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To misquote Ronald Wright's apocryphal quote of John Steinbeck, capitalism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited prolet

To misquote Ronald Wright's apocryphal quote of John Steinbeck, capitalism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. More seriously, the problem is one of moral hazard: The politicians making these decisions aren't playing with their own money. The people whose money it is aren't buying seats at their $500-a-plate fundraising breakfasts, either.

caseysoftware 7y ago
> The politicians making these decisions aren't playing with their own money. Exactly. This applies no matter who else is involved.. whether it's billionaires looking for incentives, city unions looking for better deals, or candidates offering to pay for college, healthcare, and cell phones. When you're spending someone else's money, cost isn't a problem and accountability is punted to someone else. I think the difference here is that it's easy to name & shame one entity than millions.
leto_ii 7y ago
> The politicians making these decisions aren't playing with their own money. True that! Btw, the (apocryphal) Steinbeck quote I think is about socialism/communism. I don't think we need to go as far as that to figure out that giving billions in subsidies to mega corporations is maybe not a good thing.
- jfengel 7y ago
  It helps explain why we do it. Everybody imagines that it's going to make them rich, because rich is their natural state of being, and they're only poor now because of some external influence. Corporate subsidies (among other things) seem reasonable when you think it's going to create "good jobs" and that you (of course) are destined for one of those. For people to say, "Turns out that I'm not ever going to be rich, and maybe we ought to work on a system that allows even poor people to live tolerable lives instead" would require a major rewrite of the American character.
  - leto_ii 7y ago
    > ...would require a major rewrite of the American character I wouldn't be that pessimistic. As far as I understand it, when polled Americans are significantly to the left of what mainstream politics has become. At least when it comes to economic issues.
malandrew 7y ago
That's still better than the injustices people will allow to take root and endure when they view themselves as a temporarily embarrassed bolshevik central planner.

caseysoftware 7y ago

> The politicians making these decisions aren't playing with their own money. Exactly. This applies no matter who else is involved.. whether it's billionaires looking for incentives, city unions looking for better deals, or candidates offering to pay for college, healthcare, and cell phones. When you're spending someone else's money, cost isn't a problem and accountability is punted to someone else. I think the difference here is that it's easy to name & shame one entity than millions.

leto_ii 7y ago

> The politicians making these decisions aren't playing with their own money. True that! Btw, the (apocryphal) Steinbeck quote I think is about socialism/communism. I don't think we need to go as far as that to figure out that giving billions in subsidies to mega corporations is maybe not a good thing.

jfengel 7y ago
It helps explain why we do it. Everybody imagines that it's going to make them rich, because rich is their natural state of being, and they're only poor now because of some external influence. Corporate subsidies (among other things) seem reasonable when you think it's going to create "good jobs" and that you (of course) are destined for one of those. For people to say, "Turns out that I'm not ever going to be rich, and maybe we ought to work on a system that allows even poor people to live tolerable lives instead" would require a major rewrite of the American character.
- leto_ii 7y ago
  > ...would require a major rewrite of the American character I wouldn't be that pessimistic. As far as I understand it, when polled Americans are significantly to the left of what mainstream politics has become. At least when it comes to economic issues.

malandrew 7y ago

That's still better than the injustices people will allow to take root and endure when they view themselves as a temporarily embarrassed bolshevik central planner.