I had an exchange online with an old friend and a few people he knows. I am posting the text of it, anonymized with a couple minor edits, because the debate and what happened after is such a great snapshot of the left.
Old Friend:
Westerners are not taught that the hoarding of wealth is an act [...]
In tonight’s State of the Union address, Pres. Obama called on Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy. He wants them to “pay their fair share.” Set aside the moral issues of redistributive taxes (it is a form of slavery to assert ownership over the value of someone else’s economic output - but that’s for [...]
Jim Pethokoukis on why Mitt Romney’s 15% tax rate is actually too high:
We shouldn’t tax what we want more of. And the real problem with the capital gains tax isn’t the rate or how it is structured, but what is taxed: gains on investments, which are savings put to work. Economists of all stripes have [...]
It seems the geniuses in Philly’s city council plus Mayor Nutter have decided a really good way to make Philly more competitive is to make it more expensive to hire people. They have decided to prohibit companies from asking about an applicant’s criminal history until after their first interview. The only exception is for law [...]
A government, like a family or a corporation, can support some number of economically unviable undertakings. But at some point, no matter how pleasurable or good intentioned they are, piling on too many economically unviable endeavors threatens those that are viable. The problem with Progressivism is that it cannot, even in theory, limit itself to [...]
If higher tax rates are the answer to our debt crisis, why is Europe in such serious trouble?
One thing that’s abundantly clear is that the left does not value economic growth. The younger lefties, particularly, don’t seem to comprehend that their high standard of living today is the result of growth and can only be sustained with continued growth. They fail to understand that many of the things they take for granted [...]
Jon Corzine, the leftwing former governor of New Jersey, whose high tax, big spending, overly regulatory policies helped drive the state towards bankruptcy, has now driven his investment firm into bankruptcy because he over-invested in the bonds of European countries that, as a result of following his preferred leftwing high tax, big spending, overly regulatory [...]
If it passes, Obama’s so-called jobs plan has no chance of working. He seems to think businesses and consumers are going to make long term hiring and spending commitments based on short term incentives.
If you run a business and reach the very reasonable conclusion that the tax and regulatory climate is going to be ugly [...]
During the fight over the debt ceiling, I kept hearing from the left that the rich need to pay their fair share. Setting aside the fact that the top 5% earn 35% of income but pay 60% of taxes, and the fact that higher tax rates on the wealthy produce less tax revenue, I expect [...]
As I have mentioned many times, I am not a fan of political parties. I am more sympathetic to the Republican Party because it sometimes does the right thing on taxes, spending, regulation and freedom, in contrast to the Democrats who invariably get it wrong. But I generally view political parties as unhelpful, if unavoidable.
Given [...]
“There’s this kind of stereotype or myth that the deep blue states are more economically restrictive but more personally free. But the data doesn’t actually bear that out . . . Liberals tend to want to constrain your freedom in all areas.” [Emphasis added.]
William Ruger, co-author of Freedom in the 50 States study, as quoted [...]
The latest estimate of unfunded federal liabilities is $62 trillion over the next 20 years. According to USA Today, that’s $534,000 per household (I’m not sure how they are defining household).
My math puts that at $200,000 per person over the next 20 years, or $10,000 per person per year over the next 20 years. That’s [...]
See if this sounds familiar.
Government creates a subsidy for a favored industry. This attracts more businesses than the market can support. The subsidies are used up and industry cries “Waaaaaah! Save us! We need more subsidies or we’ll go out of business.” The taxpayers get soaked in the beginning and soaked in the end.
Could be [...]
Ask yourself this: is it better to be poor in a rich country or poor in a poor country. The answer, I think, should be clear. If you take the time to understand why it’s better to be poor in a rich country, you will recognize that it has profound implications.
Policies that depress economic growth [...]
A report was recently released detailing the truly appalling treatment of the elderly by NHS in the UK. You can scratch the word “elderly” from the real world conditions I suspect. People who will do the types of things documented in the report will not limit their cruelty to senior citizens.
In this joyous season of fights over cutting federal spending, I merely note the following.
U.S. Population: 307,000,000
Federal Spending: $3.55 trillion
Federal Spending per person: $11,564
Federal Spending for a family of four: $46,254
U.S. Median Household Income: $49,777
So, before factoring in state income taxes, local income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, etc., the federal government is [...]
The NY Times had an interesting piece a couple days ago focusing on the “lost generation” of workers in Europe. Essentially, there are no jobs for young people. The European economies are so bad that “young” includes people well into their 30s.
The Times, of course, doesn’t connect the dots so I’ll do it for them: [...]
As of December 3, HHS has issued waivers exempting employers, unions, etc. representing over 1.5 million people from ObamaCare. ObamaCare is so great that many of the same unions who pushed for it have asked to be excused (static PDF in case the link changes) from it.
As a bonus, it seems that ObamaCare revoked a [...]
I just want to take a moment to poke my head up from the law books to make a prediction of sorts: if Jerry Brown beats Meg Whitman for governor of California, what’s left of California’s economy is toast. Jerry Brown represents everything that’s wrong with California’s economy: massive debt, overspending, crushing tax burden and [...]