Apologies if I misremember it, but I remember a post you made years ago describing how economics is ultimately about limited resources.
As a pragmatist, I raise a red flag whenever I hear an argument that goes for an extreme or is purely based on an ideological appeal, whether it's cutting all social programs or giving everyone free health care. Sure, ideally everyone would have free health care AND we wouldn't pay taxes. But obviously we can't have both of them at the same time.
To me these shouldn't even be ideological debates. They should just be optimization problems. But that almost never happens.
When we're applying economics to public policy debates, it is a good idea to try to optimize outcomes and to understand the trade offs that we are face with. I do doubt that we can ever have post ideological policy making simply because different people have different values and priorities and they would have different ideas of what would constitute an optimal policy outcome.
Here is the thing, I don't think we are having a public policy debates right now. At least not healthy ones
Maybe decades ago liberals and conservatives could look at a economic problem and come up with different plans with different trade offs on how to solve it, not today. While the left seems to be inundated with wonks that bicker among themselves, on the right it is becoming a barren wasteland.
The GOP's only economic arguments these days seems to all end on "the rich and corporations need tax cuts and everything will be ok". They won't even admit there are major economic problems beyond that.
Well, unless they want to attack the Dems when they are out of power.
It really feels like conservative have stopped believing their own claims about high end tax cuts.
Economic discussions are no longer actually about economics and have instead, become a proxy war over one's ideal organization of society. For hardcore conservatives, there is now a largely unspoken understanding that "low taxes," "small government" and 'balanced" budgets will not product widespread prosperity. Instead, very low taxes means that ultimately the state becomes less active and that by doing so it reduces the autonomy of women, queer folk, students and people of color and and anyone else whom conservatives believe currently enjoy too much autonomy.
For the rank and file, middle class suburban dad, who votes Republican, he knows there will be no economic boom, he knows that a tax cuts will not create a rising tide to lift all boats. What he knows and what he really wants is a breakdown in state provided health and educational service and as result, his patriarchal power will be increased.
Take away planned parenthood and medicaid and he will have control over his daughter's reproduction. Take away public education and he can control how his son is educated. Impose austerity and remove the social safety net and labor laws and the suburban dad might be able to have live in black or brown maid who will work for food and a place to sleep in his attic.
The suburban, white dad is willing to see a break down in civilization, he is willing to see our Republic descend into Feudalism. He will wreck his own country and turn it over to a few billionaire warlords but he will be happy when his atavistic desires get satisfied. Economic growth will not trickle down but if the billionaire class can become great lords in our new land, then the suburban dad can become the lord in his own home. He will knowingly support bad economic policies as long as it allows him to avenge what he sees as decades of lost honor and capitulations to the sort of people who should have been more submissive and deferential to him.
The poor white trash will do what they'll do. The conservative millionaires and billionaires are heartless but rationally self interested and are usually just looking to make their bank accounts fatter. It is the petite bourgeois suburbanite, the petty bourgeois, wannabe millionaire, who seeks the restoration of the
pater familia, to be the worst sort of American today.
