Letting go of one’s illusions is a difficult process that takes a long, long time, but I am just about there. From a young age I have been a believer in public services and benefits as a way of providing some measure of assurance for other people, people I rely on every time I purchase a good or service, of a decent life regardless of one’s personal income or standing. After all, I initially chose public service as a career. And I have been a defender of the public institutions when compared with those who were only concerned with their own situation and preference put in less, or get out more, as if the community was a greedy adversary to be beaten in life rather than something one is a part of. Now, however, I see that it is probably hopeless.
. . .
It isn’t just that those who have skillfully obtained “good deals” for themselves in the past are “grandfathered” and get to keep them. Worse, those who already have such deals take more and more every year. Like a bad parasite, the political class and its supporters feel so needy, so entitled, that they cannot help but kill their host. They will just keep grabbing and grabbing until government institutions collapse.
. . .
In fact for those without connections we may, as a nation, be heading back to the pre-progressive era in public services and benefits. But not in taxation. The money older generations have promised themselves, and promised to the wealthy and those in other countries in exchange for more benefits for less taxes for themselves, mean the federal, state and local governments will be coming after us for more and more money even as public services disappear and the poor are left to fend for themselves. Indeed, they will be coming after the poor for taxes. So it’s no use becoming a conservative or Republican, because they will be in favor of collecting those taxes too someday -- after the fiscal collapse, when they can’t borrow anymore to hand out favors those who matter to them.
Mind, you should give this more weight because it was predictive. The money quote:
Here is the dilemma. Our social institutions, in government and business, are in the hands of a self-perpetuating group of self-interested people. The more ordinary people put in to government and business institutions -- in taxes, hard work, savings and investment -- the more those people take out for themselves and their supporters. I’ve argued for years that the institutions need to be revitalized, taken back, because we need them. I now suspect that we may have to do without them, whether we need them or not.
How do you accept that without getting pissed off or depressed, let alone move to a place of compassion? It is a challenge. But I do have a lot of time on my hands.
