ANDERSON FILES

port for criminal justice reform and progressive prosecutors in the U.S. also enrages right-wingers.

It’s true that Soros is a highly influential world figure who advises governments and uses his money for media and social activism. He promotes philosopher Karl Popper’s idea of an “open society” as a bulwark against the closed societies of fascism and Stalinism.

Nevertheless, his good works are problematic because philanthropy represents the privatization of social policy.

Soros himself has noted that “the connection between capitalism and democracy is tenuous at best.” In 1998, he authored a book called The Crisis of Global Capitalism in which he harshly criticized those who promote unregulated free markets, an ideology he calls “market fundamentalism.”

During a speech at Harvard, he said, “Market values express what one participant is willing to pay another in a free exchange. They do not reflect social values, nor do they express many of the intrinsic values that people hold dear.”

“Market fundamentalists... [claim] that the common interest is best served by everybody looking out for his own interests” he said. “This claim is false. ... There are many political and social objectives which are not properly served by the market mechanism. ... These include the preservation of competition and of stability in financial markets, not

Letters

SOLUTION TO HOMELESS = CHILD TAX CREDIT

Great news that programs for the homeless are receiving funding in Boulder County (News, “Boulder County receives funding for homeless solutions,” May 18, 2023). At the same time, we need national solutions to end the crisis of the unhoused. A renter tax credit is being considered by Congress that would end the people trapped in poverty from paying more than 30% of their income for rent. Millions currently pay 50% and more. At the same time, renewing the expanded Child Tax Credit would benefit families across the country — it to mention issues like the environment and social justice.”

He argued that free-market ideology undermines political democracy:

“By promoting market values into a governing principle, market fundamentalism has undermined our society. Representative democracy presupposes moral values, such as honesty and integrity, particularly in our representatives. When success takes precedence over integrity, and politics is dominated by money, the political process deteriorates.”

This speech may seem somewhat unremarkable. But at that time, Soros was talking to many Democrats as well as the Republicans about their romance with free market ideology. This was before the Great Recession of 2007-2008. In response to that crisis, Soros proposed bank nationalization as a solution but he was told that idea amounted to socialism.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Soros spent hundreds of millions in the former Soviet-bloc countries to promote civil society and liberal democracy. In 1992, he recalls proposing that the International Monetary Fund aid given to post-Soviet governments “be earmarked for the payment of pensions and unemployment benefits and its distribution closely super- vised” for a stable transition to capitalism. Instead, Western officials promoted a rapid “shock therapy” that produced widespread misery, a vicious kleptocracy and the rise of Putin in Russian and Viktor Orban in Soro’s native Hungary. already cut child poverty by 46% in its initial form. These and other initiatives can help create a better future, stem the flow to hunger and homelessness, and finally create the ladders out of poverty that the road to equity demands.

Now Putin and Orban are in the vanguard of promoting far right authoritarianism in the U.S. and around the world.

This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

— Willie Dickerson/Snohomish, Washington

Support Domestic Abuse Survivors

In recent years, domestic violence incidents and deaths have risen in Colorado, and abusers continue to find new ways to maintain power and control over their partners. At the same time, Denver’s housing costs have continued to rise while wage growth remains stagnant, resulting in a volatile housing market. This has sparked important conversations about barriers faced by survivors of domestic violence when they try to leave an abusive relationship. Finding safe, affordable housing is among the biggest of these barriers. Since 2018, SafeHouse Denver has offered an Extended Stay Program (ESP), which provides survivors with rent-free, fully furnished apartments in a safe environment. The program offers independent living and gives survivors extra time to find long-term housing and other necessary resources for stabili- ty. As a student at DU Law seeking to engage with the community, I was drawn to SafeHouse’s mission, so I’ve been volunteering with them ever since. SafeHouse holds an annual food tasting fundraiser, Sampling for Hope, to support the ESP and raise awareness. As a member of the planning committee since 2019, I’m looking forward to this year’s event, which will be held on June 8 at Mile High Station. Please join us for delicious food, a silent auction and a missionbased program — all to support survivors. Tickets can be purchased at bit. ly/SamplingforHope

— Misty Schlabaugh/Denver