After all the froth over the stimulus bills lately, I am convinced that this country is dominated by two classes. The first class is made up of those weak- and wishful-minded, often called Democrats. The second class is that craven order which preys upon the first class and is often known as “our nation’s leaders.”
These two classes assure the passage of Obama’s (or was it Bush’s?) stimulus packages. Bafflingly, enough people believe that taking money from some people and giving it to other people will solve this country’s economic problems, as though a bankrupt government can rescue a bankrupt nation. Also, another crucial ingredient, there are enough politicians in power sufficiently craven to execute this idiocy.
At its core, the stimulus package caters to base emotion. Many Americans find themselves in a pinch and they want out – now. The promise of instant gratification is what makes McDonald’s such a successful franchise. It is the same cheap, greasy rubbish which assures the success of Obama’s presidency, a presidency that is already suffocating under mountains of laurels, which mainstream history, with its predictable prejudices, will continue to pen with fawning, flattering quills long after we have all rotted.
But really, I’m no elitist. Base emotions are the stuff of man, without which we probably wouldn’t recognize our best friends, or ourselves for that matter. Let’s be honest, very few care about correctly identifying the causes of the current recession. We lack the intellectual tools, interest and the motivation to do so. What we’re having for dinner tonight is of much higher importance.
In pursuit of honesty, let’s go one step further. Despite all this grand talk about uniting for some great common purpose, we really put all that nonsense behind us after watching the evening news, don’t we? Our petty, private existences, our own unique, selfish ends matter a great deal more, do they not? At the end of the day, we’re individuals and spend most of our lives wholly devoted towards maximizing comfort for ourselves and our families. We’re a prejudiced, self-centered lot.
I know Obama would sanctimoniously scold such a disposition, but I’ll let it rest for now. What I prefer to scold (and Obama seems content to encourage) are those who pursue their selfish interests at the expense of others. I do not condemn people’s urge to get out of trouble as quickly as possible. That’s a natural reaction. We all have selfish interests and needs, many of them very important, even urgent, but some of us choose to achieve these interests at our own expense, some at the expense of others. We must all choose how we will provide for ourselves and our families. Some choose the productive, creative process. Others excuse themselves from this pursuit, preferring to feed off the productive results of capitalism like maggots at the roots of a tree.
How is this parasitism allowed to persist? How are idle hands exchanged for comfort and security? Such an exchange is not a naturally occurring phenomenon in the free market of voluntary exchanges for obvious reasons: something for nothing is an unfair trade. These exchanges must be forced, for they involve at least one unwilling party, i.e. the taxpayer. To force these exchanges, politicians do all the dirty, coercive work of the state, taking from the dastardly rich and diverting the money to the needy.
Of course, the illusion of redistribution is only a veneer under which the crimes are committed. As anyone who has troubled themselves with the numbers knows, most of the money does not go towards putting wood in the stoves of the poor, but rather towards stoking a staggeringly huge and bureaucratic middleman, the government. Nonetheless, this powerful, symbiodic relationship between parasite and politician flourishes. It promises to be this spring’s most offensive blossom.
Jeremy Hicks is a 2008 political science graduate, the founder of the Cal Poly Libertarian Club and a Mustang Daily politcal columnist.