Invisible Hand at Christmas

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations is a book seldom read in its entirety. Libertarians went through multiple iterations of winnowing the more than five hundred fifty pages into something more readable, something more closely matching their ideological viewpoint. One time, they serialized a right wing version in Reader’s Digest. I will never read it. I don’t know anyone who has read it, certainly not Iowa’s current crop of right-wing politicians. They may know the phrase “invisible hand” even if they don’t use it when enacting policies that make life worse for many Iowans.

The invisible hand is a metaphor for the unseen forces that move the free market economy. Ronald Reagan referred to it as the “magic of the marketplace.” With economic freedom comes prosperity they say. Only it doesn’t. This is truly magical thinking.

This week it was announced Koch Industries is buying the Iowa Fertilizer Company in Wever. This facility has been a story of money changing hands among large, wealthy entities from the gitgo. The $110 million in financial incentives from the state finally comes home to roost with a company that is so deeply embedded in Iowa Republican politics we forget to notice their presence. Is this Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market, or just the greedy hands of industrial capitalists?

Right wingers believe in the efficacy of the people as individuals with each making their own decisions in a free market economy. This holiday season they emphasized their belief that people, as a group or social class, don’t mean much of anything to them as they work to please corporate sponsors.

Last night, Governor Kim Reynolds released her Christmas message to Iowans, which I quote in full:

“From a humble stable in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago, the world was given the greatest gift of all time, a newborn King sent to bring light to the world. 

“This Christmas season, the part of the world where Jesus was born is impacted by war. And yet, his promise of peace is everlasting. 

“As we gather to celebrate this joyous holiday with family and friends, let us be reminded of the many blessings that we enjoy as a free people and the responsibility we have to each other as children of God. 

“On Christmas and always, may we be the light in the darkness.  

“Kevin and I, and our family, wish you and yours a Christmas filled with joy and light. 

“God bless you and Merry Christmas.” 

Office of the Governor Press Release, Dec. 22, 2023.

Let this sink in: “Let us be reminded of … the responsibility we have to each other as children of God.”

That is, unless one is poor and can’t afford health insurance. By privatizing Medicaid, the state created an expensive, inefficient process that denies care to some who need it. In that case forget about our shared responsibility to provide needed health care.

That is, unless one is a child who qualifies for the free lunch program where Governor Reynolds on Friday rejected available federal funds to pay for a summertime EBT card for hungry children. In that case, you can go hungry, and by the way, she said, you need to go on a diet because you kids are obese.

That is, unless one lives in our substandard nursing homes where the state is as much as 41 months behind in conducting annual inspections in violation of federal regulations. In that case you can just drop dead.

Where is the idea of Christian charity to bind us together in meeting common needs? Where is the invisible hand to lift up the poor and provide adequate opportunity to achieve minimum financial needs? I submit it is busy in the pockets of the wealthy, delivering government benefits that frame their success, of a kind the poor will never see.

This Christmas season we must vow to change how we treat the poor with our votes… in 2024 and beyond. Republican politicians are not listening. Voting them out of office is the only thing they might understand.