Contributors

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

A Matter of Ideology

In the post below this one, the comments section produced this gem from John Waxy

What a crock of shit...the free market, run by people who by definition want and need to make a profit will solve the societal needs of this country. We have done this already people, it was called the Middle Ages and our figurative ancestors came here to get away from it because it no longer worked!

Well played, sir. Well played. But I think it goes deeper than that. I read this a while back, during Katrina, and it really sums up why things are so fucked up in this country.

While condemnation of the government response to Katrina has centered on specific failures...., significant criticism has also identified political conservatism as the overriding cause of problems in the way the disaster was handled. These critics argue that the alleged unreadiness of the United States National Guard, negligence of federal authorities, and haplessness of officials such as Michael Brown did not represent inherent incompetence on the part of the federal authorities.

Instead, these failures are seen as natural and deliberate consequences of the conservative ruling philosophy embraced by the George W. Bush administration, especially conservative policies to force reductions in government expenditure, privatize key government responsibilities such as disaster preparedness, and prioritize military spending over spending at home.

These critics also target what is perceived as the failed reconstruction effort in New Orleans, claiming that it represents another political success for "sink or swim" ideology: a "government-subsidized gentrification plan" intended to eliminate what the neoconservative news magazine The Weekly Standard has called "the community that appalled the rest of America when wall-to-wall television coverage of Katrina showed us just what it looked like: poor, black, with astonishingly high unemployment and welfare dependency rates.

Arguments targeting the role of conservatism in these aspects of the Katrina response cite examples such as the systematic dismantling of FEMA by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the more than US$150 million Homeland Security awarded in contracts to Halliburton and Blackwater USA for services in the disaster, and statements such as those by U.S. Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson that “only the best residents should return" to the reconstructed city of New Orleans.

Welcome to the United Corporations of America in 2007. Remember, you have free will so all is well!!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the Halliburton... They bite.

Anonymous said...

This statement is very true. The ideology of conservatism simply does not work. Not only does it not work, it creates an environment of such inequality and a breakdown of even the most basic infrastructures that the level of human suffering and misery grows exponentially everyday.

Anonymous said...

"it creates an environment of such inequality and a breakdown of even the most basic infrastructures that the level of human suffering and misery grows exponentially everyday."

huh? Has their ever been a time in human history where inequality was done away with? There have been attempts - and those attempts enslaved everyone into poverty and resulted in mass deaths (see former Soviet Union, Cambodia, etc).

Anonymous said...

Equality of oppotunity vs equality of outcome.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I should correct what I wrote.

It creates an environment of such inequality and a breakdown of even the most basic infrastructures that the level of human suffering and misery grows exponentially everyday IN THE WEALTHIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

Which, if you really think about it, makes no sense at all. That's why people within and without this country perceive us to be liars. We say we are a good and generous people and our way of life shows that we are not.

Anonymous said...

Yes, America is the wealthiest nation on Earth. We didn't get this way because of socialism, higher taxes on the rich, wealth redistribution or increased government regulation; we got this way by providing incentive to achieve. Now are you suggesting that you'd like to remove some of these incentives by penalizing the rich with more taxes, wealth redistribution, and more rewards for people who did nothing to earn the money? How is that going to help your childrens future? Just transfer on this "victim" mentality you have to them...that’ll help them out.

Our quality of life didn't come from forced taxation and government regulation, it came from people like Bill Gates and Henry Ford. You don't have to like their tax rate but your high standard of living is a direct result of their ideas. I believe our culture is so successful precisely because of the benefits it bestows on those that innovate. I know that there are exceptions to everything. For every person that you all find that is making a fortune off of screwing people over, I can find you one that is contributing to society through innovation.

I know being in favor of helping the poor makes you feel like you are better because you think you care more and it will always sell better in elections because there are always more poor people than rich people. Happy, happy fun time fair-for-everybody wishes are great for children's television and church, they don't work very well anywhere else. People only work hard for a reward. It's not always money, but that's certainly not the incentive to remove if you are looking for progress. Hell I really want a cure for cancer. The best way to get it is to provide an environment where the person or company that solves this problem is given a great deal of money.

Mark Ward said...

"People only work hard for a reward."

That's only true if they are trained to think and believe that.

Anonymous said...

I think you'll find that reward based behavior, as much as you may dislike it, is so ingrained in animalistic behavior that it transcends species. Perhaps you've heard of B.F. Skinner or his little box?

Anonymous said...

Was Skinner the guy who did all of his experiments on his children? Or is that someone else?

Anonymous said...

Was Skinner the guy who did all of his experiments on his children? Or is that someone else?

Anonymous said...

It was someone else...me!

C'mon Mark, it's all about the ROI...Return on Investment. ROI can even be utilized quite effectively in interpersonal relationships as well.