The Conservative Heart

Arthur C. Brooks “The Conservative Heart: How To Build A Fairer, Happier, And More Prosperous America,  Broadside Books, 2015, 215 pp.

For quite some time I have been at a loss to understand just what a Conservative is. (The same for liberal but that’s probably another book).    Each side is so splintered and represented in the media by the zealots that the definition of them is mostly left to the opposing side.  So I am always interested in a book that may enlighten me on just what one or the other is.  

This book, as far as it goes, quite adequately describes my, at least in my mind, conservative leanings.  The problem is the author puts forward what a reasonable conservative position should be, not what in fact is happening today.  He wrote this before anyone took Donald Trump seriously and before the Donald destroyed what any reasonable conservative might believe in.  Especially how Trump has violated most conservative tenants described in this book.  So: I am no further along in my pursuit to understand what a card-carrying Conservative believes in. The author is a prominent economist and president of the American Enterprise Institute—the leading intellectual think tank on the right—and offers advice for mostly Republican legislators.  Interestingly he does not touch on immigrants, birth control or the right to end your life; think Terry Schiavo.

The conservative’s image problem is that they too often resemble Ebenezer Scrooge. By opposing increases in the minimum wage, advocating cuts in corporate taxes, railing against excessive regulation of business and worrying about the cost of entitlement programs, they appear to care only about the rich and well-­connected. They seem indifferent to the needs of those whom Hillary likes to call “everyday Americans.”  Yet the author documents that households headed by conservatives give, on average, 30 percent more dollars to charity than households headed by liberals, even though their incomes on average are 6 percent lower. They are also more likely to be blood donors.

My Notes:

Pg. 3:  Billions of souls around the world have been able to pull themselves out of poverty thanks to five incredible innovations: globalization, free trade, property rights, the rule of law, and entrepreneurship.  These five things were all made possible by the historic peace after WWII that resulted from America’s global diplomatic and military presence.  In absolute terms, the American poor live more comfortably than poor people in the developing world. Yet, while our values have been beating back poverty around the globe, the poverty rate here in America remains virtually unchanged since Lyndon Johnson’s day.  While American-style free enterprise has radically reduced poverty around the world, our own progress against domestic poverty has ground to a halt. 

Pg. 27:  Three crucial sources of happiness: (1) Genes—48%--: scholars have tracked and studied the lives of identical twins who were separated as infants and raised by separate families.  (2) Current Events—40%--: how are things in your life going at the moment while significant, fades fast after food, shelter, and clothing are assured.  (3) 12% remains under our own control and is composed of faith, family, community, and meaningful work. (In place of faith I would substitute a reasoned acceptance of our place in the world for those who do not believe).

Pg. 39:  The renowned psychologist Daniel Kahneman has carefully chronicled how marginal dollars hardly buy any happiness after approximately $75,000 (for a family of four). Moving from middle class to rich will not solve whatever problems you have left.  Even when people get wealthy, they almost never feel like they are ‘there.’ This is a very human phenomenon called the ‘hedonic treadmill,’ where our expectations speed up almost seamlessly to match our resources.  No matter how much people earn, they tend to say they need about 40 percent more to have ‘sufficient’ income.  The Dali Lama’s advice after a certain point is ‘it is better to want what you have than to have what you want.’

Pg. 102:  Our approach to helping the poor over the past fifty hears has been destructive.  It reinforces learned helplessness instead of combating it.  Dozens of assistance programs that seem sensible in isolation add up to an overarching message: ‘You can’t do it, so we’re going to carry you.’  That is the last message a person suffering from learned helplessness needs to hear.  Our entitlement programs are becoming more and more central to people’s lives, and less and less financially sustainable.  Since January 2009, the number of Americans receiving food stamps has increased by 45 percent.  Between 2009 and 2011, nearly one in three Americans slipped below the poverty line for at least two months.  At this moment, nearly half the country is living pay-check to paycheck, without enough savings to get by if they lose their jobs.  (One of the worst things to do is raise the minimum wage; one of the best is to champion an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). 

Pg. 155:  Today the EITC is far more generous to households with children than those without.  A childless worker could get about $500 from the EITC in 2014, while a worker with three or more children could get more than $6,000.  Link

Pg. 191:  According to Gallup, significantly more Americans identify as conservative (38 percent) than as moderate (34 percent) or liberal (24 percent).  Liberals are the smallest ideological minority, yet they adroitly think and act like a majority.  Paradoxically, though conservatives outnumber liberals, they have become accustomed to behaving like a minority and fighting against things.