The cruelty of conservatives

Antony Davies, an associate professor of economics at Duquesne University, published a column in the April 16 issue of the Morning Call in honor of “tax day.”  Davies wrote that “The federal government blows through $300 million every 45 minutes.” 

Note the phrase “blows through.”  When your grandmother gets her Social Security check, when a ranger teaches a nature program at Yosemite, when a helicopter pilot rescues a wounded soldier in Afghanistan, I would not characterize that as “blowing through” money.

Davies touts the idea of state competition.  To quote: “States that governed well would be rewarded with growing economies and populations.  States that governed poorly would be punished as people voted with their feet.  This is how it works in free markets.”

He’s right.  During the Great Depression, Oklahoma sharecroppers who were “tractored off” made a desperate journey to California.  In the 1920s ill-treated blacks from the south left for Chicago, Detroit, and New York.  Today people who are out of work with homes foreclosed load up their cars and drive to North Carolina or Texas hoping to find work.  

These are wrenching and difficult journeys.  In many cases what awaits at the destination is discrimination, homelessness, and despair.  This is an incredibly callous economic doctrine.  I guess, however, that “This is how it works in free markets.”