Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
President Barack Obama is not the only high profile candidate for public office who portrays himself as the champion of the middle class. Right now, in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, a longtime Harvard Law School professor, is projecting that same image in her determined run to displace Senator Scott Brown in next November’s election. Warren catapulted to fame in the Obama administration as the intellectual stimulus behind the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Board, now headed by Richard Cordray after a controversial recess appointment.
Now that Warren is free of her institutional obligations at the federal level, she has come out swinging on a large number of issues dear to progressive hearts. Her most powerful statement is posted conspicuously on moveon.org. Its call to arms requires a restrained and rational answer. Here is her manifesto in full:
There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there—good for you!
But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.
But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.
As I argue in my weekly column in Defining Ideas, Warren needs a crash course in wealth creation.
Warren waxes eloquently about how “you” exploit us. But she never once talks about how we exploit you. That factory did not just get built. Building it required its owner to go through an elaborate set of permit approvals and regulatory obstacles. In places like Massachusetts, the taxes on capital and initiative have made it one of the progressive dumps of the northeast. But the former Harvard Law professor never bothers to ponder these issues. She should go back to Harvard to retool her wasting analytical skills—and soon.
You can read the rest of column here.
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Mar '11
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
The factory doesn't truly pay any taxes at all, really. The consumers of the factory's output pay the taxes. If one increases the taxes on the factory (whether the taxes are on the output of the factory, its profits, the equipment it requires, or the land it sits on, or all of the above), the factory passes the costs on to those consumers. Or does so until it can't, because the costs are less somewhere else and someone with initiative and capital notices the discrepancy.
The taxes in this country on corporations (the fictitious "you" that builds most of the factories) are just about the highest in the world. Whom does she think is "exporting jobs?"
Sep '10
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
This is a bit like the remora complaining about the shark's diet. In some cases they clean certain bacteria from the shark and in other cases they simply consume the feces. The analogy breaks down though because they do not impede the shark's progress, slow him down or prevent his growth.
Apr '11
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
Doesn't the man who make the factory also pay taxes, both before and after he has made this widget assembly plant?
I love it when liberals create false dichotomies. No one is saying that people don't benefit from living in a society like ours and the citizens, and residents who benefit from our society don't have a duty to and obligation to help maintain it for future generations. Is there any conservative out there who thinks there should be NO taxes? Of course not, we are squabbling over a number and the best use of tax dollars, not the concept or need.
Dec '10
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
To Richards last point about taxes, permits and the like in Massachuttsetts I have an interesting story about my company. We employ over 4,000 in New england as a whole and we need to expand, even in this market. We bought an option on some land in Mass, where we are located, 120 acres in fact. First step, permits, studies and government approvals(Mass Historical society had to search the land for artifacts for a year) originally only on 20 acres of it where we were to build our new facility. A year later, no ground breaking, nothing. Millions spent on permits, impact studies and the search fo ancient arrowheads. Then round two begins amid proclaimations of how wonderfully govmnt and business are working together. Now they want us to pay for a search two feet into the ground on all 120 acres for artifacts before we move forward. they kept squeezing and squeezing until we said uncle and cut our losses. We make softwear, not exactly an environmentally unsound investment for a community. But, we dropped the option and are not planning to build any time soon. Mission accomplished beaurocrats! Another evil business defeated...
Sep '10
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
The money quote:
Harsh, but so true. Compare this to the extensive, and ongoing, debate amongst GOP nominees regarding specific tax code proposals.
Sep '10
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
I like Percival's take. Every statement can be turned around in a similar way.
For example rather than...
"You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for."
you could say...
You (the people who consume the products of the factory) use the roads which the rest of us paid for in order to get your products.
This statement is equal to and at least as unhelpful as the original insofar as structuring your view of how the world should be organized.
Mar '11
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
As Tom Sowell once wrote, “Politics is the art of the plausible.” The problem is that, to voters without critical thinking skills, anything is plausible.
Jul '10
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
An anonymous editor at National Review put it best: that Warren "has been doing her best impersonation of a villain from an Ayn Rand novel". So true.
Jul '11
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
While her arguments are easily reduced to the stupidity that defines Harvard liberals these days, she is on message with the white house. This line of thinking is what our next election will be about if we let the president and the media set the tone.
Wylee Coyote, that description fits to perfection.
Aug '10
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
Wait one second, Ms Warren.
The blue collar workers at that factory used the roads "the rest of us" paid for to get there. They parked their cars without fear of vandalism, thanks to a police department "the rest of us" paid for. They spent the day working, eating, and engaging in commerce without fear of invasion or marauding hordes, thanks to the protections "the rest of us" paid for.
...and worse, at night they drove to a second building, i.e. their homes, under the same protections!
So they got a paycheck for doing productive work. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.
But, assuming they are in the 50% of Americans who pay no federal income taxes, why aren't blue collar workers honoring the alleged social contract, to "pay forward for the next kid who comes along"? (FICA/Medicare payroll taxes, by definition, pay only for their own care.)
Ms Warren, where is your outrage against the middle class and low income workers in your constituency who, by your own logic and definitions, are anti-social freeloaders?
May '10
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
Your essay is clear, concise and entertaining as usual Richard. My only regret is that in writing it and promoting it on Ricochet, you drew attention to Ms. Warren's speech which I happily would have otherwise avoided.
Through her design of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she can personally be credited with destroying far more public good than she will ever, in her lifetime, create. My only consolation is that if she loses her election bid, her political career will likely be finished. And if she wins, she will fester and fume to little effect in what I pray will be the minority for a good, long time.
Apr '11
Re: Elizabeth Warren's Sloppy Progressivism
Here, here!