How I Lost My Religion

[Tino]

A lot of people have shared their deconversion stories with me so it's only fair I return the favor.

As I've stated before, I used to be a conservative Republican. In high school, my former self would have placed Reagan's face as the fifth addition to Mount Rushmore. I was as much outspoken about my beliefs then as now but just on the other side of the proverbial aisle.

I may not have ever been a Christian but my god was The Invisible Hand, the Government was the devil, Ayn Rand was the prophet and Reagan was the saint. As with other deconversion stories, my faith ebbed away slowly, with much psychological bargaining and rationalizing along the way. In fact, I technically remained a registered Republican until 2003, though I had voted for Gore in 2000.

I'd shed nearly all my social conservative beliefs by the time I got to college but I remained a staunch libertarian and echoed all the mantras ("involuntary taxation is theft", "government IS the problem", etc.). Pursuing an MBA in grad school (in Dallas TX no less) only reinforced my faith for a time. There I learned all about how "raising the minimum wage increases unemployment", how "the markets are perfectly rational and efficient", and other crap. I read Ayn Rand and thought it wasn't well written but economics gold.

Getting out into the real world slowly ate away at my faith. Clinton's tax increases were supposed to ruin the economy but they didn't. W Bush's aggressive tax cuts for the wealthy were supposed to spur economic prosperity but they didn't. Other real world experiences taught me that many of my mantras didn't apply to reality as well as they did in theory.

Today, I'm an economic moderate. I believe in capitalism but one where there's a balance between management, unions and government regulation. I have a more sober view of corporations as machines which will typically create efficiency but not care about workers or the environment. Government regulation and unions are needed to balance corporate power and the wealthy need to pay their fair share of taxes to give back to the society that's been so good to them.

Looking back, re-reading Ayn Rand, it astounds me what I used to believe. But in my defense, "trickle down" was a new idea in the 80s. How anyone believes it now despite 20 years of contrary evidence amazes me but that is the power of faith.

Your error is more how you believe than what you believe.