You might be tempted to think from reading Chuck DeVore’s column at Forbes that the only thing necessary for the ultimate triumph of conservatism is the triumph of progressivism:
Government programs and regulations and welfare policies that act to discourage employment and job creation, family cohesion, and voluntary associations and religious charity, all play a role in the damaged fabric of American life.
Progressive political “solutions†to these longstanding frailties of human nature are usually the creation of complex organizations replete with esoteric formulae and dense pages of regulations. They have the advantage of being at the same time indecipherable, unaccountable, and conferring the appearance of having “done something†on their proponents.
Political conservatives, in contrast, simply ask to dismantle failed programs, trusting in people to do better by their family and neighbors than a bureaucrat with a rule book.
His column start with a litany of the horrors wrought by Seattle’s City Council.
I think he’s ignoring some things. First, in a “natural economy driven by market forces” Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon wouldn’t exist. Seattle would be a much smaller city and its primary industries would be related to geography, e.g. fishing, shipbuilding. Smaller population—reduced housing problem.
Second, there are some ideas that however badly they fail every time they’re tried will always find adherents. Finally, the urge to power will always result in people trying to control other people. That’s not a left-right thing. That’s a human nature thing.
In my view all of the pat solutions to problems are wrong. There is no magic bullet, no alternative to prudent stewardship and maintaining prudent stewardship is very difficult, like liberty it’s price is eternal vigilance.
“Finally, the urge to power will always result in people trying to control other people. That’s not a left-right thing. That’s a human nature thing.”
And controlling that is what classical conservatism is all about.
http://www.kirkcenter.org/detail/ten-conservative-principles/
DeVore’s opinions are what one would expect from a radical-right statist: claim he wishes to free a populace from overbearing government while ensuring they never have the economic and political resources to make decisions for themselves.
Nevermind that a war was fought in this country to throw off hierarchy, only to have a new one forced upon it by state and capital.
Most cities would be delighted to have the problems of Seattle — a massively overheated economy drawing in high wage earners from across the country (and displacing lower and lower-middle-class folks). So I’m not going to criticize our city council that much.
The $15/hr minimum wage has had little effect on businesses as a whole — you can find some people claiming their business couldn’t survive because of that, but those businesses weren’t going to survive anyway. Wages were already heading up to those levels. I would also say that if your business can only survive by paying people so poorly that they qualify for public services, that maybe your business doesn’t deserve to survive.
I’m agnostic about the head tax. I’d rather it be a payroll tax.
Yes, we have a socialist on the city council. I think she’s a needed voice on an otherwise very pro-business government, and I’m glad she doesn’t represent my neighborhood, because she is kind of bad at representing her neighborhoods. Thank you, Capitol Hill, for taking one for the rest of us.
Also, Seattle is hell and no one else should move here. Unrelenting rain, homeless people, and socialism. Run away! Run far away!
Yes, it’s amazing what the lack of an income tax will do.