Daily Events...
Return of Self Interest
Thursdays with John Hayward
12.01.11          

On Wednesday, President Obama took another of his many, many taxpayer-funded 2012 campaign junkets to Pennsylvania, which he famously dismissed as a land full of small folk who “get bitter” and “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations” during his 2008 campaign.  

Obama labored very hard to make sure the crowd was properly appreciative of his payroll tax cut, which is one of the few items on his agenda that Republicans find themselves in philosophical agreement with.  “That’s money you can spend on a small business right here in Scranton,” he told the crowd.  The median income in Scranton makes the payroll tax cut in question worth roughly $700 per year, which is just about enough to cover the necessary permits for a lemonade stand, which would otherwise be quickly shut down by vigilant regulators. 

The President has been pushing his payroll tax cut with strong appeals to the self-interest of those who wind up with extra money in their pockets.  Leaving aside the fact that this money is coming out of a Social Security system that didn’t need to be made even more insolvent, it’s interesting how politicians play around with the concept of self-interest.  

It’s an unalloyed virtue if you’re a “working family” Obama wants to impress with his tax cut, but a dismal evil if you’re employed by an industry he disapproves of, or your income rises above certain limits.  Liberal politicians regard the ambitions of anyone except themselves as noble only when it’s a manageable hunger for government-provided adequacy. 

A system in which the natural ambitions of free people are thwarted, and punished, is an immoral system doomed to failure.  When cash from the government is viewed as magical charity, while the desire to keep the money you actually earned is portrayed as despicable greed, madness is the inevitable result.  That’s why the President who has pulled so much money from America’s wallet expects us to be so extravagantly grateful for the small change he stuffs in our pockets. 

—John Hayward