Here on Daily Kos there have been a number of diaries arguing that the long-term economic vision of Mitt Romney and the Republicans is to loot and plunder the U.S. until we have living standards more akin to a Third World country, at which point they won't even continue to care about the U.S., and will move on to another target.
Well, if a letter in today's Wisconsin State Journal is any indication, perhaps some Republicans are starting to think things are getting bad enough that people will see the "need" to lower living standards as just another "hard truth" rather than the outrage it really is.
Interestingly, he doesn't necessarily seem reflexively anti-government. But he also doesn't think that it's important for millionaires to take a similar hit to their lifestyle through fairer taxes, either, whether out of a sense that we could do something with that money or simply as a matter of fairness.
The last two paragraphs really provide the most succinct look into this worldview. Take a look down below:
The problem is not a government that spends too much, but a population that expects to sustain a lifestyle that is too expensive compared to that of China, Mexico or virtually any country where labor can be had for a fraction of what it costs here. The problem is compounded by the lack of benefits and governmental regulations overseas.
If U.S. workers were willing to scale down their lifestyles and work for substantially less, employers would be able to hire and produce competitively again. Since workers will not do this (in the long run, survival will force them to do so) and instead expect Washington to change what it doesn't control, the long-term employment outlook can only get worse.
I think those two paragraphs speak for themselves.
And the thing is, even if he's actually a snarky progressive trying to make Republicans look bad (I googled him and couldn't find any info on him, either way) there have to be a lot of "business conservatives" that believe this, even if they're too cowardly to come out and say it. Whatever happened to the Republicans' belief in American exceptionalism, anyway?
Regardless of what the letter writer actually believes, his words speak to a larger question: Do you believe in prosperity for all (or, heck, even "most?") Or are you resigned to, or indeed desirous of, a situation where a few billionaires prosper and the rest of us live in poverty?