Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen whipped up a new ice cream flavor in his kitchen inspired by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and it tastes a lot like an economics lesson in a one-pint container.
“Bernie’s Yearning” features a solid chocolate top that covers a pint of plain mint ice cream. The solid chocolate top symbolizes the one percent while the mint is the rest of us, and it’s meant to be eaten by redistributing the wealth (chocolate) among the people (mint ice cream), Cohen told Forbes.
“You take your spoon — you whack that big chocolate disk into a bunch of little pieces and you mix it around and there you have it.”
Cohen said he made the ice cream to symbolically represent the socio-economic values endorsed by the democratic socialist and hopes it will motivate people to get politically involved, reports People .
“(The hard chocolate shell represents) the huge majority of economic gains that have gone to the top 1 percent since the end of the recession. Beneath it, the rest of us.”
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder gives Bernie Sanders his own unofficial ice cream flavor https://t.co/MAD9MkSMyC pic.twitter.com/FHqgYVHyRW
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) January 25, 2016
The ice cream illustrates the rapidly expanding wealth gap between the richest families and corporations in the world and everyone else who hasn’t been so lucky. Cohen described his new ice cream flavor in a Facebook post.
“Nothing is so unstoppable as a flavor whose time has finally come.”
Cohen made 40 pints of “Bernie’s Yearning,” to celebrate the ideals endorsed by the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential hopeful. He plans to donate 25 of the limited-edition ice cream pints to Sander’s campaign and the other 15 to randomly selected Bernie supporters who sign up on the presidential candidate’s website.
Poll: @realDonaldTrump and @BernieSanders remain on top in New Hampshire https://t.co/0o20KSr4Xh pic.twitter.com/LTJXbrewjH
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 26, 2016
Cohen insists the flavor is not associated with Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., which is now owned by Unilever. The limited edition packaging features a “Bens Best” stamp instead of the Ben & Jerry’s logo along with a “Vermont’s Finest Senator” header.
“A participatory flavor including a graphic description of what’s wrong in our country (in 3D frozen confectionary form) and a tribute to the only presidential candidate who has offered solutions that will actually fix the problem.”
Sanders, a democratic socialist, is running on a platform of wealth distribution and recently introduced a plan to significantly increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
Anyone who earns more than $10 million would be taxed at the rate of 52 percent, the highest rate since 1980. Workers earning $250,000 would see their tax rate increase 4 percent while someone earning $500,000 would pay an increased 3.4 percent.
Historically, the richest Americans have paid the highest percentage in taxes, but that’s changed in recent decades. Under President Dwight Eisenhower the richest people paid a 92 percent income tax rate; that fell to 77 percent under Lyndon Johnson where it stayed for many years until Reagan dropped it to 28 percent. Taxes went up again under George H.W. Bush and the highest earners are currently taxed at 35 percent.
Bernie Sanders has vowed to use the increased funds to pay for universal health care. He currently trails Hillary Clinton in national polls by 14 points, but his numbers are growing.
In Iowa, however, Sanders is almost neck and neck with Clinton , and he leads Clinton in New Hampshire, according to the latest polls, reports CNN .
No word yet on what Bernie thinks of his new ice cream flavor.
Photo: Screen shot from BerniesYearning.com.
