If A Picture Paints A Thousand Words…

As a non-aligned Libertarian / backsliding Objectivist, I reject both the Democrat’s “give us your money and we’ll let you live any way you want” policies as well as the “you can keep all your money as long as we get to tell you how to live” policies of the Republicans.

And yet, despite everything I’ve said against both sides on this blog, I know that any attempt on my part to defend the principles of Capitalism (or even dare to mention the name of Ayn Rand), my words will always face an uphill battle to get past disturbing (yet oddly amusing) mental images like this:

That image was included in Dan Michell’s Powerful – but Deeply Flawed – Leftist Imagery post, where he gives due credit to the left for coming up with such a clear and visually powerful message. However, he went on to say this as well:

Even the small touches are clever, including Bush and the Pope on the TV, as well as the IMF sticker on the IV pole (though I’m surprised, given the bureaucracy’s statist track record, that the left thinks the IMF is the enemy).

But I’m not sharing this image out of pure appreciation for effective imagery. I also think it reveals two themes of left-wing thought, one foolish and the other legitimate.

1. The foolish theme is that rich nations are rich because poor nations are poor. This is the same mentality that you find among leftists such as Obama, who assume that rich people in America are rich because they somehow deprived the poor.

2. The accurate theme is that bigwigs sometimes use the coercive power of government to obtain unearned wealth. And in some cases, that unearned wealth comes from corrupt deals with politicians from third-world governments.

I address both of these points in this interview, pointing out that true capitalism generates an expanding economy so that the rich and poor both benefit, but that cronyism enables the politically well-connected to rip off taxpayers and/or consumers.

With one small exception, I agree with everything Mr. Mitchell said in his post, at least from a purely philosophical perspective. The exception derives from the fact that, having been a subscriber to his blog for some time, I’m pretty sure that his assertion that President Obama assumes “that rich people in America are rich because they somehow deprived the poor” comes out of what I perceive to be a less-than-Libertarian lean towards the Republicans in the upcoming election.

I have seen no indication whatsoever that President Obama holds any such view, and the fact is that most of the legislation his administration has put forth had been originally proposed by the Republicans themselves. To deny that reality is just as big a distortion of the truth as the image at the top is.

If anything, the fact that the Obama administration’s policies are rooted in proposals first made by the opposition confirms my own assertion that both parties are merely the two faces of the same ugly coin.

BTW, there are two reasons why I find the image at the top “oddly amusing.” The first is because it’s so much better than the usual “climbing to the top over piles of dead bodies” image of Capitalism I think most people have in their head. The second, even funnier reason, is that I can’t help wondering which presidential candidate is better suited to play the “nurse” that hangs those “human IV bags!” What do you think?

Finally, in my never ending hope that we can actually become a kinder, more gentle, more rational nation, I’ll close with the song that inspired the title for this post:

I want ice water.

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