People have a tendency to vote based on their own perceived self-interest. They may have sincere concerns about the overall health of the country, they may even be willing to sacrifice some of their own security for the public good, but I don’t think it can be denied that as a rule, most of us tend to believe what’s good for us is what’s best for everyone else. There may be many caveats and exceptions to this generalization on an individual level, but taken as the average of our collective behavior, it is undeniably true. Sure people very often vote against their own self-interest, some poor vote conservative, some rich vote liberal. But you will recall I said perceived self-interest. People can also be persuaded, and they can convince themselves for a variety of reasons.

I try to apply this principle to my own behavior and thought. I am certainly not qualified to determine whether I do so successfully and objectively. Everybody in the world thinks of themselves as rational (and moral), but we all have different opinions, and some of us are real stinkers, so someone must be fooling themselves. I’m enough of a scientist to know I can’t prove to my own satisfaction, much less anyone elses, that I react purely out of intellectual and moral motives.

In my case, I tend to vote liberal. My income is from pensions, not investments, and my savings, when redeemed, will be taxed as income, not dividends. It is in my interest that as someone of relatively low earnings and modest savings I will be taxed as little as possible. Those whose income depends on securities will prefer that capital gains taxes be lowered as much as possible. They feel their investment powers the economy. Those who work actually create wealth. They feel they should be rewarded. Those who live off the labor of others feel they should be rewarded disproportionately for providing employment. They’re all right, of course, but they can’t all get their way, can they? They are just going to have to work something out they can all live with.

Some feel that those who have no talents or ambition, no initiative, who have chosen to work for a living, should shoulder the tax burden. I don’t blame them for feeling that way, but I see no reason I should help them achieve their goals. They are already better off than I am, why should I be concerned about their well-being? If they want more money, they can always get a job. Hey, that’s the adivce they’ve always given me.

Historically, I am also from working class roots. Regardless of how much education or experience I may have accumulated during my life, or how perceptive or intelligent I may be, I have always felt I lived in a world where the wolf was nearby, if not just outside the door. For me, work and wealth have been a means of acquiring security and perhaps a little comfort, not a way of proving my superiority over my peers, or providing a means of keeping score. The ability to achieve any satisfaction and fulfillment, even self-actualization, from my work has been an incredible gift and good fortune for me, not something I have come to expect because I consider myself superior to those who merely toil for their survival. A meaningful and rewarding career has been a blessing, not an expectation. It is something I have enjoyed in spite of my social class, not something I am entitled to because of it. It is not something I earned on my own, it is a result of having been born in a time and place where the society I lived in was able to provide it for me. This is a debt I owe. And I pay my debts. They are not a burden, they are an obligation, one I am proud to fulfill.

For his reason, I feel it is the main duty of government (other than protecting the weak from the powerful) to provide and expand opportunities for its citizens, and to prepare a safety net so that no one is condemned to never having another chance. We are not Steppenwolves, we are social animals, regardless of our individual talents or ambitions, our success is dependent on our being part of a community, a society. Without our fellows we are all savages, no one makes it alone. In fact, our very definition of individual success depends on how well we do in society, in relation to others. “Rich” and “poor” are meaningless words, only “richer ” or “poorer” make any sense. Wealth is relative, it is a direction, not a place.

Even the richest and most powerful among us benefits from the labor and sacrifice of all the rest, often, disproportionately. But we also all benefit from the success of others, often disproportionately as well. If more of us prosper, all of us will prosper more. Those who pride themselves on paying their own way need acknowlege just because they can afford something doesn’t mean they have paid the full price for it. It just means they can afford access to its full benefit. And someone who contributed to that benefit was denied it. This is especially true of education. If you can afford an education, you are enjoying the labor and sacrifice of many who couldn’t. No one pays the full cost of their own tuition, even at “private” schools. I feel very strongly about this, because education made all the difference for me.

The same can be said for health, public works, infrastructure, a variety of other goods and services, benefits of living in a society. The benefits of civilization.