Reply #4: The Flow of Capital and The Ownership Society [View All]

[Vogon_Glory]

Karl Rove's plan for a permanent Republican Party majority depends on a very weak leg--the so-called "ownership society." The ivory tower notion is that such "wasteful" government programs like Social Security, Medicare, public education, and probably not a few national state parks and recreation areas will be "privatized" and the grateful voters will be so happy to have more jingle in their pockets that they will vote Republican into the foreseeable future.

While I could see how the wealthy and very wealthy (The real-life Thurston Howells of Gilligan's Island) might fall for this tommyrot, I'm surprised that even the middle class could fall for this claptrap. The "ownership society" paradigm ignores the little things in life like major and chronic illnesses, serious accidents, the cost of education, rising energy prices, and the rising costs of shelter, clothing, and food. The "ownership society" paradigm also ignores the effects of Gee Dubya's disastrous environmental policies and the consequences of them. Such trifles ignored by right-wing theorists will strip capital from the more prosperous middle classes just as it is now stripping capital from the middle and working classes.

The "ownership society" paradigm also studiously ignores the behavior of the American consumer today. Many, if not most, of our fellow citizens are carrying massive amounts of debt in the form of auto and appliance loans, mortgages, and credit card bills. We don't save--and not only is the advertising propaganda against saving, but if the average citizen started living more within his or her real means, they'd have to admit how poor they've become and that there is a widening gap between themselves and the political and economic elite.

The "ownership society" bushwah might have some more tenuous link to reality if more of our citizens were savers instead of spenders--but they don't seem to be changing their behavior. And capital, unlike water, flows uphill to the greatest concentrations.

I fear that a good chunk of the American electorate hasn't wised up to what's what. Many to the left of the GOP have--that's why they voted against a second term for Gee Dubya and the Banana Republicans. Even some on the Far Right are starting to wise up--although they're frantically arranging their facts and theories to put the blame on "liberals" instead of their fellow "conservatives."

Unfortunately, this realization is not going to occur to prosperous knee-jerk Republican voters or the greedier elements of the middle classes until the facts of life or a major economic downturn happens to them.

One of the things I'm still brooding about after the elections is that there's a lot of pain coming down, and no matter how deep my pockets may or may not be, there's little I can do by myself to stop it.