Learning about Right-Wing ideas

I've really been trying to understand the Right-Wing desire to protect the richest Americans from paying their fair share of taxes. Rep. Paul Ryan said the other day that it wasn't political when he proposed to strip Medicare from folks and replace it with a voucher. He said his budget proposal was a manifesto but an economic one, ". . NOT political" he said. So I'm learning about the economic underpinnings of the right & some Tea Party Patriots - I say some because I'm sort of a TEA Party guy. (Tax Even Aristocrats - but my voice is drowned out by the Bachmann/Ron Paul types)

So Republicans since Reagan have been trying to "starve the beast." By this they mean the Government here & most often the Federal Government. Rep. Ryan explained "When you take a look at the problems our country is facing, debt is No. 1," Ryan says. This is a debt largely wrought by Republicans; cutting taxes on the rich and paying for Wars off-budget during the Bush years. "The math is downright scary and the credit markets aren't going to keep on giving us cheap rates. "Lawmakers," he says, have "a moral obligation ... to put up solutions to fix this problem."

So why not increase revenue to lower the debt? Is there any room for Republicans to agree with Democrats on some increases in taxes for those earning the highest incomes? Ryan says no. "Here's the problem if you keep raising tax rates," he says. "You slow down economic growth." To those who argue that taxes used to be higher and the economy did OK, he says, "this is the 21st Century where tax competition matters so much more. ... Our competitors are lowering their tax rates."

In trying to understand w/ these arguments I noted a few premises that we have to consider:
1) Republicans seem to believe that "each man is an island," that on this island that man is king of his domain, toiling in solitude to support his family, maintain his castle and serve his maker. This idea seems to form the basis of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's Freedom First PAC and many GOP calls for freedom from Government.
2) Economics are all & only about competition. Cooperation between and amongst individuals, companys, countries, or any groups can only lead to socialism or worse, communism. In America the right believes that the COMMONS -those assets held in common for the good of all people- are an insidious cancer on the rights of private capital and the owners of that capital. As J.P. Morgan said, "If Congress insists on making stupid mistakes and passing foolish laws, millionaires should not be condemned if they take advantage of them." Only now Congress is more and more in the pocket of the rich before they even take their oath.

3) Economic decisions, negotiations, and leverage flow only to the rich. In effect the capitalist concept of one dollar/one vote. Political questions must be decided by he who is richest, loudest, and most belligerent. The notion from our earliest days that a meritocracy would be a smart way to govern has been entirely discredited by these economic anarchists. "Ruling elite" has become an epithet to be hurled at anyone who might use superior intellect to argue in favor of balance or compromise in our deliberations.

At the risk of setting up straw-men to argue against, these seem to underpin the Neo-Con arguments against raising taxes on rich people. The rich must be protected from paying a fair share. They create jobs -the argument goes- that poor and middle class people need to pay the rent, buy groceries, and care for their children. The rich job creators must be free to decide the amount of pay & work rules while the worker CANNOT use collective bargaining or regulatory leverage such as a Minimum Wage laws, equal pay rules, or any Government intervention in economic matters.

I want to understand. I want to feel that thoughtful folk are struggling to come to agreement about these issues but, it seems that liberals like me are only talking amongst themselves. I do not sense that anyone in the Republican Party, the Tea Party hierarchy, or Right-Wing think tanks has any desire to come to agreement about what is best for our country. They only seem to want to win. As if winning would be best even if they are wrong. So we continue with policies that have slowly bankrupted our treasury, lowered our standard of living -ironically only if you are poor, middle class, or upper middle class but, not the rich, whose incomes have increased substantially due to much lower taxes, caused declines in our sciences, research, arts, healthcare, housing, business climate, environment, and our precious natural resources. 30 years we've been walking down this wrong path. But, so long as the GOP keeps winning, what is good for America can just, "GO to hell!"

I for one hate this mentality. I believe we should create a more perfect union. I believe our Government should be the agent for this & for the establishment of Justice, ensuring the domestic tranquillity, providing for the Common defense & the General welfare. That by doing these, all building up of the Commons, we will secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves & our offspring.

What about talking? Gifts in story.

I talked in my St Pat's Day post about Language. Now I've been learning some things about communications that lead me to think the gift of story goes back further. 

Primates of many types understand and respond to language in amazing ways. Many mammals can learn to respond to aural stimuli but some chimps gather the meaning of numerous words and are able to understand them even when they're put together in unique, new ways! Watching a chimp carry a TV out of the enclosure to the prompt, "Can you bring the TV outside?" was instructional. We know that birds understand words and learn to create unique sequences. We know that recent experiments have placed the gene for language into mice. We know that most mammals experience emotions, some as complex as human emotions. So, when are we going to let them vote?

People turned this ability for language into an entirely new thing. I can relate a story or idea to you in a few words and if you grasp the concepts behind the story, you can repeat the story without remembering or even using any of my words. If you know more than one language you most likely can translate my story. This is how human culture has created a new life form on earth. Society. Human society exists as a living organism separate from the individuals that make it up. We've created a monster be allowing a new replicator -like genes- to participate in our culture. The meme builds languages to allow for easier replication of these conceptual life forms.

Wow, we've really got it good don't we?

Language: The gift that redefines everything

Since we're on the  really old gifts that we humans have received from our ancestors I thought I'd take a few sentences to talk about language. 

Mary's (Mrs. Claus)  idea is that language was passed on by mothers as they cooed and tended to their babies. I think the sharing of a cooked evening meal I talked about yesterday helped language develop. Folks need a way to communicate the day's events or plan for tomorrow's. Our need to communicate on the foraging trail or in a hunt led to words/grunts/keening cries as well as much used gestures. 

As people lived in died generation after generation the growth of symbolic meaning became more standardized. Now, we can pass on the most advanced or mundane ideas with just a few keystrokes or utterances. [OMG, it's late gotta run CU L8R.]