We’re not talking burgers at Burger King, here. Lately, Bernie Sanders has been declaring that artificial intelligence software (yes, it was developed by tech companies) is “a public resource.”

Sandernista Pretensions

Sanders is using this whopper to justify his draft plan for the government to seize half the shares of what he deems “systemically important” AI companies, writes James Freeman in the WSJ.

Why, readers must wonder, does Bernie, if he believes his false claim, not demand the government seize all the shares? Evan Senator Sanders perhaps understands how worthless AI companies would be without the creative, hardworking people inside these companies. Total seizure, Bertnie must understand, would cause everyone to flee.

In his draft legislation, the Vermont socialist treats the entrepreneurs and engineers developing the world’s most amazing technology as nothing but criminals.

A Misguided Bernie Sanders:

A small number of oligarchs have essentially stolen the creative work of hundreds of millions of people – writers, artists, musicians, journalists, teachers, scientists, and ordinary citizens – without permission, acknowledgment, or compensation in order to control the majority of economic value created by artificial intelligence…

Artificial intelligence is built on the collective knowledge of humanity and the wealth it generates must benefit humanity.

Bernie’s Despicable Deception

Now, who is trying to seize the work of others? Sen. Bernie looks to be trying to steal assets from their rightful owners. Undoubtedly, that’s why we have a court system, dear Bernie. No doubt there are plenty of lawyers eager to dig deeply into the deeper pockets of software developers.

As Mr. Freeman notes, Mr. Sanders is not trying to seize AI profits because, in general, “there aren’t any.” Investors, large and small, are pouring money into these ventures in the hope that engineers can create products so beneficial to consumers that someday the ventures will be highly profitable.

The government is contributing to this process through a series of threatening distractions. Washington has no right to seize these shareholder assets.

Another Bogus Claim from Bernie:

We can no longer sit back and allow oligarchs decide the future of AI with zero input from the American people.

Bernie’s game here seems to be acknowledging that the technology is amazing while ignoring that people worked hard to create it and deserve to be compensated for it.

In the NYT, Bernie Calls Out:

“Artificial intelligence will almost certainly be the most transformational technology in the history of the world,” he wrote recently in the New York Times.

Bernie even admits, “Artificial intelligence was not created out of thin air.”

Who created it? Instead, Bernie proceeds to his outrageous claims of theft and then details his plans for the government to do what he has just falsely accused others of doing.

Bernie also smears entrepreneurs with his dark forecasts of the technology’s impact on society. But if Bernie really saw only downside, he wouldn’t be calling it a “public resource” and trying to grab a piece. Wouldn’t he’d be trying to shut it down?

Might someone ask Sen. Sanders to explain why nobody ever creates transformational technologies in centrally planned economies with high levels of government ownership?

Mr. Freeman also mentions The Grumpy Economist. John Cochrane writes about his thoughts on plans to tax the wealth of people like Elon Musk:

Our billionaires, and now trillionaire, own wealth that is almost exclusively stock in companies they created. That wealth is almost entirely left reinvested in those companies. The companies produce great products, innovate, and employ thousands…

The wealthy do not swim in … pools of money that can be handed out. And even if they did, that money, redistributed, would swiftly drive up prices rather than feed everyone. Musk’s trillion is not the ready inventory of a huge grocery store that can be handed out to feed people. And if it were, once the store was empty, the poor would be hungrier again, and there would be no store to buy from.

Perhaps you think the government, by taxing Musk and demanding cash, can force Musk to sell his stock to others who won’t implode SpaceX’s value. But where do others get money to buy SpaceX stock? In the end, it must come from other companies’ earnings that won’t be invested in other companies.

Again, the economy reorients from investment to consumption. Tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no businesses anymore.

Go Bernie!