The Trouble With Businessmen

Something I said about how to help produce political change is that “more-or-less ordinary people hear conservative political messages from preachers and business executives all the time.” What Atrios has here is a great example of that dynamic.

Business occupies a “privileged position” in a mixed-market economy. In other words, neither government bureaucrats nor union organizers nor anyone else wants to eliminate private business or private businessmen. On the contrary, all mainstream figures espouse the view that it’s in the nature of the market economy that prosperity hinges in essential ways on the activities of private businessmen and private businesses. This means that when rich businessmen speak—to their employees, to reporters, to politicians, to people in the community—they aren’t heard in the same way that politicians or talk radio hosts or lobbyists are heard. They’re heard, at least in part, as practical everyday people who happen to have relevant knowledge about the important question of what will and won’t increase business activity. That’s why politicians like to talk about the discussions they’ve had with small business owners back in Fargo/Philly/Framingham/Whateverville. Politicians have a lot of authority when talking to their base, but little authority when talking to the crucial swing constituency of people who are unable to develop a coherent partisan/ideological perspective on politics. “Apolitical” businessmen, by contrast, speak somewhat authoritatively to an apolitical audience.

The trouble is that rich businessmen inevitably wind up reaching the view that lower taxes on rich businessmen and less regulation of their business is the key to prosperity. Rich businessmen also have a confusing but longstanding preference for tight money policies that are bad for growth and even bad for business, a tendency that persists in part because running a firm and stabilizing short-term economic fluctuations don’t actually relate in any way.

Long story short, it’s important for ordinary everyday people to hear some progressive ideas from people who are also ordinary everyday people. You may think that it’s smarter to stay quiet and let Paul Krugman explain economic policy since he’s got a Nobel Prize. But messaging to disengaged or low-information people doesn’t work like that. Ideas are more credible coming from a friend or colleague.