Science,'” by Thomas L. Knapp, Anchorage, Alaska Press, 03/08/21
• “Mask Mandates: Pope Joe versus ‘The Science,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 03/10/21
• “Mask mandates: Pope Joe versus ‘The Science,’” by Thomas L. Knapp, Havasu City, Arizona News-Herald, 03/12/21