More Regarding Speaker Gingrich: Tax and Economic Policy

Note: I should mention that the reason why I'm critiquing Speaker Gingrich is because I think he's potentially the most thoughtful of any candidate in the race, Republican or Democrat. There are disagreements I have, and I think if I keep writing people will see that we can maturely disagree in the Republican party and still support each other. I definitely endorse his candidacy, and hope he runs, so I can have someone I actually want to vote for.

There's nothing in this list of policies and goals that will surprise those of us immersed in conservative ideas. Lower taxes help business grow, as we are allowed to do more with our own money. The increased tax revenue that comes from lower taxes in turn enriches the government and allows us to maintain our position as the world power. Such a climate exists right now (in all this talk about the war, people have forgotten the Bush tax cut worked, and that our economic growth is tremendous,) but there are ways in which we are discriminating against industry - i.e. unions being too powerful, other countries having less regulations in terms of business - that could take the competitive edge we get through tax cuts and throw it away.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our Leftist friends are exactly right about something, and Speaker Gingrich must address that point if we are to thrive. The Marxist critique of work in The Communist Manifesto has one point that really cannot be refuted - the modern worker is reduced to being part of a machine, his work is less "craft" and his ability is tied directly to the money. If drug-dealing were legal, people who bought and sold drugs would be some of the richest people in this country. They wouldn't need any education or skill to do that, and yet capitalism would embrace them, and then the refining of their "trade" would start, and specialized jobs within the drug dealing industry would crop up that did require education and some talent.

That's the insidious part of capitalism - the truth is, it's based on a conception of freedom that is pure desire. The idea that one is "free" in that one acts lovingly, or one acts with grace and skill, the Christian and classical conceptions of freedom, roughly, are all gone. And we see this in the job market to some degree. People would be prouder of me if I ran accounts for a company that dealt in pornography because that's a job, and it makes money. To be a graduate student and read Lincoln and rant on the Internet - none of that is "work," and writing is something anyone can do, given pen and paper and a 3rd grade education, and it couldn't possibly get the things I or those I love need to survive, and it certainly can't get me any respect or, because of teacher's unions and the Education field that has arisen from that movement, students of any sort.

The alienation of the intellectual from any genuine sense of labor is the tip of the iceberg. I think it's pretty clear that modern capitalism rewards vice over mores: the incentive is to keep creating stuff, no matter what its use. The abortion debate was unthinkable until the technology came about and was mass-produced; pretty soon, we'll be cloning humans to harvest their organs. A few friends of mine the other day were telling me with a straight face that cloning a person and tearing him limb from limb for our satisfaction is indeed scientific progress.

I said it in the last post, and I'll say it again. Our values have to be loud and clear before any debate starts. You want to invest in math and science? Then be clear about what their purpose is, and what their limits are. Math and science aren't America alone; they're a tool and a realm in which we are free, protecting ourselves and discovering the universe. But again, they're no substitute for love, or appreciating our past. Similarly, with saying "we need to competitive in industry," we need to be clear not just about job creation, but about what kind of jobs we want, and how we want workers to live. We can easily be the world's economic superpower if we pay everyone a penny an hour. Whether we should want that or not is the question.