Comment of the Day: Nietzschean Need to Punish the Weak Expressed By Republicans

I am beginning to think that the main category of economic’s and the difference between major macro economic plans isn’t between Keynes, Hayek, Robinson, and others. Rather what drives one’s theoretical choice is really a question of how we sublimate , in Nietzsche’s terms , the natural human need to punish. Liberals generally rationalise taking from those who have surplus and redistribute it . And they use things like data and evidence and concepts like the public good to justify this. They also note how many, many rich are born on third base thinking they hit a triple and work to accumulate more , often producing great amounts of negative externalities for the wider society. Conservative/ libertarians want to punish the weak, the sick, women , and other traditionally oppressed groups, because hey, the winners proved there worth by hitting triples. I invite readers to look closely at the smug satisfaction of the hard core right wing Republican Party when they throw people off of medicaid, or make food stamp recipients take drug tests, while blowing up the deficit so they can write off their private jets. It’s not enough that they line their pockets with gold snatched from the public purse, they need to villainize and crush the poor, single mothers, hungry kids as somehow deserving their lot. Look at the faces in the rose garden reception after the house voted to kill Obamacare. Tell me beyond all the social science and numbers that Nietzsche isn’t onto something.