Provided by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida
Political Issues Main Page
The following describes one of the main reasons I vote
for Democrats.
The Republican Party supports
limited government (i.e., the best government is the least government), with a
focus on free market private enterprise, and maximizing short term consumption.
However, an economic system based on limited government, private enterprise, and
short term thinking will not produce the infrastructure needed to produce a
competitive sustainable economy.
To spread and accelerate sustainable
economic development, infrastructure has to be built ahead of the market. But
capitalist infrastructure based on limited government and short term thinking
can only be built behind, with, or slightly ahead of the market. For this
reason, American economic growth has depended on government investments (e.g.,
the National Road in 1815, the Homestead Act, land grant colleges, public
airports, atomic energy, and the internet).
A couple of examples include
public education and healthcare. Public education is a social investment that
capitalism needs to survive but cannot and will not make for itself. Dependence
on private education would leave most people uneducated. Healthcare is another
area too important to be left to the market. Without government support for
healthcare, millions of people would die of untreated health problems.
Nowhere is the Republican short-term thinking more acute than in the area of
global environmentalism. Any action now to reduce global warming or ozone
depletion will affect the environment many years from now, but have little
noticeable effect on what happens today. Using Republican decision rules, the
appropriate decision is to do nothing since the net present value of the
benefits of climate action to be obtained in the distant future is zero.
Eventually a generation will reach a point where they cannot survive in the
earth's environment, and by then it will be too late. The Republican version of
capitalism will have produced a collective social suicide.
Government
simply must play a central role in supplying the human skills, technology, and
infrastructure needed for the success of capitalism. Government should be
representing the interest of the future to the present by making the necessary
investments that private enterprise capitalism cannot make for itself.
Republican capitalism's underlying theology of consumption is at odds with what
capitalism needs to succeed. Investments in physical infrastructure (highways,
water, sewage, electricity) and social infrastructure (public safety, education
opportunities, research and development) are necessary for economic progress,
but none of these investments are called for in the version of capitalism based
on limited government.
There needs to be a balance between public and
private, and between consumption and investment, and a system of limited
government cannot provide that balance. The Republican support for short term
consumption maximization is at odds with what is needed for economic success.
What is required is a willingness and ability to make long-run investments in
skills, education, knowledge, and infrastructure with a focus on sustainable
development. Democrats support these objectives. Republicans do not.
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* This section is based on my summary of Thurow's Chapter 14 of The Future of Capitalism.
Related summaries:
Anonymous. 2019. A Warning: A Senior Trump Administration Official. Twelve: Hachette Book Group. (Summary).
Crossan, M., W. Furlong and R. D. Austin. 2022. Make leader character your competitive edge. MIT Sloan Management Review (Fall): 1-12. This article includes a leader character framework. (Summary).
Martin, J. R. Not dated. ASCE report cards for America's infrastructure. Management And Accounting Web. ASCE2001Infrastructure.htm
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Policies of a Second Trump Presidency.
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Shepard Fairey Political Posters.
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Summary of Trump's Seven Part Plan to Overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.