Right of course, and in America, the far right. Communists are the eternal enemy, just ask Mitt Romney. We are still in an ideological standoff against a long vanquished foe. It makes sense that we would find communism abhorrent and off putting. Central economic planning failed in all manifestations in which it has been practiced, and the the authoritarian governments to which central economic planning are often inextricably linked are the antithesis of the freedoms we value.
We have watched these economic ideas fail in practice in societies all over the world. Even the most successful example of "communism" in China, is a complex hybrid of economic ideas that involves free enterprise, and not the monolithic, centrally-planned economic machine we associate with the term. Of course, usually when we quake in fear of the communist other what we are actually referring to is the Big Brother society of the USSR more so than a planned economy.
But for whatever reasons, the inexplicable specter of communism still looms. The American economic reaction, at least from the Republican party, has been a sprint to the right. If far left economic ideas failed, surely far right economic ideas must work. In lieu of central planning I give you the omnipotent invisible hand. This reactionary economic response is ironic and shows a glaring ignorance of history since communism was conceived of in response to free market practices that concentrated resources in the hands of few at the expense of many. Centrally planned economies do not work, but Marx was right - though hardly original - when he noted that if you screw people over they are going to get upset and do something about it.
Now we've come full circle, and Republicans are espousing the same policies that Marx believed - correctly - would lead to social upheaval. Deregulate, don't tax, embrace policies that will lead to the majority of the wealth in the hands of a few and assume that resources will trickle down to the many. Essentially, let those with the resources do whatever they want, and when they continue to accumulate more resources, a fraction of which trickle down to the masses, claim that we have reached the apex of economic meritocracy. We've been doing this for the past three decades and it hasn't worked, but hey, what of it? If far left ideas don't work, far right ideas must.
Of course we know this isn't the case either. The opposite of left is right, but the balance between left and right is what is needed in economics. The Occupy Wall Street Protestors - though relatively directionless - had a right to be angry. Economic inequality hits everyone and undermines our entire society. America's economic boom and growth miracle following World War II was carried by the largest and most prosperous middle class in history before the flawed supply-sided, Reaganomic policies were instituted in the 1980s.
We should want to live in a society with rich people, even with super rich people. Capitalism was not meant to be fair. If some people reap huge benefits from inventing, creating, or investing in something that benefits us all we should be happy for them and aspire to similar success. Greed is good insofar as it drives the system. But we should remember that the rich profited because they did something that helped everyone. No one ever got rich buying his own stuff, and if we concentrate all the money in the hands of a few who is going to consume? While we should not strive for income equality, we should certainly strive for less income inequality, not more of it as Republicans - and especially Mitt Romney's very confused and out-of-touch friend, Edward Conrad - would have it with their laissez faire policies.
The opposite of left is right. But just as we have seen historical evidence that the economic policies of the far left do not work, we now have 30 years worth of American history that show us the economic policies of the far right are not that much better. Perhaps we should do the prudent thing, embrace the more centralized policies that built up the middle class half a century ago when America's economy was truly strong, and put ourselves back on the path to real prosperity.
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