On Tuesday, the Douglass Black Student congress held a panel on whether or not black conservatives have a voice in the political process. During that discussion, someone stated that conservatism does not come off as a convincing case. That we seem to be spoksmen for upperclass tax cuts. There is a mistake in that view. A mistake that comes from those who claim to uphold conservatism and those who have failed to articulate it. No man can claim to speak for all who agree with him without their expressed consent, but hopefully you may be convinced to understand one man’s basis for defending that which is best about the past, to preserve the future.
It is self-evident that government involvement means government regulation. Regulation is not inherently wrong, but government over regulation can have a detrimental effect on everyone. Including the special group the government seeks to help. Take minimum wage laws as an example. A basic economics course will tell you that if you set a price floor for a particular input one of two things will happen in the short run: nothing because the price floor is lower than the actual price of the good or the demand for that good will fall as the price rise above what the buyer is willing to pay. Replace buyer with employer and good with worker, and you have a just cause for opposing the minimum wage. It may put more money into the pockets of the working man but the guy who is unemployed because of reduced demand is no better off. A rise in the cost of the minimum wage will also be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices, thus causing the workingman to pay more for the good he helped to produce.
What about a tariff or some other trade barrier to protect that working man from foreign completion? The government has given so many tariffs, subsides, loans, and various other forms of government sugar to the American car companies, steel companies, farmers, and sugar companies, that we could have carpet bombed every comparator nation ten times over. What is the result: cars that no none wants, a decaying steel industry, Millionaire farmers and a dying agricultural sector (supported by Senator Obama), and over priced sugar that pushed every soda company to move to corn syrup. This is how the government tries to help those people they find more important than the rest.
What about healthcare? Yes our system is problematic, but that is true of every nation. We have a problem insuring the populace; fully insured nations have a problem with treatment. The British system has a mandate that everyone must be treated, but that mandate is not meet in a timely manner. The French are facing an ever rising deficit due to their highly praised system. Conservatives are not in favor of people dying, conservatives are in favor of a system that works. No nation on earth can claim to have satisfied a majority of its populace when it comes to healthcare.
Senator McCain’s tax plan is not an attempt to give favors to the rich; it is an attempt to stimulate the economy by telling higher income levels that this current crisis will not result in the government taking your income, so it is ok to invest in the market. It is Ok to take risks; the government will not penalize you. Senator Obama’s plan may be the right move to reduce the federal deficit but it is not the right move to help us out of a recession. Senator Obama is seeking an increase in the capital gains tax, a tax on investment), at a time when the market is suffering from a lack of investment. That is like Burger King increasing their prices when fewer customers come into the store. Obama talks about tax credits but the Joint House Committee on tax policy has stated that tax credits undermine economic growth.
Some of you might ask what Conservatism does for the black man. Nothing! Conservatism holds only one group as special…the individual. For God created Adam, not men.
This has been a lot to take in, thank you for being patient. There is much more to say but that, as Alton Brown would say, is another show.