Myth of the Liberal Nanny State

Our economic arrangements, and the political discourse that supports them, balance precariously on some deeply held myths.

Among the most fanciful is the notion that conservatives are self-reliant actors who embrace a private sector free from government meddling. Supposedly, the right is content to take on the free-market with strength and skill, and let the chips fall where they may, while liberals look to the state to be their protective nanny, there to iron out the wrinkles of a dynamic, entrepreneurial society.

It's a "zombie lie" -- no matter how many times you shoot it in the face, it keeps coming back to haunt you.

But economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, is trying his best to knock it down. Baker knows what the phrase "free market" really means, and in his new book, The Conservative Nanny State (which you can purchase in paperback or download as an e-book free of charge), he lays waste to the notion that American conservatives embrace anything resembling a truly free market. In fact, they're perverse Marxists, using heavy-handed government intervention to redistribute wealth upward.

I recently caught up with Baker at his Washington, D.C., offices to get the scoop on The Conservative Nanny State.

Joshua Holland: Your book cuts right to the heart of one of the most cherished myths of conservative philosophy. You say that conservatives are not, in fact, self-reliant fans of free-markets. Lay out your thesis in a nutshell.

Dean Baker: Well that's the stereotype -- that conservatives are willing to take the hard knocks when they come -- but in my book I argue that what the conservatives have done is they've rigged the deck. They've made sure that certain people come out ahead, that income flows upward, and that other people are put at a disadvantage -- and these things are built into the rules of the system. And then what they want to do -- in talking about "free markets" -- is they want to kick back and say, "No, no, no; those are the rules, and we can't talk about them." They don't want to talk about how the deck is rigged; they want us to fight over the small scraps.

Holland: That's a good segue. You made a point about how our economic arrangements are considered part of a natural system. And you say that when it comes to markets, nanny-state conservatives are all "creationists" and adherents of "intelligent design." What do you mean by that?

Baker: Well, you go through a list of policies, and they want to act like the way the market works today -- the way the economy's structured -- that it's simply the natural course of things. They didn't do it; it just evolved that way. And what I'm trying to argue is that they did do it.

And let's just get into some concrete examples. Take trade -- they've managed to frame the debate beautifully. They're for free trade. They want to compete in the world economy, and if you're a loser, you should get better skills or get more education. Maybe we'll throw you a bone here or there, but it's basically your problem if you can't compete.

But the truth is, we carefully structured these trade agreements -- we put great effort into it -- to put our manufacturing workers into competition with manufacturing workers in developing nations. That meant going to these places and asking: What kind of problems does General Motors face if they want to set up a manufacturing plant in Mexico or Malaysia or China? What can we do to make it as easy as possible? That means that they know they can set up their factory and not have it nationalized, not have restrictions on repatriating profits, etc. Then they need to be able to import the goods back into the United States, and that means not only making sure there are no tariffs or quotas, but also that there's no safety or environmental restrictions that might keep the goods out.