Barrel Strength

Lately there has been a great degree of schadenfreude in relation to the fact that the rich donated substantial amount of money to the Obama campaign and are now on the receiving end of class warfare.  TigerHawk captures the spirit well when he states the following:

When it comes to politics, the “rich” will sell you the votes to hang them by. Exhibit A: “Barack Obama’s rich supporters fear his tax plans show he’s a class warrior.” What was their first clue? It is not as though he is doing anything differently than he had promised (other than using the economic crisis as a reason to accelerate federal spending to escape velocity).

I have no problem with rich people who supported Barack Obama, but those who express surprise at his class warfare political chatter and passion for the regulation of business simply were not paying attention.

Your correspondent has some difficulty with this reasoning and posted earlier on this point.  That post noted the following.

One of the key factors that has transformed this class of “professionals” is the increasing government regulation, which has led to increase in requirements for lawyers, accountants and other assorted hanger-ons. They do not add value to any process, but serve as leeches and parasites, who take a tiny bite out of production. Lawyers in US are a solid Democratic constituency as they know where the money comes from. An increasing number of professionals are catching on to this, as government spreads its tentacles. This is merely an extension, in a roundabout way, of the majority taxing the rich minority or majority relying on government for their welfare.

The question is what percentage of the rich really rely on government, directly or indirectly, for their welfare?  We might have an answer to that question via this WSJ post which notes:

Hedge-fund managers are showing rare public outrage against the Obama administration, saying that it has wrongly rebuked investors necessary to salving the financial crisis…. They have been disappointed by the Obama administration, left detached from a leader to whose party they gave 70% of their overall campaign donations during the 2008 election.

Is it possible that 70% of the fund managers, the supremely rational thinkers that they are, were really looking after their own interests when rooting for Obama?  It is a surprise that liberals of the world are yelling for more and more?  They know where their bread comes from.

I was pondering this issue, my complacency in the face of the Obama onslaught. There are many reasons to be seriously perturbed.

Here are the reasons why we should all be upset.

The economy is ratshit. The capitalist system is in disgrace. A lot of banking is revealed as a Ponzi scheme. More toxic debt will emerge from eastern Europe, in frightfully high ratios to total GDP. Americans have put in the Democrats for a term or two, free of filibustering by the Republicans. The terms of the bailouts of GM and Chrysler may affect the rights of bond holders and thus the ability to raise capital in the future, provided there is capital to be raised when the  inflation engendered by Obama will be wrecking the economy further .

So why am I complacent? Why do I have this feeling that my time is best spent not fretting about the interventionsist tide?

My theories are:

1) I have a job now and have become a sell-out since I have a few years’ worth of job security.

2) I have lived long enough to know that the onslaught will work itself out. That every offensive is met eventually with a counter-offensive.

3) Even if the United States is pulling permanently to the Left, even if Obama is a psycho- narcissist, there is nothing I can do about it.

I prefer theory 2.

Friends to the right of me are working themselves into a frenzy about Obama. Friends to the left of me are beginning to think the US will finally see universal medical care, while noting the  continuity of Obama and Bush in foreign policy.

Folks! The Republicans are in the penalty box, and will be there for a major game misconduct. They have messed with excessive de-regulation, they have served the rich altogether too well; their telecommunications policy is anti-Internet. In foreign policy I think Bush was right to invade Iraq and I think the casualty level was trivial for a nation of 330 million, though others  are still enraged by that war. In any case, the Republicans are out; they are leaderless and they have no ideas except lower taxes and more de-regulation. It is not going to sell.

Thus the Dems will advance into the middle of the electorate, assisting all their client groups, stifling innovation in education, favouring organized labour, messing at the edges with capitalism, working for Google against the carriers, until their scandals, crimes, attitudes and misdemeanors will bring them down. In four years or eight?

In the meantime, don’t forget to breathe.