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08/18/2003: "Club is to Growth as Axe is to Lifeboat"

This is the fourth installment of the Clubbed for Growth trilogy. I had to add another – the title was just too snappy to waste! The title also raises an important point. The Club for Growth sanctimoniously crows about how their policies promote growth, but the truth is that the economy is suffering because of the imbalance their extremism has brought about. This extremism has two aspects, as documented in our Devil’s Dictionary, fundamental beliefs that 1) government is evil and 2) taxes, which enable government, are theft. These attitudes do a disservice to the reality of our way of life. A more balanced perspective is that government exists to provide services that make the most sense when provided on other than a fee-for-service basis. For example, what sort of fee would one pay to what kind of company for being protected from armed invasion by a foreign power? What sort of fee would one pay to what kind of company for being protected from environmental degradation? Bewailing the essential services government provides, demonizing this component of society, makes about as much sense as demonizing other organizations that provide essential services, like the airlines, utilities, and broadcasting. While we might have issues with the way these services are being provided, we don’t feel about them as right wing extremists feel about government, that it is evil and should be assailed at every opportunity. Indeed, such attitudes carry a heavy price, because government has a unique role in our society as a means of stabilizing the business cycle. All other of the components of society are subject to the boom and bust cycle of recession because they respond to market forces, and the business cycle is nothing other than the overall tide of market forces. Government, which responds instead to political forces, has traditionally helped to temper the business cycle. It serves as a “lifeboat” to help keep the economy afloat during hard times. Tax cut obsession based on hatred of government fuels drastic cuts in government spending during recessions, making government into just another component of the business cycle. The effect is to increase the impact and duration of the “down” phases of the cycle. Sound familiar?