MAHA is just repackaged Reaganomics
Those bootstraps ain't made for pullin' up
Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith compared Reaganomics to a century-old economic philosophy in 1982:
Mr. David Stockman has said that supply-side economics was merely a cover for the trickle-down approach to economic policy—what an older and less elegant generation called the horse-and-sparrow theory: If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows. Others have referred to it as the Willy Sutton syndrome. Republicans, like the late Mr. Sutton, always go where the money is.
The “horse and sparrow” theory is a direct ancestor of Reagan’s “trickle-down economics”—basically, repackaged free-market economics derived from Milton Friedman’s 1967 book, Capitalism and Freedom.
The marketing is pretty simple: deregulate everything, slash taxes on the highest earners, let rich people be as rich as possible, and through their outlandish spending, everyone benefits. Oh, and supply the hell out of Americans with as much shit as possible.
While this wouldn’t even be true if we just traded in cash, the fact that most stores of wealth are illiquid—the average liquid wealth across households of all income distributions in the US is 10%—makes the entire philosophy preposterous.
Nothing’s trickling, generations later. The sparrows are starving. But the right sure loves to market this idea. Project 2025 is a long-winded ode to unfettered capitalism. Reaganomics on steroids. Or maybe testosterone replacement therapy.
It’s not surprising that Reagan went this route. He was warning about scary socialism decades before his presidency.
Remember, this is the welfare queens dude. He spent his life shilling for privatization—for the most part. When it comes to healthcare, he wasn’t against all aspects of social services. He supported the Kerr-Mills Act of 1960, which provided federal funds to states to take care of elderly people who couldn’t afford healthcare.
But provide access to everyone? On the state’s dime? Hell no.
Reagan loved the bootstraps mentality: the idea that you can pull yourself up and take responsibility for your own life. While this has long been a prevailing philosophy in masculinity culture, there’s an issue: you can’t actually pull yourself up by your bootstraps. This is one of those maxims that was initially stated sarcastically, then adopted seriously by the right. A bit of unintended honesty: it’s supposed to be about individual responsibility, yet proves that you actually need help.
Reagan also supported health savings accounts—pre-tax dollars that you can put away for health care purposes. Sounds nice, but it’s really just a way to avoid providing universal healthcare.
In Reagan’s mind, and in the mind of conservatives for generations, free markets and individual liberty are synonymous. I’m personally not against free markets, but here’s the thing: every other developed nation with a similar economic structure provides healthcare to its citizens. Only in America does a political party fetishize freedom in order to pervert responsibility.
Reagan at least pretended to care about the poorest among us. We can’t even get that in this administration, and their policies reflect that. And their language, as RFK Jr showed when questioned by Bernie Sanders during his congressional hearing.
When asked if health care is a human right, Kennedy refused to respond. He first tried to compare health care to free speech, stating “free speech doesn’t cost anybody anything,” which is rich given his party’s position on the topic.
Free Speech costs plenty of people a lot, including their lives, especially as our government is now disappearing people for exercising their rights. That’s for another article.
For this one, Kennedy then pulls out an old trope: a smoker shouldn’t have access to health care in the same way a non-smoker should. Bootstraps all over again: your health is on you, you pay the cost.
The irony: quitting smoking often leads to weight gain.
Following this line of logic: would someone who stopped smoking and then became overweight also not qualify for universal healthcare because they don’t fit into Bobby’s narrow paradigm of optimal health?
He never gets that far. That’s because his understanding of biology is sophomoric. As the Wall St Journal reported,
Kennedy Jr. has criticized companies making weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic. He has blamed America's obesity crisis on people's eating habits and said that if the U.S. supplied “good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight.”
Reducing weight to food alone might be popular in Wellnesslandia, but out here in reality, there are numerous reasons. A few:
Lack of physical activity. Sure, humans need exercise, but as the worst health outcomes are correlated with poverty or lower incomes, exercise might be pretty tough if you’re working multiple jobs and rely on public transportation to get to all of them.
Socioeconomic status. The social determinants of health remain one of the greatest indicators of poor health outcomes. MAHA will use this stat when it suits them, but never advocate for legislation to address this problem.
Genetics. Inherited genes can affect body fat storage, metabolism, and appetite regulation.
Medical conditions. Certain diseases like hypothyroidism, Cushing syndrome, and Prader-Willi syndrome can lead to obesity.
Medications. Some medications, including antidepressants, anti-seizure drugs, and certain beta blockers, can cause weight gain.
Hormonal imbalances. Issues with hormones like leptin, insulin, and ghrelin can affect appetite and fat storage.
Stress. High stress levels can lead to emotional eating and hormonal changes that increase appetite.
Sleep deprivation. Lack of sleep or poor sleep quality can disrupt hormones that control appetite and metabolism.
Pregnancy. Weight gain during pregnancy can be difficult to lose postpartum.
Menopause. Reduced estrogen levels during menopause slow down metabolism and alter fat distribution, leading to increased fat storage, particularly around the abdomen. Fluctuating estrogen levels during perimenopause can also affect insulin sensitivity, increasing cravings for sugar and caffeine.
The only time I hear any of these factors from wellness influencers is when they have a supplement to sell you. The alt-med menopause industry is booming, for one. The data are flattened into a single cause when addressing obesity rates, however: it’s your fault, fattie.
Sure, MAHA is passionate. They scream about food dyes and, even more ludicrously, seed oils. Techniques that serve as marketing foils to the one thing that will actually improve health outcomes: universal health care.
But they can’t make any money off that.
They can sure rake it in if supplements and alt-med treatments are even (somehow) more loosely regulated, however. RFK’s buddy, the one who basically had the idea for MAHA, runs a company that lets you buy supplements with health savings account money, which is not exactly legal. Did Bobby tell him to stop it? Lol, no, he gave him a job in the administration.
The ghosts of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan live on in MAHA. Stop paying attention to what they say and keep watching what they do.