optout

Opt-out or Ownership society

One way of looking at the Left/Right conflict is whether a person is concerned with helping the least amoung us or advancing the society as a whole. There are plenty of ways of expressing this, and of course mine may not be appropriate.

The "World's Smallest Political Quiz" seems to me to be a way to characterize the general orentation of people, positions, parties. This suggests that there are two dimentions in American's political life, e.g. Peresonal and Economic , and that people can want to have the government be involved in neither, either or one and not the other.

The following are some currently interesting articles from the Left opposed to Bush's Ownership Society

The Opt Out Society: The GOP Threat to National Unity and the American Social Contract -- the Perrspectives, June 15, 2003

Cheers For Bush's Ownership Society: Robert B. Reich's "spin" on how the liberal objectives are actually achieved by a broad ownership society
January 20, 2005

"Corporate Americans" By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. -- Jan 18, 2005. -- Bush's overship society represents a populism born in the Hobbesian belief that we all struggle alone in a world where life is nasty, brutish and short.

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On the other hand, there are some currently interesting articles from the Right in favor of Bush's Ownership Society.

Neoconomy -- Daniel Altman explains the intellectual roots of the Bush administration's economic policy {Mother Jones Interview}, {Amazon}

Defining an Ownership Society -- an ownership society values responsibility, liberty, and property -- David Boaz, Cato institute

What Bush Needs to Do: The Ownership Society -- Stephen Bainbridge, Tech Central Station

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Finally there are a set of subscriber accessable articles in the Economist that discuss the meaning and failure of Corporate Social Responsibility, The Good Company. The conclusion is:

All things considered, there is much to be said for leaving social and economic policy to governments. They, at least, are accountable to voters. Managers lack the time for such endeavours, or should do. Lately they have found it a struggle even to discharge their obligations to shareholders, the people who are paying their wages. If they want to make the world a better place—a commendable aim, to be sure—let them concentrate for the time being on that.