Friday, July 20, 2007

Meanwhile at Cato Unbound   [Jonah Goldberg]

The discussion continues. An excerpt from my latest post:

This creates a challenge for conservatives — but also for libertarians. A classic conservative argument (with Tory and neocon variants) is that poor people cannot afford the values of libertine rich people. Madonna admits she has never changed a diaper and has a gaggle of handmaidens tending to her and her children's needs. She can afford her slattern chic. A female cashier at a supermarket cannot afford Madonna's values. The conservatives were basically right about Murphy Brown. But because libertine elites are also egalitarians they believe that if it's wrong to judge their lifestyles, it must also be wrong to judge anyone else's. The elite culture's obsession with the evils of hypocrisy demands that what's good for the millionaire be good for the waitress too. But, as a simple fact of logic and common sense, poor people cannot afford to make the mistakes rich people make.

This has very real consequences for the culture and, more relevantly, the role of government. Because the poor cannot afford a sinful lifestyle (sorry for using the “s” word here at Cato) the need for government to help becomes greater. Now a good libertarian might argue that the poor should simply learn from their mistakes and, even if they don't, that doesn't justify state intervention. And I largely agree with that argument. But lots of people don't. And that's where the noblese oblige kicks in. Libertarianish elite liberals want the state to buy for the poor what the rich can buy for themselves.

07/20 02:21 PMShare