Beyond Slogans

Below is a piece put on Facebook by one of our granddaughters. She is bright and beautiful, hardworking, multitalented, and we love her dearly.  She can shoot a deer, and skin it herself. She is an athlete and does triathlons. She can sing operatic songs. She has also lived her entire life under a supply side economic ideology begun by President Reagan. I’m glad she is politically interested even though I don’t agree with her politics.

Slogans are popular, usually contain a kernel of truth that makes them seem believable but in the end they are only slogans and lack depth.

In this slogan there are a couple of things I think most would affirm: 1) People do respond to incentives and 2) growing the middle class is a good idea.

However, I think the logic is terribly flawed. The intent of Welfare is basically a safety net for those folk in our society who, through no fault of their own or by their own fault, find themselves in need of help from their neighbors. And helping our neighbors in times of need is a moral value most affirm. A good welfare system should provide incentives and means by which people can become productive and rewarded and proud members of society. Does our welfare system do that? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. But even if there are problems with it, does that mean we should destroy it? Of course not, but we should constantly seek to improve it and enable it to do its work. Republicans have a history of cutting welfare programs and decreasing the number of government workers to enable the system to work as intended, which creates the problems they decry.

In addition the Republican led supply side macroeconomics of the last 35 years has done almost irreparable harm to the middle class, and through tax breaks and legislative breaks for the wealthy have redistributed the wealth upward at the expense of the of the middle class and the poor. That is socialism meaning the redistribution of wealth. The result of the short sighted, if popular ideology has led to a crumbling infrastructure, severe recession, and a multitude of other problems for our society.

For my granddaughter and for her peers I would suggest that she read history, particularly economic history. The current Republican agenda of deregulated society was found in full bloom in the 19^th century which was a roller coaster of boom and bust and a struggle for the middle class ending in the great depression. She and others also need to read about the methods of the New Deal, which rescued a society in serious trouble, put Americans to work, established a strong infrastructure that benefited all citizens and established needed social safety networks such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and various other social welfare programs that enabled folk to have a chance at the American Dream.

This was the era of my youth early life. In ways it was oppressive and deviants in society were not tolerated as they are now days. But for the most part there was a strong middle class that spent and saved and built a great country. This was the generation Tom Brokaw speaks about as “America’s greatest generation.”

The Republicans of this era are far removed from the Republicans of previous times (though they did fight the New Deal every step of the way.) But they believe or believed in strong moral values and economic responsibility, educated citizenry, family values and other great moral values. Today, they no longer speak with a common voice. Radicals have seized control of significant portions of the constituency putting odd pressure on those that would lead them. Worse they have become the pawns of the ultra wealthy which has moved us from a democracy to an oligarchy.

I am proud of my liberal heritage and thoughts that believe we need to care for all members of our society and give a helping hand when it is needed. I would sooner error on caring for people and having some system abuse than to throw them to the dogs. Helping others helps our entire society not just a vested few. I wish we did it better than we do. But we need to seek to improve programs that admittedly are filled with corruption which I believe is largely due to limiting the resources they need to get the job done. But I do not want to let the Democrats off the hook as they are as caught up in today’s bought legislation as the Republicans. Frankly, the Republicans have reached every goal they set out to get. You can make a good argument that President Clinton was the best Republican of the modern era. Both parties need to insist that members of congress do their own work and write the own bills rather than lobbyists. Further we need to find a way to stop the ridiculous about of spending in political campaigns, which enable the rich to buy the government.

In the end we need to work a fixing problems and providing infrastructure that benefit all and not just give quick profits for a select few.

My granddaughter is an amazing young woman who I love dearly. But I fear for her generation and the generations to come if we continue on the path that we have trod this past 35 years. We need to learn our history and apply its lessons if we are not to relieve a turbulent past.

This article is long and wouldn’t fit on a Facebook note and I think that is good.

As for the slogan it faulty logic at best making huge leaps in judgment and draws wrong conclusions for all the reasons mentioned above. No one would pay people to stay poor, though they may not be able to see a way out by themselves. People do respond to incentives but even when you work hard and still cannot get ahead because of the disparity in the sharing of the nations wealth you loose heart. Welfare does not create poverty, poverty comes from a lack of money and often from people taking advantage of others for their own benefit. If you believe poverty is comfortable, then you lack empathy and not walked in those shoes of those you condemn. Growing the middle class means obtaining a fairer tax progressive tax structure among other things that rewards the middle class which has been the engine and has driven our economy when it was at its best.