This is not class warfare, it’s game theory.
Obama called for a tax plan that would predominantly increase the tax on upper income classes. Republicans argued against this plan by claiming that it “punishes” “job-creators” and would thereby negatively impact the economy. Obama responded by stating that” This is not class warfare, it’s math”. Economically speaking, increasing taxes on upper income classes would, in terms of mathematics, effectively decrease the nation’s deficit. However, sociologically speaking, the issue of taxing upper income classes becomes clearer when looking at it in terms of game theory. This situation, or “game”, is a Prisoner’s dilemma.
The prisoner’s dilemma illustrates how individual rationality conflicts with group rationality; each player is motivated to make a choice that benefits them as individuals because its rational, but if each player acts rationally the group as a whole does not get the maximum payoff. Thus, if each player cooperates – a choice that is irrational to the individual – both players will get the maximum payoff. It’s also important to realize that a player would benefit most if they play rationally while the other plays irrationally. Thus, it would not be surprising if one player attempts to deceive the other player to act irrationally.
In the case of taxing upper income tax classes, they have a choice of paying higher taxes or not. Paying higher taxes is clearly the irrational choice for the upper income class. However, paying higher taxes would be rational for the group – in this case the economy. So as an objective observer, I would expect republicans- the party that primarily represents the upper income class- to have a problem with Obama’s new tax plan. I would also expect that their attempt to convince the public- the most influential player of the game- that this plan will worsen the economy to be deception; they are trying to manipulate the game by making us voters/players believe that our rational choice is irrational. However, I know that forcing the upper class to cooperate, or pay higher taxes, would ultimately benefit the economy and me as an individual player. Thus, I believe that Obama’s plan is not only mathematically rational, but also rational in terms of game theory.