SOME TIME AGO, IN THE MIDST of the debate over health care reform, I argued that we, as a nation, had been suckered into a no-win scenario.
The rest of us must pay careful attention to government.
We had been taught that there were only two options in the United States—Socialism or Capitalism—and that all we could do was to choose between the two.
I suggested, at the time, that there was at least one other option, and that we could do a lot better by taking it into account.
I still think that is true, and that it has repercussions far beyond healthcare.
Elections are coming up again soon, and here in California that means all sorts of ballot measures which we, the people, have to decide how to vote on.
The advertising, and even the drafting of these measures is often misleading.
It's not uncommon for the title of a measure to completely obscure its real purpose.
We need some way to weigh these measures, a scale of values to judge them by, and the old capitalist/socialist continuum just doesn't do the trick.
So I propose a different kind of measure: one based on how a measure shifts power, and to whom.
The power in our society is divided, for the most part, among just three interests.
- Wealth: those people who have power because they have money, and the influence that goes with money.
The big banks, Wall Street, the insurance companies, and multinational corporations are in this class, along with the super wealthy who pull the strings behind all those companies.
We've all had those frustrating moments when we've been openly stonewalled by some large, wealthy, and faceless entity, or even forced to do things against our will.
Much of the time, though, the power of wealth operates invisibly, stacking the deck so that over time the profits and power accrue to those who already have them, and the rest of us have fewer choices, and less power in our daily lives. - The Average Citizen: Those of us who work for a living, find it hard to save, worry about unforeseen medical bills or other emergencies, and have to make hard decisions about whether we can afford the things that are good for our families.
We do most of the work in this country, and create most of the wealth (whether we ever see it or not).
We fuel the economy with our hard-earned cash, keeping those corporations afloat by shopping at their stores, paying fees at their banks, buying their insurance.
When the wealthy sell bad derivatives, then bet against them, or convince a President and a Congress to wipe out trillions of dollars of surplus with tax breaks for their class, and the result is a recession, we are the ones who pay for that recession by losing our jobs and houses, or by cutting back on our life styles in order not to go broke.
Occasionally, we can effect change, as we did in the last national election, by our sheer numbers.
But mostly we need power over our own lives, our own homes, our own destinies. And usually that boils down to having more choices and more security. - Government: Our elected representatives, national, state, and local; the laws and policies that they put into place on our behalf, the people they employ to carry out those laws and policies.
There are two misconceptions about this class: -
- We often forget that we live in a democracy, and that therefore "government" is simply the collective action of the people, at least in theory.
In the days before the American Revolution, most countries were ruled by a king. The king was a member of the wealthy class, and therefore government was simply an extension of the power of wealth.
But in a democracy, we can make our government into an extension of ourselves, rather than an extension of the wealthy.
It isn't easy, and it means keeping our heads and not being tricked into voting against our own interests, but it can be done. - We also forget that not all government power is negative.
The law that says people can't steal from you is a good thing—an extension of our power as citizens that makes our community safer and more secure.
The use of taxes to provide good roads, fire departments, schools, police protection, social security, Medicare, safe foods, parks, clean streets, etc., etc. works to make the average citizen's life more secure and to provide us with more choices and therefore more power.
- We often forget that we live in a democracy, and that therefore "government" is simply the collective action of the people, at least in theory.
So any fundamentally anti-government, or even anti-tax sentiment is a mistake for the average citizen.
Not all taxes are good taxes, not all government actions are helpful.
But the only people who benefit from a general anti-government and anti-tax stance are those who don't need government to protect them, and those who don't need the services government provides—the wealthy.
They already have all the money and power they need to protect themselves and take care of themselves, and all the choices they want.
The rest of us must pay careful attention to government.
We must make sure, at every turn, that the policies and laws and taxes it puts into place provide power and choice and security for the average citizen—even if, on occasion, it also limits the power of wealth.
Next time: Introducing The Liberty Scale...
