In @crosscut, @WilsonKatieB he “General Secretary” of the TRU, provides a good example of how thin the argument against free markets is.

It claims "capitalism is doomed," but is based on data-free claims that are demonstrably false. #waleg 1/x

There are three major problems. 1) Her sweeping and data-free claims are false. 2) Her implied solution would do more harm to people and the planet. 3) What she proposes is deeply immoral. 2/x

She claims that capitalism "requires" more natural resources and energy. She offers no data, and there is plenty of data to show it is wrong. The US economy has more than doubled since 1970, but resource consumption of key minerals is nearly the same as it was 50 years ago. 3/x

Forests are expanding in the northern hemisphere because agricultural technology – invented thanks to capitalism – dramatically increased yields, allowing a reduction of farmland.

Deforestation is a product of poverty. Capitalism destroys poverty and expands forests. 4/x

She claims that addressing the “climate crisis” requires an end to capitalism. This comes when politicians who are loudest about the issue, like the governor and Seattle politicians, have failed, but corporations like Walmart, Microsoft, and Amazon are making amazing strides. 5/x

Washington state, King County, and Seattle have failed to meet every climate target they set. Every. One. But, I will bet that Amazon will live up to the “Climate Pledge” it emblazoned on the arena. Walmart set out to reduce 20 million tons of CO2. It reduced 28 MMT. 6/x

Further, the big-government vision she offers is deeply immoral. Joe McCarthy used government power to cancel his critics (like many on the left today). Capitalism destroyed his effort – giving blacklisted screenwriters work. Capitalism destroyed McCarthy’s cancel culture. 7/x

Politically imposed economic rules – occupational licenses, the minimum wage, and redline zoning – have been overtly racist. The hero of her piece, FDR, was at the center of the most racist policy of the 20th century, with Japanese Americans losing their land and businesses. 8/x

There may be no better example of government harming the environment and the poor than the Flint Water Crisis, where the EPA literally said, “I don’t know if Flint is the kind of community we want to go out on a limb for.” That’s who @WilsonKatieB wants in charge. 9/x

One of my favorite sayings is “the man who says it can’t be done should get out of the way of the woman who is doing it.” The left claims the free market can’t help people and the planet even as it empowers people and protects the environment while political solutions fail. 10/x