I fly several times a month for work and I chat up every person I can about politics (nothing like having a captive audience for 3 1/2 hours). I can't count the number of times I've sat on planes next to someone who told me they were Republican because they believe in personal responsibility.
Republicans believe in personal responsibility? That always makes me want to laugh so hard that my orange juice comes out my nose (and if you were wondering, no that's not where the name OrangeClouds came from... it was a Tori Amos lyric).
Before you start pointing to the white collar criminals we have running our country and "self regulating" our largest businesses - wait. I don't think these Republicans next to me on the airplanes are lying...exactly. Read on and I'll explain...
They probably do take responsibility in their own lives. Just like you and I do. They finished school, found jobs, paid their rent, and did whatever else it was they had to do.
There is a difference between making a personal decision to take responsibility for yourself and your family and setting up policy that says all people are on their own.
Taking personal responsibility: Evacuating New Orleans if you are physically able to do so prior to Hurricane Katrina
Bad policy: Telling the residents of NOLA that it's too darn bad and the government won't help them because they didn't get their lazy asses out of New Orleans.
Taking personal responsibility: Spending your money wisely, paying off your bills on time, and saving for emergencies and retirement.
Bad policy: Bankrupting social security and passing mean-spirited morally bankrupt bankruptcy legislation because people shouldn't get into debt and they should save for retirement.
So I bet you the Republicans on the planes take responsibility by saving for retirement, etc, but they are voting for irresponsible policy by assuming that everyone is like them.
What's the point? First, if you can "take personal responsibility" (ahh, gotta love Republican talking points and catchphrases), do so! Second, support policy that provides a safety net in case you are someday incapable of taking personal responsibility. Third, don't assume business will take personal responsibility - they aren't people!
1. Taking Responsibility
You've heard all of the PSAs: don't smoke or do drugs, exercise, eat right, "choose to save," change out 5 lightbulbs to energy efficient CFLs, etc.
Sometime in the middle of my four years of undergrad business school, I realized that many corporations do not fit my idea of "ethical" and I am very inflexible about where I am willing to work. If no one was willing to work for Philip Morris, they would have a major problem on their hands. No f'ing way am I working for an Enron or even a McDonald's. That's how I found my way into healthcare... no ethical question there. The "product" is saving patient lives and I have no qualms about spending 40+ hours per week doing that.
Alas, I don't think most people think about this. I wish they did. On this week's Ring of Fire, Bobby and Pap interview someone from Mother Jones who investigated Boeing aircrafts. Several whistleblowers came forward - but they mentioned one who originally spoke up and then shut up about it. When Mother Jones called him he said he still supports what the whistleblowers are doing but he needs to keep his job. Unfortunately, it seems like finding an ethical job - or walking out of a job that becomes unethical is a luxury.
What about your own health? If you piss and moan about the state of healthcare in our country (and we all do because it's abysmal), I say examine your own lifestyle. Go for routine care visits to catch any issues early on. Eat right. Educate yourself about the best foods and really commit. I love the book Superfoods Rx - it talks about the 14 foods you should eat to stay healthy: blueberries, turkey, wild Alaskan salmon, yogurt, whole grains, oranges, pumpkin, broccoli, spinach, walnuts, soy, oats, tomatoes, and tea. Don't smoke. And work out (advice I should but don't really take myself). The first reason to do these things is to improve the quality of your own life, but it's patriotic too!
And the environment? This is my big issue as you probably know. Individuals can do a lot to help the environment all by themselves. Rather than getting into detail here, I'll just say visit my website. If everyone assessed their own lives and found ways to make them more "green," it would make a big difference. There are major things you can do - like going vegan. And there are expensive things you can do - like installing solar panels on your roof. But there are also things you can do that are easy or effortless or fun and things you can do that save you money. Start with those. Saving gas helps the environment and your wallet. It's appropriate to get pissed off at businesses and at the government for their environmental records, but when you do that, think about your own environmental record.
Last here - campaign finance reform. I've started my own version of campaign finance reform. It's small but it's all I can do now. I took my money out of Bank of America and put it in a credit union. I shop at a natural foods coop and a farmer's market and I want to be a member of Community Supported Agriculture for this next year. Think about who is getting your money. When you can't avoid it, you can't avoid it. Like it or not, I need to buy medications and I can't "buy indie" or "buy local" when it comes to that... gotta fork over the cash to Big Pharma. But when you can avoid giving your money to the same companies that are poisoning our government with their contributions, do so.
I don't think any of this is what Republicans meant. I think they just mean money. Specifically, their own money. Your average airplane Republican is really just saying "I put myself through school and I pay my rent and put food on my table, so don't fucking use my taxes to help anyone else." That's where we liberals are different. We try to the extent that we can to achieve financial self sufficiency but we can also see beyond that.
2. The Safety Net
I think our typical response to social programs is your classic "bleeding heart liberal" approach. I read it here and hear it on Air America. It's mean to cut food stamps from the budget, it's cruel to cut pell grants from the budget, it's wrong to cut medicare in the budget yada yada yada. And I agree - but I think there's a better argument out there.
How good is it for us if someone is flat broke and living in the gutter? Not good. It is not good for you or for me if someone cannot get healthcare or afford food or basic needs. The safety net of social programs is there for moral reasons but it's also there because it is best for all of us and not just those who directly benefit from a physical paycheck.
For example, we have 40something million uninsured people in this country. So what? I'm insured. Hell, in the past two years I've had consults with a hand surgeon, an ophthalmologist, and two neurologists in addition to my routine care by my primary care physician and my dentist. And my drugs cost $5/month. I care that someone else doesn't have insurance? Yes, I do.
First of all, when these uninsured people catch something contagious, they won't go to the doctor. Germs don't care about social class or health insurance or national borders or anything else. I want every single person who wants a flu shot to go get a flu shot because I don't want the flu. I want every single person who needs a condom to go get a condom and I want every single person who needs to get tested for AIDS to get tested for AIDS.
Second of all, who pays in the end for the uninsured? We do. Except it's more expensive than if we just paid to give them insurance. An uninsured person won't go to the doctor when a problem crops up. They let it fester. Then they wind up in the ER and it is far more expensive than it would have been if they just popped into urgent care and saw a primary care doc in the first place. And if they can't pay for their ER visit - who does? The hospital? The hospital has to run a business. The cost gets passed on and the buck stops with us. We who can afford to pay, pay. So if you are going to be stuck paying anyway, what do you want to pay for? The primary care visit or the ER visit?
Here in Madison they are piloting a new program. Forgive me if I mess up a detail or two because our local radio show is on at 6am and I am usually half asleep when I hear it. But I think I heard that they are piloting a program to provide healthcare to a group of people who meet certain criteria and they will also train those people how to use their new healthcare benefits. I think the grand vision of the plan is to see if they can reduce ER visits and save money overall.
The same goes for other basic needs. When poor people get a few extra bucks, they spend them. The businesses where they spend those extra bucks profit and then they can hire a few extra people. Those extra people hired now have jobs and more money, which they spend at companies who hire a few more people, and so on. It's a big cycle.
As for bankruptcy laws - check out Get Sick Go Broke. For a lot of people, a fresh start is all they need to be an employed taxpaying citizen once again. And once they get their fresh start, they can go shopping again and pump more money into the economy. Last, good bankruptcy laws encourage innovation because people can take a chance on new ideas and if their ideas fail they can declare bankruptcy and start over - instead of living in poverty indefinitely and eating cat food for the rest of their lives.
You'll always have the people who physically just can't work - whether it's a physical disability or depression or a drug problem or whatever. You'll also always have some people who cheat the system. But you need to suck it up and accept that a few people will take advantage but as an aggregate society as a whole will do better. I'd be willing to bet that some of those Republicans who are all for "personal responsibility" benefit all the freaking time from programs like welfare and foodstamps and whathaveyou else and they don't even know it. They probably own a business or stock in a business that has better sales because people on social programs shop there or people who had a rough time at one point and got back on their feet because of a government program shop there.
3. Corporate Responsibility
Want to know a word that gets me foaming at the mouth with rage? Externalizing. Externalizing costs is when a company does something irresponsible and the public has to pay to clean it up or fix it. One of the weekend Air America shows this week had a long bit about GE doing this. They have more superfund sites than any other company in the world. Why is that right? Why is that okay?
The radio show said that it used to be that the government could go to a company like GE and say "We are going to clean this up and charge you three times the cost" and that would get the corporations moving on it - but Bush bankrupted superfund and now corporations will laugh at such a threat. (If you're looking for the show, my hunch is Ring of Fire but for all I know it was Ecotalk)
Randi Rhodes said the other day that corporations are not people because they do not have to get rectal exams. Katie Couric will never tell a corporation to go get a colonoscopy. "Personal responsibility" may exist but corporations are not people.
Business school certainly does not teach corruption and lawbreaking. They tell you that companies with strong ethics codes are more profitable than those that don't. They tell you in statistics class that it is infinitely better to pay to fix a defect in a car or have a recall or whatever than to get slapped with a lawsuit because the Ford Pintos you make burn people up. Obviously the message doesn't get through to everyone.
Look at what's going on in politics now. There's a revolving door between industry in the government, the K-street project is culminating with hopefully a big bunch of Republican indictments, Duke Cunningham wore a wire so a bunch of defense contractors (and maybe more Republicans) will be in hot water for that, and corporate money has paid for five fucking years of the worst policy in my memory. Credit card companies bragged about actually writing the bankruptcy bill. Say it with me: Fox guarding the henhouse. Or to use a Randi Rhodes-ism, that's like putting Ike Turner in charge of ending domestic violence.
So, okay Republicans - it is okay for GE to burden the taxpayer because they feel like messing up the Hudson but it's not okay for a person who got cancer to declare bankruptcy? Are you on crack?
Corporations need to be regulated, period. They need to be regulated because they do not work for the public good and someone needs to keep them from acting for the public BAD. And we're not going to get regulation until campaign finance reform happens.
I've got an eight hour flight to Hawaii this Friday and if I sit next to some Republican who pontificates about personal responsibility, they are going to be treated to eight hours of pent up RAGE against bad policy and corporate greed. Aloha, motherfuckers!