We Own The Government

Conservatives have, in the minds of many Americans, been able to draw a line between the people and the government. They use phrases such as “It’s your money not the government’s”, “Ownership”, and “Do you want bureaucrats making your decisions” to draw a distinction between government and the citizenry. In foreign policy they tout democracy while at the same time using language that implies we don’t have it at home.

Progressives need to build on Lincoln’s “Government of the people by the people, and for the people…” comments to restore the American people’s faith in our system. We own social security, we own the congress we elect, we own the rules and regulations that enable us to breathe clean air and drink potable water.

Economic regulation is not designed to stifle growth but rather is used to ensure that we have the benefits that competition can bring. Regulations are not designed to ensnare but are written to stop those with economic power from using it to unfair advantage.
We are the government and our ownership society means we own the government

Free Trade Is Not Free

The problem with "Free Trade" and how it is devastating to so many developed and undeveloped economies is not the fact that it exists. The problem is that true free trade does not exist. The third world countries that are importing lower priced food from the first world are not suffering from free trade. They are suffering from the subsidies that the developed world's governments give to their farmers. The job losses to lower wage countries suffered workers in the USA and EU are to some extent the result of fixed exchange rates by China, South Korea, and India. Some have estimated that the Chinese currency is undervalued by as much as 40%. If properly valued, the cost of Chinese goods would be higher and maybe EU and USA companies could keep more jobs at home. Fixed exchange rates and subsidies are neither free nor supporting the gains to all that are obtained from comparative advantage.

Social Security and the Politics of Greed

The Social Security debate is bringing to light the Right Wing’s true colors; the colors that decorate the flag of the politics of greed. Just look at the President’s arguments every time he addresses groups of senior, and near senior, citizens. He looks at the crowd with bewilderment and says “What are you complaining about? This won’t have any effect on you!” He just doesn’t get it! He and his cohorts cannot understand anyone who looks out for anyone but themselves.

Greed permeates everything they do and everything they say. Tax cuts for the rich, refusal to look at elimination of the income cap on the Social Security payroll tax, elimination of the estate tax, and almost every other program they propose is based upon the concept that greed is good. To many Americans it is only in the Social Security debate that this is becoming obvious.

As progressives, we need to emphasize that greed and the market system do not go hand in hand. That is why Adam Smith used the term “Enlightened Self Interest” rather than greed. Smith, the holy god of the right wing, understood that greed led to self destruction of the system. He understood that “Enlightened Self Interest” meant that there was something more than pure greed involved with looking out for oneself. We need to look out for our fellow human beings, as well as looking out for ourselves.

Just as they pick and choose sections of the religious bible that support their arguments for repression of free thought, they select the portions of Smith that imply “…greed is good…” We need to use the same sources to show how the politics of greed is neither capitalist nor religious. It is, in fact, a method for creating autocracy with a spurious religious foundation.