Reflections on Wisconsin and Japan, Free Markets and Class Wars

The events of the past few days have led to the conclusion that Ayn Rand was an idealistic nut. The thesis of all her novels and philosophical tracts can be summed up thusly--let the rich, smart, and ambitious get all the power they want and don't let the government do anything to restrict or restrain them in any way. No taxes, no regulations, nothing. An entirely free laissez-faire system will take care of all those pesky collusions or unfair trusts. She actually believed a free market would regulate itself and all injustices would even out because the public would stop buying the product of an unfair manufacturer.

What's been happening in Wisconsin demonstrates what happens when the super-rich want to get super-richer and no one has the guts to tell them, hold it a minute, you can't just take everything. Corporate interests like the Koch Brothers are out to diminish the power of public-worker unions so that forces friendly to them will stay in office. If the state doesn't take out the union dues there'll be less money to contribute to Obama and the Dems.

As I understand it, the unions gave in the governor's demands and yet he still insisted on stripping them of their right to collective bargaining. The Fox News crowd played along by painting the unions as corrupt fat cats getting enormous salaries for lazy slobs. Ann Coulter on Sean Hannity cited bus drivers making six-figure salaries. The strategy is clear, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes are kowtowing to their corporate overlords by selling the Fox audience the idea that the unions are against the unorganized workers at Walmart, etc. See, they say, look at the red bastards stealing your money and giving it to those gold-bricking school teachers who get a whole summer off. Fox and their ilk are the ones waging a class war, pitting the working classes against each other--unions against unskilled, unorganized labor. If the Repubs and their rich cronies really wanted to balance the budget, they'd get the millionaires to pay taxes in proportion to their income.

Rand's philosophy and that of Glenn Beck and his cohorts is if you are smart and hard-working you should make and keep as much money as you possibly can and pay as little tax as you can get away with, forget the rest of society or the common good. If some poor slob who isn't a ballsy entrepeneur and can't get insurance, then goes broke because of one hospital visit, that's his tough luck.

Speaking of the common good, as I was watching the horrible scenes from the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, I was reminded of similar footage from New Orleans and Katrina. The difference was the people in New Orleans were stranded by their government, both in preparedness (faulty levees) and help after the disaster, and the people in Japan seemed to be getting aide right away and there was no looting or panic. The looting in New Orleans can be attributed to taking avantage of a bad situation, BUT they were also people who had no food or medicine and there were no sign state or federal authorities were going to help them. In fact, many conservative commentators said it was the citizens own fault for living near so much water and relying on the government for help.