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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTALKING POINTS 101: Flummoxed
During the course of a conversation I had the other night with a very good friend - a drinking buddy, and also a conservative, I threw at him a question that I had not heard anyone ask a conservative before, and the question left the fellow completely flummoxed.
I mean, he was totally flabbergasted.
He had to ask me to repeat the question, in fact.
It was a question he'd never thought about, and he certainly didn't have an answer for me. Not immediately, anyways, and he has yet to get back to me in regards to what I asked him.
We were discussing international trade, our two decades of back-to-back trade deficits, and the overall negative effect of globalization on the American working man.
During the conversation he mentioned that raising corporate taxes on companies who outsource or who do not outsource mean very little to the companies being taxed: They'll simply pass on the tax burden on to the US consumer by hiking the price of the commodity or service they provide.
I replied by suggesting that that was EXACTLY what should happen - that the American consumer shouldn't be basing their consumer decisions on prices artificially lowered by government. I reminded him that government picking winners and losers, after all, was one particular definition of SOCIALISM.
He responded by suggesting that our government did, in fact, have a role in helping US consumers get the best bang for their buck, fighting price gouging, monopolies, et cetera, and then... it hit me.
I prefaced the revelation I had with a simple interrogatory, setting the stage for the bombshell: Why, I asked him, did he think that the American consumer deserved more consideration than the American worker?
"They don't - they're one and the same," He said.
"No, they are definitely not," I replied. "The two have divergent and often conflicting interests. Both have in common the desire to best provide for their respective families, but while the American consumer is looking for the cheapest product or service that meets the needed demand, the American worker is looking for the highest wage and best benefit package."
He gave me a blank stare, wondering where this was all headed.
I continued: "What is your plan as a conservative to actually raise the wages of the American worker, and - middle class tax cuts aside - what is the Republican plan to raise the standard of living for those Americans who work, but are actually too poor to pay taxes? I mean, I think they make up... what - 50% of the country? If they're not actually paying federal taxes, just what is the federal government doing to represent them and their economic interests?"
Silence.