Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events

Ted Strickland doesn't understand
TB — (archived)

Ted Strickland can't understand why it's so hard to sell socialism.

^"I mean, if we can't win that argument we might as well just fold up," he said. "These people are saying we are going to insist on tax cuts for the richest people in the country and we don't care if they are paid for, and we don't think it is a problem if it contributes to the deficit, but we are not going to vote to extend unemployment benefits to working people if they aren't paid for because they contribute to the deficit. I mean, what is wrong with that? How can it be more clear?"^

The answer, of course, is that leaving money in the hands of businesses and investors will do one hell of a lot more good for employment and real economic growth than taking it away from those businesses and investors and redistributing it to the unemployed to...what? Buy things from the same companies that just got their money taken away to hand to the unemployed?

Tax the rich so we can give the poor money to buy things from the rich?

The politicians move those shells around on the table pretty fast, don't they? But judging from the comments there's no shortage of gullible people.

If we want to run a test of Keynesian "bottom up" economics, let's find one of those countries where the average wage is about a dollar a day. Hand them each $500 to spend. But of course, they have to spend it in their own country, or it won't do anything for the economy, right? Come back in a year, and see how many people stuffed the useless money in their walls for insulation.

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