The Limit of Discipline

For those of you who are familiar with conservative ideology, you know that one of its tenets is self-discipline and responsibility. Therefore if people are well off in life it is because they are hard working and responsible, while those who are not well off have only themselves to blame for their situations. This then translates into a desire to abolish all social programs, because according to conservatives these programs create dependency and erode people's discipline.

The recent passage of the bankruptcy bill got me thinking about this, as I was arguing with my friend about it, and he fired back that people get into bankruptcy because they are careless and not responsible enough. I certainly agree with him that people need to assume more responsibility for the consequences of their actions, in any respect in life, and for a minute I also thought, "wait a second, this bill will cause people to mind their money more carefully and be more solvent." Then I realized where the flaw in that argument was.

That argument works only if we assume that people are (relatively) equal from the get go. This is a conservative myth that sprung from the unholy alliance that exists within the Republican party: big business and populism. Big business has managed to trick people (through that free/responsibility bit) that they are better off trusting big business and the markets. For more on this read One Market Under God by Thomas Frank. Regardless, the idea that all Americans, rich or poor, should be subject to the same bankruptcy bill is ridiculous when you stop to think about the circumstances.

People in this country are not born at the same starting point. They are not even near each other. The gap is wide and disparate at birth, and that is what renders the argument ineffective. How can you ask the poor in this country to be responsible when they do not have enough money to pay their medical bills? How can you ask them to have discipline when they need to take out mortgages to have a place to live? How can you ask them to eke out a living in this country without going into debt while big business gouges them for all they are worth and more?

If we did not live in a country with such a high gini coefficient (disparity in wealth concentration), in the only industrialized country where children do not automatically have access to healthcare, in a country where a significant portion of the population lives in poverty, in a country where social mobility was actually viable (those 1 in 50,000,000 stories should not fool any one), then yes, maybe the conservative argument would hold water. However, until that comes to pass, by arguing their line of reasoning they are doing nothing more than creating a double standard, which is nothing short of hypocrisy. They could use a little more discipline in their thought processes.

If there were a law that made it harder for public officials to weasel out of lying we would all be better off, and I know the party that would tank hardest from it. We could call it the moral bankruptcy bill. It would make people take on responsibility, and everyone is equal from the get go when it comes to honesty. Why are the conservatives in congress not calling for this? I guess that is the limit of their discipline.