There are a bunch of disadvantages inherent in the capitalist market based system that America relies on. Human nature is a powerful phenomenon and it is almost impossible to guard against it. Human nature is a good thing in a market system because it spurs innovation. It also spurs corruption. That is why every market needs a mechanism for correction outside of itself. Hence the reason for governments and regulations. This is the reason why someone like Ron Paul and Ran Paul some absolutely anathema to progressives and real economist. Relying on markets to correct themselves tend to lead to things like stagflation, oligarchs, monopolies and then fascism. Power in a capitalist system tends to gravitate towards those with the capital ie the richest one percent.
America noticed in the late 1800s that banks individuals had amassed too much power and the system became corrupted leading to a crash and did things to alleviate this. We put forth plans to break up monopolies and huge institutional banks. We gave investors more power and removed some of the powers of the richest .01%. We instituted a tax on the richest at up to 90% of income. These were all quote progressive measures to loosen up some of the inequality in the system and to protect capitalism from its excesses.
After the crash of 32 Roosevelt came in with even more progressive solutions. He created the FDIC(the fed) to insure our money supply which stabilized our dollar and made it the freaking standard of the world(conservatives want to abolish this), created social security, and created the securities and exchange commission which tried to reign in excesses of wall street. All of these solutions were progressive solutions. Which coupled with the GI bill and the national highway program and the civil rights act probably made America the country it is today. This is my contention about what made America great. The 50’s thru the late 70s were probably the greatest times for any country excepting Rome during Ceaser Augustus’ reign ever. Man on the Moon, lowest income inequality ever, highest literacy rate et all. So where did we go wrong?
I think there are a lot of reasons why America is going wrong now and most of them are for conservative reasons. First and foremost I think it is the systematic dismantling and destruction of anything conservatives deem too liberal. Even the word has become anathema. By labeling something liberal you can dismiss it as out there and fringe and the more things that can fit into this category the easier your job becomes. So in this conservative universe a reasonable thing like trying to do something to combat obvious global climate change becomes impossible because it is deemed a liberal problem. Something unremarkable and obvious like evolution becomes contentious because it is considered the liberal position. In this universe something like college is bad because they might make you liberal. This is the most dangerous aspect of conservatism because with dogmatic beliefs that all liberals are wrong, stupid, or evil there is no working with them to try to solve issues because your problems and their problems are not the same.
The second issue with conservatism that is the problem is the worship of the rich or the ability to be rich. Being rich should be a goal for everyone. But it should not be the goalpost for which we are measured and not the be all for achievement in a society. The appeasement and protection of this class of people should not be the guiding principal for a party. It is insane to say that everyone should have to suffer in a system and then put forth a plan that greatly benefits one group of people and severely hurts another group of people and call that fair. To tell poor people that since they don’t pay any federal income tax they are moochers in the system but rich people they don’t pay any federal income tax because they are job creators is insane and cruel. I paid a higher percentage of my income in taxation than Mitt Romney and it hurt me a lot more than it hurt Mitt Romney. Look at how much American income from corporate taxes have fallen but how much corporate profits have risen in the last few years with no corresponding lessening of unemployment. This means the rich are getting richer paying fewer taxes and not hiring people at the same rate. Since 1979 the growth in personal income for the top 1 percent went up 281% while the bottom fifth saw income growth at about 16%. This means 95% of the growth went to just the top 1% of people. We keep making laws for rich people to get richer like no capital gains taxes no inheritance tax no social security taxes, 501c’s, shell corporations, bankruptcy protections, tort reform and citizens united. We keep giving corporations more powers and protections yet are systematically dismantling those for regular people.
This is getting long so I will say the last thing is that conservatives are most guilty of fairness on paper but not real consequences of their actions. So in the eighties people were driving around with cadillacs while receiving welfare so we need welfare reform. So what if no real evidence was presented but everyone had a cousin or uncle who took advantage of the system. It needs to be stopped. Who cares how efficient the system is and real evidence supports the system fix it. So what that now in a country that is the richest in the world we just consigned millions of people to endemic poverty because some people maybe took advantage of the system. The same with the budget. We need to have a balanced budget beyond all things. Why? To appease the markets. So American markets appreciate when the government stops spending up to 60 percent of discretionary spending? Markets love it when you remove capital from a system. All for some arbitrary budget number. Im sure your family wont eat for a week so that your check books are balanced at the end of the year. They ask for this reduction in spending for discretionary spending at the same time calling for the reduction of taxes for the rich because they are job creators except they are not because they don’t have anyone to buy their products.
Its maddening when I talk to conservatives. No acknowledgement of what their policies would mean in a real world and no desire to engage on facts. Only theories and false equivalencies. I can list a lot of different policies that were enacted because of conservative theory that failed because theory sounds great in theory but not in practice. A few of them are the whole war on drugs, wall street deregulation, mandatory minimums, welfare reform, laissez faire economic theory etc. All of these things sound reasonable on paper. Who doesn’t want drugs out of their communities? But waging war on ubiquitous things like drugs only lead to deleterious outcomes. All of these things are real problems but the conservative answer to these and other problems are always the most extreme and wrong-headed.
But the last and the most dangerous things conservatives have done to America and the economy as a whole is to destroy the civic institutions and dismantle efforts to have a more fair and equitable system. This is a deliberate strategy born out of think tanks and practiced with ruthless efficiency and skill. Take unions for example. I know people who make minimum wage who argue against unions. Unions are the cornerstone of a progressive society. Unions help to make workplaces more equitable and remove barriers from the workers and their bosses. We have seen union participation dismantled in this country and today we have the lowest unionization rate since the 1910s. Why? Conservatives have denigrated and abolished unions wherever possible and continue to pursue policies that make it harder for unions to form. The reduction in wages for the average American and the loss of union jobs in America are exactly parallel. I wonder why?
One thing that conservatives are doing and it is little talked about is the the destruction of public infrastructure. This is exceptionally pernicious because no one really questions this or thinks of it as a conservative principle. When a road goes unrepaired alternative means of transportation is required. But you don’t have the funding for public transportation. Oh well we need to balance our budget. Maybe since we cant publically pay for roads anymore maybe we need to allow the market to work hence the new phenomenon of toll roads. Public schools are failing. Oh well privatize them. Everyone cannot afford them. Oh well we need to balance the budget. So rich peoples kids are ok they can afford the private school system but poor people we are handing out vouchers to some and the others sorry. Boot straps. We cant afford libraries, playgrounds, public health programs at all for the poor. The rich don’t need them they can afford their own within their gated communities.
I don’t think conservatives are bad or evil. I think they are shortsighted and narrow and seem not to care for the consequences of their actions. They are capricious and selfish on certain issues and dogmatic and seemingly racist on others. While they themselves might not be racist their policies and the consequences of their policies are. This leads to a whole other discussion which I will discuss later.
