There's so much wrong with this that I don't know where to begin and couldn't do it justice if I did. Christ.
I will however use it as an opportunity to slap at a pernicious belief of the right, especially of the Ayn Rand division: that all political motivations are economic in origin. You know, the "incentive" plea that makes a mockery of materialist theory.
The subdivision of this is that people are incapable of empathy -- or, rather, that people SHOULD be incapable of empathy, which is pretty much the point of the so called "virtue of selfishness".
By this rationale, the yuppies in the article are aberrations, perverts, rotten with altruistic tendency which is anathema to the Social Darwinism that Rand and the Reason crowd preach(ed).
Well, I'm no yuppie (thank god) and hardly qualify for Bush's upper class tax-slash or modest middle class tax cut. But I do "benefit" from Bush's awful fiscal policy in another way : due to the fact that his deficit spending has slashed the value of the dollar, the rice, soybeans and wheat which make up most of my paltry income fetch a better price than they had. By the right's reasoning, this increase in income should make me vote for Bush.
But it doesn't. Because he's a crook and bastard and moron.
Because foriegn farmers are hurting now in relation to my gain.
Because the real economic criminals of the farm commodity world, the Cargills and Conagras and so on, SHOULD be getting taxed more, their business nationalised even in some cases, instead of the current set-up which subsidises them.
Because Americans in other economic sectors are hurt by the dollar's fall -- worse, the deficit that drives the dollar's fall is incredibly dangerous and stupid and worst of all driven by "defense" spending.
But you know, if I were Randian, I'd say fuck all that lot -- I'm in it for ME! -- but of course add (it's de riguer) that it's morally reprehensible to have any kind of mandatory tax at all. Apparently, some (as per the article) are a bit befuddled that the lefty yuppies aren't thinking like far-rightists. And so an explanation is in order : why, it's spite! They want to bite the hand that feeds them!
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 10:14 PM
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