Frank Thomas wrote:
In the past, I have written about Reagan´s conservative fiscal philosophy of in essence being, "to each his own and to hell with the rest" while he amassed record Deficits and tripled the National Debt mainly by exploding the Defense Budget and Reducing Taxes for the rich with NO "Trickle Down" effect to the bottom 80% of households. Reagan's unbridled philosophy of capitalism launched the ultra-conservative and libertarian US movements over the past 30 years ... the latter represented by the Austrian School of Economics and its current political voice in the US Senate, Ron Paul.
The egocentric, twisted, self-serving social-economic premises underlying these movements are alive and working as we hear repeatedly and manipulatively (directly and indirectly) the reference to Thomas Jefferson´s refrain that, "government is best that governs least." Hypocritically, the advocates of "a small minimal non-proactive government" ignore fact that Jefferson´s democracy had two principles he saw as working together, namely, support for the common man (middle class) and minimalist government. By common man, Jefferson would have included consumers and factory workers as in his time most people worked on farms.
This "balanced middle appraoch" we had in the 50s through late 70s where private businesses were entirely free so long as no egregious harm to workers, consumers or the environment occurred recognized that public and private institutions need both to be vigilant against that which is counter-productive to the common good ... what I have been calling for, i.e., balancing the ``WE´´ (Community) and `` I´´ (Ego or Individual) forces in our society for a more engaged and proactive approach to solving and minimizing, if not entirely preventing, recurrence of the systemic societal breakdowns we have been experiencing past decades.
John, in this regard, you might want to reprint for readers of Will Blog for Food a brilliant writing by Paul A. Samuelson about the Darwinian economics of the ultra-right and libertarian schools of thought. Published in October 2008, the title of this writing is, ``Farewell to Friedman-Hayek Libertarian Capitalism.´´ You are no doubt familiar with it. Professor Samuelson alludes further to this theme in a concise article just published in the International Herald Tribune entitled, "Heed the Hopeful Science." I´m much in agreement with this gentleman-economist-scientist´s stream of social-political-economic thought.
Our democracy in ideal form is all about insuring social well-being by effective restraints to protect legitimate public interests and by infrastructure investments/incentives prudently and proactively approached. This all done in concert with conservative thinking of insuring that government´s key function is to help the social organism cure itself, recognizing the dynamic, innovative contributions of the private sector and that government cannot cure all problems nor own the economy. It´s about recognizing the excesses of raw capitalism embraced by right-wing economic anarchists advocating pure reliance on rugged individualism and market forces. Thus, it´s finally all about a balance that integrates the Community and Individual aspects of human nature in our society´s development within a rapidly, increasingly complex interdependent world.
Will find some time later to give coherent reply to your question about distributing more "public and private options" throughout our economy ... raising the deeper question of what is the role of government and the private sector in this flat internet, virtual networking, multicultural world where jobs in advanced Western countries are being systematically destroyed by low-wage, productive nations like China and India?
Best regards,
Frank
