This is a response to a message from a forum I frequent. I’m glad with the way a couple of the points came out, so I thought it would warrent reposting in the economic category here.

Republican – greed, Democratic – opportunity for ALL economic levels

I strongly disagree with incredibly broad misinterpretation of our nation’s political landscape. Unfortunately though, I’m going to respond with another generalization. As a party, the ideological trend is for Democrats to prefer larger government and social (socialist) programs to redistribute wealth taken in through taxes. People complain that Republicans are greedy, or heartless and cut spending for this and that, but what they’re really doing is trying to decrease our nations massive debt and lower taxes, which means less of a burden on your pocket and on future generations. Miasdad made the great point that no country has succeeded with the government trying to control the economic factors of production or distribution. When they (Republicans) cut subsidies for, say, green clay pottery makers, they do two very important things (really two parts of the same thing). Lower spending can mean lower taxes, and paying down of some of the debt; the interest on the debt alone takes a significant portion of every dollar you give to the government. Much more importantly is the effect it will have on the bond market, through crowding out.

Explained very simply, if you’re Joe Bank and have a big wad of money to lend to someone, you can either give it to to a company or the government. The government has never defaulted on a debt, so you know you’re going to get your money back. To attract capital corporations are forced to offer bonds at lower prices/higher yields, because a component of interest rates is risk. So in effect the government is crowding out private investment. Entrepreneurship is what drives this country, and personally I would rather have the free market deciding where the money should go, rather than some politician. Because the borrowed money is costing the corporations more that’s less money they have less to invest, create jobs, and give money to workers who just may go out and buy green clay pottery. Republicans believe that the ultimate economic cost of the crowding out effect negates (to varying degrees, depending on who you ask) whatever benefits you may have gotten from the government spending.

Now you may ask why people like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan spend money out the wazoo, and so do I, but the reason is that strong defense is a prerequisite for sustained economic growth. People will not invest and the economy itself cannot function when there is not security. That’s why, though I cringe when I see the numbers, I recognize the need for recent increases in defense spending.

People also say that Republicans only want tax cuts for the rich, and that every measure they propose is biased towards covering their rich butts. Well, the wealthiest 15% of our country pays 90% of all taxes, so any broad tax cut is going to seem biased towards the rich simply by definition. Furthermore, many would argue that, paradoxically, lowering taxes is actually the best way to get rid of our debt. How? Because less money being wasted by the government and more money in the private markets means higher productivity and growth, and when that’s combined with fiscal responsibility, that means we could grow out our debt with low taxes, the same programs we have now, and higher GDP for the country. Everybody wins.

If you read a biography of Karl Marx you have to wonder if he didn’t like capitalism simply because he was terrible at it—he lived his entire life in debt. Marx was descended from eminent lines of rabbis, but harsh anti-semitic laws convinced his father to convert, and all of Marx’s life his venomous tongue was quick to utter some horrifying maxims about Judaism.

Marx looked at history, discarded philosophy, religion, ethics, nationalism, and said to look at the people. Each of society’s movements from slavery to feudalism to capitalism can be traced to a ruling class extracting wealth from the people, be it a slave, serf, or factory worker. Even though all the ‘wealth’ was coming from the workers, they were still at the mercy of hte ruling class because they didn’t control any of the means of production. In Marx’s view religion (“opium of the people” ), patriotism, laws, culture, and morality all are merely means of keeping the worker in his place and support the production process. This superstructure ties everyone to material thinking and desires, therefore perpetuating the cycle of exploitation of the working class. Revolutions happen as a result of new technology, and a conflict of the classes occurs whenever society switches to new means of production, but the workers always end up at the bottom of the totem pole because they are in, by definition, a class society. Marx postulated that because capitalism rested on a class system, revolution and victory by the workers was inevitable, because only in a classless society could said revolution be avoided. Because capitalism produces so much, it is a necessary precursor for socialism to occur. Marx did not consider Russia or Germany for his revolution, because they didn’t have sufficient industrial resources, he thought Communism would take place in England and France first. Here’s what has to happen for the revolution to take place:

1. Falling profit rates and accumulation of capital
2. Increasing concentration of economic power
3. deepening crises and depressions
4. High unemployment (“industrial reserve army” )
5. Increasing misery of the proletariat

(from Todd Buchholz). Marx’s biggest flaw comes from the assumption that all value comes from the worker, or labor. He ignores entrepreneurship, land, capitol. Profits that Marx dubbed exploitation are actually crucial in insuring future investment and growth. The revolution never came because, however bad this economic slowdown is or how slow gigs come in the summer, workers are orders of magnitude better off than they were before. The rich get richer and the poor get richer; productivity enables total output to rise and benefit everyone. Also the worker is no longer completely separated from th emeans of production, and through things like stocks and bonds can indirectly own means of production.