Wiseacre
Retired USAF Chief
I'm not sure I follow your logic here. Are you suggesting that economic policy decisions should always favor the wealthy because if they don't the wealthy will defect?
No, but I am saying we need to be pragmatic about it. If you implement a policy that fosters economic growth and job creation, there is no way to avoid the result that the rich guys will profit the most by whatever action is taken. You can call that favoring the wealthy, that seems to be the liberal mindest. But I don't see it as favoring the rich, I see it as growing the economy which helps everybody.
If you look back throughout our history, there have been marked examples where the economy grew like gang busters, but it surely did NOT help everybody. The idea that a growing GDP necessarily helps everyone, is naive at best, and sinister at worst.
Oh, I don't know, are you sure that eventually economic growth didn't help everyone even a little bit? Certainly there were times when the disparity was quite high, where the rich really got most of the new wealth. But the standard of living for everyone has steadily risen from the very beginning of this country, I am unaware of any period where it hasn't been going up. Nothing naive or sinister about that.
Which is not to say I think republican policies are always the best idea. We aren't promoting competition and increased opportunity for the most people as well as I would like. I despise gov't bailouts, subsidies, and tax breaks, and I do not believe we need to get rid of all regulation; gov't has a role to play, just not as much as we currently have. Compared to liberal policies, I think the conservative approach is better.