There’s a whole field of psychohistory based on the idea that societies suffer neuroses.
Clearly America is suffering from narcissism, of which Donald Trump is merely the symptom. We all grew up on a steady diet of American exceptionalism, which failed to jibe with the actual future we were handed. If we’re God’s gift, and yet our fortunes are declining, then the only explanation is that somebody (brown) is cheating us out of what is naturally ours.
I agree about the marginal tax rate. It’s so funny to hear to people say “we’re trying to avoid making more money, because that will put us in a higher tax bracket.”
In my experience, though, what libertarian types really don’t get is that the market can restrict your individual freedom by limiting your range of feasible options as much as the government can by passing a law. You always hear “Nobody is forcing you. If you don’t like it you can work/shop somewhere else.” But, of course, “somewhere else” always turns out to be just as bad. You can get punched in the face on United, or you can fly Delta and have them threaten to put your kids in foster care.
But also, returning to psychology, individualism affords poor people a way to feel like working class heroes rather than economic victims or cogs in a machine. They’re in control of their own destiny, nobody is giving them anything, and if they’re not being rewarded it’s because lazy welfare queens are skewing the playing field. It’s hard to say to those people “You’re actually not in control; your fortunes are largely at the mercy of a godlike abstraction called ‘capitalism’.”
The individualist worldview is a lot less bleak than the socialist one, unless you actually get to benefit from the sense of community and shared destiny that socialism affords—and the culture war ensures that that never happens.
