I see a lot of argument online about budgets and government priorities and so on. A lot of it confuses me because people are using things that look like math \u2013 but are actually just bad argument and yelling. I\u2019m going to try to summarize what I understand of the rabid conservative financial worldview, but with no numbers. Forgive me if I leave some stuff out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world is inherently fair, and you get what\u2019s coming to you. Money is an indicator that you worked hard. Money is a reward for sustained good behavior over time. Most people are bad, lazy people. Therefore, most people don\u2019t make much money. The reason that CEOs, business owners, and rich people have so much money is that they deserve<\/strong> it for all their hard work. Those people worked for every penny they have. Similarly, poor people deserve every ounce of their suffering. The world is fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the good people are in charge of the businesses (see above) businesses don\u2019t need to be regulated. We can trust them to do the right thing without supervision. However, the employees (being lower paid and therefore bad) need a firm hand. We can\u2019t have the workers unionizing \u2013 since that would interfere with the flow of money to the people who do the real work: owners and management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why we negotiate with the football players unions. The people in that union make a lot of money, so we should listen to them. Also, FOOTBALL USA USA!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since we\u2019re talking about good and bad (money is a metric of morality), we can and should bring God into it. God likes rich people better. Rather, rich people are rich because God likes them. Don\u2019t let that confuse you with the whole \u201cwe deserve it,\u201d thing above. Just relax your mind and let it wash over you. Rich people deserve all of their blessings and wealth because they worked for every penny. Or their parents worked hard and the apple didn\u2019t fall far from the tree. Everyone knows that good people have good kids. That\u2019s why when other people\u2019s kids do drugs, they need to be locked up for life \u2013 but when good people\u2019s kids do drugs they need treatment. Anyway, the reason they were able to work so hard was because God liked them and gave them strength.*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We can expect the spread between rich and poor to continue to widen because the country is becoming more sinful. In fact, in America we ought to expect it because we\u2019re letting all those non-americans cross the border. Non americans don\u2019t even register on the moral compass because God is American. That\u2019s the fundamental reason that we need stricter immigration policies, to keep the bad people out. Note, however, that when rich people sin \u2013 it\u2019s just an opportunity to demonstrate God\u2019s power to forgive. If they had really<\/strong> sinned, God would have taken their money away. That\u2019s why we don\u2019t need to prosecute anyone for the debacle on Wall street in 2008. That was the bad poor people\u2019s fault. Now they\u2019ve lost the houses they couldn\u2019t afford, so justice is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that said, there is hope: If you\u2019re quiet and good and don\u2019t use contraception, and if you go to church, and (most important) if you lower the tax rate on the rich people, then those same rich people might be nice to you and create more crap jobs at minimum wage. If you keep the taxes where they are \u2013 the rich people will withhold God\u2019s blessings of money from you and slow down the economy and it will all be your fault for what you made them do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social services are just free stuff for people who can\u2019t afford it. These are actually counterproductive because they send the wrong message to people dying of exposure and easily treatable diseases. Those people should have been good, rather than bad. If you reward bad behavior, people just become more bad.**<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n