The suburban upper-middle class delusion syndrome

September 18, 2008

I find it quite ironic and somewhat amusing — the first word that comes to mind when I recall conversations with socialists (by any other name) is “ego”… followed closely by “ignorance”. The irony of course is that their entire platform is based on denying themselves what they deserve in order to help others, but there is a certain element of smug self-satisfaction that comes along with believing you are sacrificing something for the greater good. In most cases it doesn’t even seem to matter whether the policies make sense, just slap a catchy slogan and a sympathy-inducing picture and you’re good to go. You can see it on their faces, “I just have more compassion.”

While I’m sure there are many such people living in urban areas, in my experience, all the people I would include in this box have grown up in comfortably upper-middle class suburban neighborhoods. They have never experienced great hardship, they have never experienced great oppression, they have never experienced great success. They have no understanding of poverty and they have no understanding of wealth. They are just strolling through life with moderate ambitions and moderate risks.

None of that is necessarily a problem, I don’t think suburbia is going to survive $300 oil, but there is nothing inherently wrong with mock country living when it’s affordable. Many of those descriptions apply to me, I certainly don’t think people need to experience every possible situation another has experienced in order to understand and sympathize. My point is simply that in my experience there are two types of people — those with vision and those with blinders. Those with vision can understand beyond their experiences and those with blinders can not. Those with vision are capable of seeing through the rhetoric and analyzing not only the short term effects, but also the long term effects and indirect risks associated with some idea or policy, while those with blinders… not so much.

For example, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created the expressed intent was to make mortgages more affordable to ordinary Americans. They did exactly that, which ultimately created such massive demand for housing that a bubble developed and the system became so dependent on increasing prices that any decline would destabilize the entire economy. Now their function is to maintain un-affordable prices by stabilizing the market at historically high levels. The well-intentioned plan has resulted in the exact opposite result — a misallocation of resources of stratospheric proportions — as is the case with many of these ridiculous ideas. The socialist goal of providing state assistance for housing (including central bank manipulation of the interest rates) accomplished its goal, then bankrupted the entire financial system of the most powerful empire in human history… No matter how much you wish it weren’t so, the market will always overwhelm these stupid ideas.

And who are they blaming? Free market capitalists! What is their solution? Yet another government plan that further centralizes power and money in the hands of progressively dumber politicians! Haven’t you people just lived through 8 years of Bush? Do you actually still believe the checks and balances are strong enough to contain an even more powerful version at some point in the future? Give me a break, why don’t you people learn.

Which brings me back to the title of this article, the suburban upper-middle class delusion syndrome. Enough said.