Inspired by the awesome debate in Healthcare as Good
Business, linked here,
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/05/universal-health-care-is-good.php
I wanted to continue the discussion about liberal ideals as
good business. Moreover, I want not only
to market liberal policies as common sense, and appealing to the right, but all
liberal values as such. I want to take “liberal”
back, we are much stronger than the current perception. The Left is stronger on almost all topics,
and agrees with the vast majority of American people on important supposedly
weak Liberal issues including security, foreign policy and religion, than the Right.
Despite what the media tries to tell us,
Liberal values are the real reflection of the majority of Americans. I will blog on these topics later if people
like this post.
But lets talk the economy.
Im a converted republican leaner and CPA, so this is a topic that kept
me in chains with the GOP until events called on me to educate myself on realities
behind the hype. Good business is a
powerful marketing concept for any Dem platform, as Desidero saw with the well received
post.
So to begin, we all know the economy has done better under
Democratic presidents in recent memory, deficits have grown less fast and stock
markets done better. But even on
traditional issues of Liberal concern, Dems have very persuasive arguments for
fiscally conservative counterparts that they in fact have the stronger position,
one that is more economically beneficial. Consider:
Universal Welfare.
Healthcare makes us more able to work, helping the economy. Child welfare is important to our economy, up
to 25% of our country’s children live in poverty.
http://www.heartsandminds.org/articles/childpov.htm
Your income and neighborhood are some of the biggest
determinants of how well you will do in life, so more money invested means more
productive future workers. Yet we invest
in children’s financial well being shamefully poorly. Our poverty rates are among the world’s best
for seniors, terrible for children. Why? After welfare reform, people got left out,
whereas social security is universal coverage and beyond “Liberal” labels. People feel less angry about senior free
rides, after all we will all be less able older citizens someday and will hope
to depend on the good nature of younger citizens to care for us, even though we
can’t pull our weight as much as before. But this justification is just marketing. Considering the amount of a welfare check is
hardly enough to live on, much yet to incent people not to get a job, there is
much less free riding than there is resentment of the possibility. But Liberalism has solutions good for
business there too- make them work, like in Holland.
They create jobs just to employ people.
Such a program would add another $2 billion to our tax burden, but hey,
get out of Iraq
and we can fund that in one week. Plus, don’t
forget workers actually contribute stuff…
Deregulation. Oh the
burdens of laws. Sure, they can go
overboard and restrict progress, but much of the deregulation we have seen in
the past few decades has its most major societal impact not on heightening
progress, but restricting it. Consider
the relaxation of ANTITRUST laws. These
laws don’t help foment competition- we can all agree competition helps the
economy right?- it helps crush competition, innovation and progress. Further, relaxing pollution laws doesn’t help
the economy overall, it helps owners of corporations make money, and passes on
a bigger bill to the public to clean
up. Yes, Big Pharma may benefit from
medicine sales to treat those poisoned by pollution
and additives (all of us), but the cost we bear has increased as a result,
overall bad for business, but good for owners of polluting corporations and
other entrenched interests. And we haven’t
even begun to talk about the last three
recessions are directly correlated to the Right’s deregulations in housing
(2008), financial sector (late 1990s Asian monetary collapse) and the S&L
crisis (early 80s). Of course, if you
ask Joe Scarborough, or McCain, it was due to greedy speculators flipping
houses.
Environmentalism. The
Right has been blocking solutions to global warming since the day it began. They claim its bad for business. No.
Innovative solutions are good for business and help fuel the economy and
our economic leadership in the world. It
is bad for Big Oil and The Big 3 automakers though, for example. Not because they cant make money selling
things like the electric car (someday), but because its RISKY. They have a good thing going with the whole
oil thing, they have the market controlled, game theory says milk that until
its gone. Sure, they could jump to
making innovative cars running on saltwater (yes someday this could be
possible!), but your company isn’t made up of creative Silicon
Valley types. And if they
do develop the market and the right technology, the new market will attract
competition and making additional profit from the risk over the long haul. Environmentalism is better business overall,
just not for the companies making money killing the planet. We don’t need to kill whales to have a
thriving economy, sorry Dick.
Taxes. Thanks to the
Iraq War, Dems don’t have to defend an increase in taxes to fund many programs,
such as infrastructure relief, education et all. Whether it’s a reduction in the deficit or
increase in current taxes, the overall burden on the average American would be
lower post war. Most of the tax
controversy has been and will be, war or not, that the richest Americans
basically lie about the middle class impact to get the support needed. See the Death Tax discussion of 2003. Notice today how the talk about taxes centers
on capital gains, yet McCain’s more regressive tax plan is left unfettered. The truth is the Left’s tax plan has been more
fiscally responsible, the Right’s propaganda about tax and spend Liberals more
effective. But we are factually better
on this issue that the GOP. Yes, higher
taxes haven’t stimulated the economy since the days of FDR, but Liberals
championing rollbacks of tax cuts for the richest Americans is good business,
lest we overburden future generations with more irresponsible debt. Unpopular for Rupert Murdoch, but better
overall. Thank God we can prove that
trickle down isn’t good for the economy, but, as George Senior said, it is voodoo
economics after all.
If you liked this discussion please recommend!
