Posts in "Self-Interest"

By Matt Cockerill at 8:49AM

Jun 7, 2010

Self-Interest and the Economics of Empire

The US empire, like all those before it, can only continue its reign with, at the very least, the implicit consent of its subjects. Serious challenges to US foreign policy would thus cease to be “off-limits” in mainstream political discourse if more Americans explicitly rejected the war machine.

The problem is that most Americans aren’t fundamentally opposed to the wars. Even as a majority of our fellow citizens disapprove of the War in Afghanistan, the withdrawal argument is usually based on cost-benefit analysis, bereft of deep moral import. The demand for a real antiwar movement and peace candidates is far and few between.

This ankle-deep opposition amounts to implicit consent to an endless war machine. While this is not acceptable, it is perhaps more understandable when one realizes how few Americans are bearing the cost of the wars. When only about 1% of Americans serve in the military, politicians can easily reduce war to a distant, romantic abstraction, even in the eyes of skeptical citizens.

The Myth of "Public Service": Part 1,666,666 (and yes, the numbering is intentional)

Congressmen are elected to serve the people, not to preserve their seats. Yet it's obvious to all none-partisan drones that 99.9% of the Congressmen, whether D or R, are in it for themselves. Consider this excerpt from the story on the upcoming health care vote that Bonnie shared earlier:

Democrats are worried about holding their members together on a GOP motion that could kill the healthcare bill.

Their concern is based on the fear of GOP attack ads painting Democrats who vote against a motion that includes Stupak's favored language on abortion as "flip-floppers" on the issue.'

Sixty-eight Democrats voted for Stupak's language in a November vote. They could be portrayed as flipping if they now voted against it.

"They are concerned about it," Stupak said after his Sunday press conference.

Notice how none of this last-second "concern" has anything to do with how the bill will affect regular Americans. You know, the people who are forced to pay for "health reform" as well as the $1000 government suits our "compassionate" "servants" will wear to the bill's final debate. It all comes down to a self-interested cost-benefit analysis for politicians like Stupak.

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