Short diary just to say that the common attack upon the younger generation for moving towards the left in both America and the U.K. is morally problematic for several reasons. For now, I’ll only address one aspect of this moral issue: The way in which it’s hypocritical relative to making similar claims in regard to the fight for federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
It is considered perfectly acceptable for women to vote Democratic in order to preserve federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Indeed, voting for free stuff in the form of federally funded Planned Parenthood is supported and encouraged (and illustrates the intersectionality of politics, economics, law, rights, privilege, power, gender, race, class, etc).
Similarly, it’s considered a good thing to fight for free stuff in the form of free food purchased using federally funded food stamps.
I am very confused as to why it shouldn’t also be considered a good thing to fight for free stuff in the form of federally funded higher education, health care, green energy, etc….
Why women are considered savvy for fighting for free stuff in the form of federally funded Planned Parenthood services while the young are considered politically naive and economically illiterate for fighting for free stuff in the form of federally funded higher education, for instance, is quite beyond me.
It seems to me that the attacks on younger people who use similar logic to women who support Planned Parenthood and those who support food stamps really needs to be questioned.
“The kids are naive and economically illiterate and are thus prey to demagogues promising free ponies in every barn” trope is, it seems to me, politically naive considering we need the youth vote to win elections.
More importantly, it is a type negative moral judgement upon younger voters which we not condone if it were made against women who support federally funded Planned Parenthood or those who support federally funded food stamps.
Maggie Thatcher’s “Nothing is Free” trope needs to die as a tool Democrats use against anyone, including the younger generations. It’s a stupid meme in all circumstances and certainly should not be used to “prove” how naive and gullible younger voters are.
Yes, nothing is free. Everything gets payed for either by government spending or banks lending. When the federal government funds something, the private sector doesn’t have to go into private debt to fund it and then pay banks a rental fee in the form of interest, or what Adam Smith called a tax.
“Free Stuff” is free of bank’s ability to levy a tax to the whole of society.
No, taxes do not fund the federal government, but even if they did, then we’d have a choice between paying federal taxes vs paying banks a tax — an expense that is never taken into account when talking about how to fund things like higher education, health care, etc…
So, we can pay tax to government (to regulate inflationary pressures, not for funding purposes) or tax to banks. I know which I’d prefer to pay when it comes to providing public goods and services and protecting our civil life against market logic.
Older people who think the youth vote from ignorance really need to ask themselves which tax they would prefer to pay. And should also be asking: Why have the banks been given the right to create 87-93% of our money supply? What would be so bad about changing this distribution a bit?