In the early 80s, while living in Davenport, IA, I attended an open house for a new state representative who was back from the state legislature to give a report. His talk was all about what couldn't be done because there wasn't enough money. The conversation was all about lack of resources and what should be cut. What I'd now call "scarcity thinking".
After the discussion had gone on quite awhile I proposed that a tax increase be considered. Seldom have I ever felt such a non-person. No one seemed to even consider that as a remote possibility and my idea died in a second.
It was a shocking experience to find myself so totally and completely out of the mainstream. None of the people in the room seemed to share any of my assumptions about the value of government and the positive role it can play in our life together.
Now that I've read Goddess Of The Market: Ayn Rand and The American Right by Jennifer Burns I better understand the resistance I encountered. With her experience of Soviet Communism Rand advocated radical individualism and the believed that private property was sacred. She's had profound influence on the American conservatism/libertarian-ism. The book has given me a much better grasp of the background of the political right. Those people in Davenport had accepted the premises set forth by Rand.
