According to Senator Bernie Sanders, the federal government must have a controlling interest in all of the artificial intelligence (AI) companies. Here is how Senator Sanders says he will achieve it.

For the most part, tech oligarchs have fed this knowledge into their A.I. models without permission, without acknowledgment, without compensation. In other words, the creative work of millions of people — writers, artists, musicians, journalists, teachers, scientists and ordinary citizens — has essentially been stolen by some of the wealthiest people in the world.

It’s time for us to reclaim it.

Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity.
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That is why I will soon be introducing the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. This legislation would give the public a direct ownership stake in the largest A.I. companies in our country. How? It would create a sovereign wealth fund through a one-time 50 percent tax — not on the profits of OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and other companies, but paid with something far more valuable than that: the stock.
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The federal government would have the power, through its voting shares and an equal representation on each company’s board, to block decisions that hurt our citizens and to push for policies that help them.

What would be the worst part of Sanders’ plan?

1. That the government will treat this stock “gift” as a boon, squandering it on give-away plans and its usual corruption.
2. That the government will micromanage the AI companies into the ground, destroying their utility.
3. That the government-will insist the AI services provide only politically correct responses to its users.
4. The assertion that these companies are merely temporary caretakers of “the people’s property.”

I believe that #4 is the worst result. The first three statements simply assert that the government mismanages whatever it touches. But the last statement evokes socialist beliefs – that your goods, as well as your life, are not really yours. Rather, they belong to “the people.” Welcome to socialism!

Socialism, simple and brief

Socialism amounts to the worship of mankind itself. It claims that there is no God, no supernatural. An example of this is when Carl Sagan said “the Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” Because of this, socialists say that our purpose in life is to devote ourselves to the immediate prosperity and comfort of all mankind.

Under socialism nobody is allowed to own anything. Only the government, acting in the name of the people, has the right to own things. You, as an individual, do not.

Socialism expects its subjects to be unselfish and giving. This is where “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” comes in. You give your everything in your work, and get back just enough to live on. Quite the unequal exchange. Just how this unselfishness, this moral fiber, comes about without God’s prompting is never described.

Because its true believers long for socialism, it’s said to be the answer to every problem. Whether global warming or poverty or hate, their response is never to try to fix things. Rather, it’s always to tear down our current society and hope that its replacement does better.

Is socialism the same thing as communism and Marxism?

We know that Karl Marx invented Marxism and communism. In his Manifesto of the Communist Party he wrote about abolishing property ownership:

In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.

By the way, a communist scholar could point out that Marx would only ban “private property,” and not “personal property.” But if you happened to own anything that was sufficiently valuable, the powers that be would find a way to call it “private property” and take it from you. In the end, you won’t be allowed to own anything worth having.

Marx’s Manifesto also touted abolishing the concepts of marriage, families, and nations. Only the workers as a collective made sense to him.

Compared with Marx’s agenda, socialism has a reputation of being rather tame. After all, if socialism is radical then why is Bernie Sanders still a U.S. Senator? And why were many ordinary European nations said to have socialist economies?

It turns out that actual socialism is quite predatory. Consider these observations:

• Marx’s writings have been taught in American universities for over a hundred years, especially with the ongoing campaign of communists like Marcuse to infuse all studies with Marxist theories. All students get exposed to communism, and many of them become converts. That educational campaign is so successful that Illinois public school teachers are now required to teach “tear down American society” in their classwork.
• Senator Sanders calls himself a socialist, yet propounds wealth taxes, which steal from the rich to supposedly benefit society. This shows that popular socialism has acquired Marxist concepts and goals.
• Political expressions of socialism, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, promote policies that would be right at home with the Communist Party USA.

Use the “duck test” for yourself. Modern socialism swims like communism, and quacks like communism, so it essentially is communism. My articles continue to treat socialism, communism, and Marxism as seeking the same objective – the destruction of our current society.

Applied socialism overturns society

Aligning with Marx’s goals, socialism aims to supplant the natural structures of society – family, community, church – with sole dependency on government. Through this socialism is said to offend every one of the Ten Commandments. Again, from the Manifesto:

“There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.”

A society without families, and without marriage, means people have no responsibilities towards other people. It’s a pointless society, with nothing holding it together. I already wrote an article on these consequences of fully-implemented socialism – please go and read it.

Don’t doubt that socialists wouldn’t do this to us. They’ve played this game many times before:

• During the Russian Civil War (1917-1921) the Bolsheviks immediately began reworking Russian society. They essentially abolished marriage and property rights, even before defeating their military and political opponents.
• In the 1930s the Spanish socialists won a thin majority in the national government. They immediately began forcing wholesale changes on society. Frequent elections followed, with each winner reversing the other side’s changes. This resulted in a full-blown civil war.
• After the Communists took over China in 1949 they pushed the country into industrialization. They pushed so hard that the Great Leap Forward led to an estimated 15 to 55 million deaths.
• When the Communists won in Cambodia, they immediately started implementing their agrarian visions. They worked so hard removing their potential enemies, and at enforcing their cultural changes, that they killed up to 25% of their own people.

Modern socialists deny that they’re that extreme. Yet we hear the constant drumbeat of “we must break up this unrighteous American society”, and that “we’re unredeemable.” They also say that they’ll get their way “by any means possible.” Yes, they’re extreme when they get the opportunity.

America always had a Christian society

America was colonized by Christians, and they founded a Christian society. Their society was designed to support the morals and behaviors of a Christian civilization. They succeeded rather well, and we live in that society to this day. I’ve frequently written about our Christian origins:

• Discouraging evangelism by slandering Christian nationalism
• American Christian culture is the only game in town

Our founding father John Adams wrote that our Constitution was meant to govern a Christian people:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Constantly re-evangelizing our American culture

A thriving Christian society expects Christian-like behavior from its people. It rewards good acts and sanctions bad ones. Even non-Christians are expected to conform to its community standards.

To retain its vitality a Christian society must constantly refresh the faith of its believers. Social values don’t automatically promote themselves. People must teach their values to each generation in turn.

The congregations must also be watchful, recognizing newcomers having different faiths or behaviors. They then can work to counter any un-Christian influences. Without this vigilance a society descends into cultural indifference.

It seems that everybody evangelizes. Christians seek a Christ-honoring society, while Muslims seek an Islamic society, and socialists seek a socialist society. So to keep our Christian culture we must constantly re-evangelize it.

Christianity, property, and capitalism

Is income inequality a sin, where it’s wrong to have billionaires and even trillionaires? According to the Bible, no. The Bible expects that we’ll always have wealth disparity (Matthew 26:11), and wealth is generally seen as a blessing. As examples:

• God rewarded Abraham with so much wealth that Abraham needed what amounts to an army to take care of it (Genesis 14:14).
• In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) the faithful servants who had plenty were given even more. Jesus used their increased wealth as an example of a good reward.

Owning things, and having the right to buy and sell them, is called capitalism. It runs all through the Bible. It isn’t an invention of evil industrialists.

• God gave Adam and Eve the right to own things. He delegated His ownership authority to Adam and Eve, giving them, and their descendants, dominion and the right to rule (Gen 1:28-30).
• The New Testament affirms private ownership. When Jesus warns us to store up treasures in heaven, He acknowledges that people can, and do, own treasures here (Matthew 6:19-21).

My article Is Capitalism Immoral? explores wealth, capitalism, and morality. A spoiler: capitalism is neither moral or immoral because it’s too simple a concept. Rather, a society imputes its existing morals onto its economics.

As we see from Senator Sanders himself, who owns multiple luxury homes, even socialists like to have nice things. Owning things isn’t a problem in and of itself. The problems come when the things own you. See these Bible examples:

• The admonition to seek God first, saying “for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
• The rich man who trusted in his wealth, not knowing that his life was ending (Luke 12: 15-21).
• The wealthy who bribe judges (Deuteronomy 16:19) to convince a judge to rule in their favor (Leviticus 19:15).

In Proverbs 30:8 we have a prayer to spare the speaker from being either too poor or too rich. If anything, riches amount to a test of our character.

Socialism and Christianity are always enemies

Socialism and Christianity can’t be reconciled. They have no common ground:

• Socialism revels in its materialism. Its adherents strive to solidify power by removing worship of God, and devotion to family, wherever they gain power.
• Christian culture seeks to glorify God. Christians will build a society to suit them, based on biblical principles. A healthy Christian society centers on worship and family. It won’t stand for the false god of materialism.

Because of these differences, a healthy society can’t be both socialist and Christian at the same time. The two have different concepts of truth, morals, and law. After all, you can only serve one master at a time (Matthew 6:24).

By the same logic, a person can’t really be a Christian Socialist. Such a person is just fooling himself or herself. This Got Questions article sorts things out:

When Frederick Engels heard that some Christians were using Acts 2 to promote socialism, he wrote against melding his philosophy with Christianity: “These good people are not the best Christians, although they style themselves so; because if they were, they would know the bible better, and find that, if some few passages of the bible may be favourable to Communism, the general spirit of its doctrines is, nevertheless, totally opposed to it” (“Progress of Social Reform on the Continent,” in The New Moral World, 3rd Series, Nos. 19, Nov. 4, 1843, transcribed by Andy Blunden). According to Engles, the Bible and Marxism are “totally opposed.”

In short, the Bible promotes freedom and personal responsibility, and neither of those concepts lasts long under Marxism. There’s a reason why, in Marxist states such as Communist China and Vietnam and the old Soviet Union, Christians are always persecuted—the ideas espoused by Marxism are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ. The differences are irreconcilable.

Envy – it’s why we’re hating the rich

We’ve heard that rich people must pay their “fair share,” which seems to be always more than whatever they’re currently paying. The current poster boy for this sentiment is Elon Musk, with his SpaceX IPO.

This concept of wealth inequality comes from sin, from unchecked envy. It’s the idea that if somebody is way too rich then we must bring them down a notch, even denying them legal and social rights. This is socialist “class warfare,” instead of the individual justice that each person is due.

If a wealthy person has “ill-gotten gains” from fraud, etc., then the law is available to deal with that. But if we use the law to deprive wealthy people of their legitimate gains, then the law itself would be evil.

Getting back to Sander’s AI plan

Let’s get back to Sanders’ plan. He wants the government to grab AI companies, nationalizing them. However, Sanders’ AI emphasis is just a head fake. After all, why stop at AI? Why not also nationalize banks, food stores, or even the Chicago Bears? Since the Bears plan on leaving Illinois, take them over to keep them here, for “the good of the Illinois people!”

Expropriating companies is just the first step. Expropriating everyone is the full goal. You’ll get to keep your property, whether personal or private, only until the state realizes that it wants it.

Why should we think that American government has the authority to nationalize anything?

• The Constitution doesn’t explicitly give the federal government the right to expropriate.
• Whatever rights not explicitly authorized to the federal government are reserved for the states or the people (Ninth and Tenth Amendments).
• As the Fourteenth Amendment made everyone federal citizens, the states must also be constrained from expropriation, because of those same Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

If the government really wants to get into AI then they should first tax people to get the money to acquire stock, and then compete in the marketplace for control.

How do we preserve our American Christian society?

We can preserve our American Christian society, but only if we care enough to do so. Begin by being proud of your Christianity, and of our American culture. No apologies are needed. In our past we’ve made mistakes, but we’ve owned up to them and fixed them.

We don’t have to apologize for imaginary wrongs, invented by socialists and meant to discourage us. These aren’t real complaints, something to fix. Rather, they’re complaints meant to get us to stop opposing them.

Don’t grovel before angry socialists. Instead, build your faith and that of your offspring. This attitude prepares our next generation to rule – a future which our opponents seem to have forgotten about. In addition, your confidence will annoy them to no end.