Anecdotes, anecdotes, anecdotes - they don't prove anything (remember statistics 101?). It's a sleazy political tactic, a cheap plot twist, a joke. The whole article is one poorly supported anecdote: France.
These articles and comments are like watching a Monte Python Witch lynching. The mob agrees - tax and spends the way to go. "Ooh, no it's the rich they're the ones." Mob: "Yea, it's the richies fault. Burn them!". "Wait, wait, it's the poor - they're not working." Mob: "Burn them!"
If we're just going to support "our guys" "Democrats" or the "Republicans". Or are we going to have some actual discourse?
If it's just "our guys" then "Hey if a little's good, a lot is better!" So, let's take these good ideas to the limit!!! Why not cut government completely? Ooh, that might be dangerous - imagine mayhem as we start fighting amongst ourselves to protect our property or as our defenseless borders are attached. We might end up being run by a repressive communist regime.
OK, forget that. Let's go the other way - let's tax income at 100% and let the government spend it all! Hmm, it's hard to imagine why anyone would bother to work in that situation, could millions end up desperately poor like in Russia? But OK, let's keep going... Do we like the way the government spends money? That's an awful lot of power in very few hands. Some of it will go for good (programs for the poor). But some of it's going to end up in places where it harms the poor - i.e. the war on Drugs where police in Texas are using forfeiture laws to take property (like cars) from the poor. And, if you clench your butt at a traffic stop, O_O, yikes, well...
Hmm, not good - course both are pure anecdotes. In reality, we're gonna be somewhere in between. And that's the rub isn't it? Because I suspect it actually depends. There are times when either can help and times when either can hurt. Right now, we're running up an ungodly deficit, which might be OK, if it seemed like all that spending was actually helping. But it doesn't feel like it is.
Personally, I don't like where the country is today. We work way to hard, there are too few jobs and I'm so disappointed in Obama. I truly believed he was going to try to make things better, more transparent more fair. Instead, it feels like he's laying the foundation of a massive federal spy state. Where the only good job will government ones and you'll only get those by owing someone a huge favor. It all feels very sleazy to me.
These articles and comments are like watching a Monte Python Witch lynching. The mob agrees - tax and spends the way to go. "Ooh, no it's the rich they're the ones." Mob: "Yea, it's the richies fault. Burn them!". "Wait, wait, it's the poor - they're not working." Mob: "Burn them!"
If we're just going to support "our guys" "Democrats" or the "Republicans". Or are we going to have some actual discourse?
If it's just "our guys" then "Hey if a little's good, a lot is better!" So, let's take these good ideas to the limit!!! Why not cut government completely? Ooh, that might be dangerous - imagine mayhem as we start fighting amongst ourselves to protect our property or as our defenseless borders are attached. We might end up being run by a repressive communist regime.
OK, forget that. Let's go the other way - let's tax income at 100% and let the government spend it all! Hmm, it's hard to imagine why anyone would bother to work in that situation, could millions end up desperately poor like in Russia? But OK, let's keep going... Do we like the way the government spends money? That's an awful lot of power in very few hands. Some of it will go for good (programs for the poor). But some of it's going to end up in places where it harms the poor - i.e. the war on Drugs where police in Texas are using forfeiture laws to take property (like cars) from the poor. And, if you clench your butt at a traffic stop, O_O, yikes, well...
Hmm, not good - course both are pure anecdotes. In reality, we're gonna be somewhere in between. And that's the rub isn't it? Because I suspect it actually depends. There are times when either can help and times when either can hurt. Right now, we're running up an ungodly deficit, which might be OK, if it seemed like all that spending was actually helping. But it doesn't feel like it is.
Personally, I don't like where the country is today. We work way to hard, there are too few jobs and I'm so disappointed in Obama. I truly believed he was going to try to make things better, more transparent more fair. Instead, it feels like he's laying the foundation of a massive federal spy state. Where the only good job will government ones and you'll only get those by owing someone a huge favor. It all feels very sleazy to me.