One of the fads that has sort of taken off in recent years is that of people putting solar panels on their homes. Often, some people balk at buying them when they realize that the loan payment that they have to make will be more than what they currently pay for electricity. If the system could be made cheaper, obviously more people would buy them.

But what does this have to do with political conservatism? The fact is that many of those folks who pound their chests about the Constitution often wonder why people don’t get more exercised about real and imagined constitutional violations. What these individuals fail to understand is that the Constitution was written for a pre-industrial society very different from our own. Specifically, 200 years ago, most people were either farmers or small shopkeepers. In other words, the food on their table came largely from their own efforts or the efforts of those with whom one was acquainted. A king, governor, or other faraway government official who tried to pass a sweeping law to restrict or manipulate the market was going to have a direct and visible impact on the ability of a large swath of the population to put food on their table, and consequently would face overwhelming opposition. Today, if one listens to economic arguments from the right (lower taxes, less business regulation, etc. etc.), they are focused on that swath of the population that is either self-employed or is employed by others but sees the health of the business environment being tied to their own economic well-being.

However, we don’t live in a society any longer where how one lives is almost entirely and visibly a function of one’s own efforts. We live in a society in which the multiple and complex interactions of a multitude of factors determines how one lives on a day-to-day basis. We are dependent on the power company for electricity, the town/city for water and sewer services, and on local government for police and fire services. We are dependent on our boss for a paycheck, and the agendas of other people who we haven’t met as to whether there is even a job in existence at all. And given that most of us have to make 30 years of payments until we even have a roof over our head that we can call our own, most of us cannot be said to be economically free. While some on the right (and sometimes on the left) decry a loss of political freedom (i.e. the NSA, the IRS, etc. etc.), the truth is that most of us have never been truly economically free and independent in the sense that the colonists were when the Constitution was written.

So what does this have to do with solar panels? If those on the right want a modern society that is responsive to, shall we say, traditional constitutional concerns, then they need to find ways to use government to make people less dependent on anyone (including government). Often, the extent of the right’s thinking on this score is to “cut government spending” and “reduce regulation”. Then they fight a (mostly losing) battle to make this happen. But “cutting government spending” is cutting off someone’s paycheck and so the opposition is fierce. However, subsidizing solar panels (for example) is something that would make people less dependent. While solar won’t provide all of a household’s energy needs, it does reduce dependence on an outside power source, and thereby (depending upon where a household lives) increase the economic independence of the household. Further examples of using government to foster some independence would be land use policies that encourage the building of homes where people need to be on wells and a septic system, rather than being dependent city water & sewer. Or, the automatic payroll deduction of taxes can be eliminated and people can save up the $5k, $10k, 20k etc. of taxes that they owe each year and pay it in one installment. The point is that if people have to save up the money rather than having it taken from them bit by bit, they will feel the bite more acutely and perhaps pay attention to what the money is going for. Also, it will keep the government honest as any action the provokes bitter opposition would allow those opposed to refuse to send in their taxes and force the government to spend time and energy chasing down the multitude of tax miscreants. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. But if the right (and sometimes the left) want a country responsive to traditional constitutional concerns, they need to use government to create a more economically independent citizenry whose day-to-day lifestyle is less dependent on others. Subsidizing solar panels is an example of a step towards this goal.