USSND

That doesn’t stand for a ship. In a conversation with a Dakota transplant (he’s lived in the state about 20 years and works in industry) during my last trip to the North Country he made some comments that are not mine and which in part validate some of the observations I made in an earlier post. I will withhold his name because he has a job in North Dakota and if it got out who he is he could lose it. I will only report what he said.

In a conversation about some of the difficulties in putting thru some changes to policies in the state which would allow him to expand his business he went off and said. His words in BLUE:

North Dakota is amazing. It’s populated by people who claim to be conservative but who nothing but a bunch of socialists. They hate the idea that someone should ever get ahead. It’s about the money. If someone does well they try their best to drag them back down. They’re like crabs in a bucket. One can crawl right out but if you put three in the bucket the other two will always see to it anyone who tries to get out of the bucket is dragged back down to the other’s level. They are so jealous and backbiting of anyone who tried to do better. Look at the institutions and policies. Do you ever hear of the bank of Kansas? Nope. But we have a bank of North Dakota. Do you know of the Iowa state mill and elevator? Nope. But we got one in North Dakota. The farmers Co-op, the Sugar Factories. All institutions communal in nature ostensibly for the public good but really designed to keep private industry in line.

They all operate just like they did in the old Soviet Union. They have the appearance of a communal good but are run for the good of a kleptocracy of leaders for their own purposes. And worse, the people in the state like it that way. It makes them feel better about themselves. Were so open minded, we’re so creative. No they’re communists.

If real free enterprise ever really came to North Dakota it would shock the system, people might end up in the hospital.

In the end, it’s all about we’ll pretend to work, you pretend to pay us. That’s the essence of most agricultural programs, that’s low wages, that’s disaster payments.

This socialist mentality is so deeply ingrained so that even young people don’t mind being economically underprivileged as long as no one does any better. Sort of like in the USSR, we are all poor and that’s they way it should be. It’s the system. North Dakota will never break out until this mentality is broken.

I may not agree with everything he says but I understand his frustration. This man came to North Dakota as the CEO of a major enterprise. He operates a major operating enterprise exporting product all over the US. The institutional roadblocks and constraints placed on him are unlike what he faces in most of the rest of the USA. North Dakota has to get over its socialist roots. Capitalism actually works. It’s been tried and proven in much of the world. Get off the reservation North Dakota.

Union of Socialist Societies of North Dakota

USSND