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.
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.
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