Monday, December 6, 2010

Econ 101 for Dummies (a.k.a. Econ 101 for liberals)

There is virtually no disagreement that liberal leftists simply do not understand basic economics, and if they do, their understanding is based on feelings rather than logic. Because leftists constantly seem to get themselves elected to public office and accordingly are afforded voting rights on how best to allocate public resources, they vote with their feelings instead of with any knowledge of basic economics. This is very damaging to the country, and we need to bring these simpletons up to speed in how the economy works. Perhaps a lesson in economics, and specifically taxation policy, expressed in terms of feelings and emotions rather than in cold, hard difficult to understand charts and graphs, you know, those constructs that leftists eschew, would be more helpful. Let’s start with a basic premise that all of us would agree upon: if you had $100 in your pocket, and a stranger came up to you, reached into your pocket and took $40 and told you ‘I need this money to help someone else, because they don’t have any,’ you would feel bad, wouldn’t you? That wouldn’t seem fair, would it? Of course not. But when the local, state and federal governments do exactly this to American populations, leftists see absolutely nothing wrong with this. Those of us on the right have a huge problem with the government doing this, so liberals and conservatives see the issue of confiscatory taxation from two different points of view. Which of them is right? Well, if you agreed with the basic premise above that taking money from one American and arbitrarily giving it to another is wrong and hurtful, then the conservative argument would be more likely to prevail. Let’s expand the basic premise somewhat, shall we? Let’s say that this stranger, whose hand is currently inside your pocket snatching that $40 of your $100, tells you ‘this $40 will be better spent on stuff by people that have no money than what you would have done with it, anyway.’ How would you feel about this statement? Would you dare to ask the stranger why he thinks this, and by what basis he came to that conclusion? Would you feel bad if the stranger just ignored your protests, and just took your money anyway? Of course you would. You would probably even get angry. Of course you would get angry. But when state, local and federal legislators get together and vote on budgets, projects and expenditures, they calculate exactly how much and how deep to reach into our pockets to fund these at times foolish, arbitrary and wasteful programs. All that is needed are simple majorities in the various legislative bodies to empower spending of our money in this manner, and leftist, liberal Democrats (and RINO's; Republicans in Name Only, also known as liberals) are usually the legislators who propose such spending, not conservative legislators. Who is right and who is wrong about this process? The liberal leftists are wrong, if you agree with the expanded premise above that these liberal legislators do not know how to spend your money any better than you do. And finally, let’s take that premise to its full reality. Let’s say that this stranger, whose hand is now into your pocket up to his elbow, greedily grabbing $50 now, not the $40 he told you when he first reached into you pocket, tells you ‘I’m taking this money to spend as I see fit, because you don’t need this much money, anyway. You have too much.’ How would you feel then? Angry? Insulted? How does this stranger know what is ‘too much,’ anyway? Does he know you or your circumstances? Does he know that you have four children who would like to go to college but have inadequate college funds? Does he bother to think that you would like to leave some of your money to your children when you die? No, this stranger doesn’t take any of that into consideration. That’s not right, is it? And that makes you mad, doesn’t it? This concludes our emotion, feelings based discussion on taxation policy as is promoted by leftist liberals in our local, state and federal legislative bodies. Based on our discussion, how do you feel about how our tax policy is working out? If it makes you angry, frustrated and insulted, perhaps you would be better served voting for conservatives next election. You’ll feel better.

12 comments:

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

Fredd,

Although I do agree with your argument I must say that you were remiss in not mentioning RINO's by their name (acronym) being they are of the same liberal confiscatory ideology.

I realize you separated the groups by identifying conservatives by name, but it would be instructive to economic dummies to be aware of all those involved in taking more of their money to spend irresponsibly.

Fredd said...

Christopher:

Of course you are correct. I will add your correction to the post, as it indeed is helpful to economic dummies to know exactly who the culprits are in our taxation malfeasance.

Kid said...

When liberal initiatives fail, such as: the Dept of Education, The War on Poverty, "High Speed" rail, Section 8 housing, Pretty much any societal change program they ever tried, their excuse is always that insufficient money was spent on it.

It really is a mental disease. They simply don't understand where the money comes from or goes to. Just like my cat watching the water coming and going when I flush.

Kid said...

Christopher. How about we keep the Tea Party people that perform and vote virtually everyone else out until government has been completely turned over.

Silverfiddle said...

Christopher has a point. As Hayek said...

I dedicate this book to the socialists of all parties

Nice lesson, Fredd

Fredd said...

Silver:

Did I dumb the topic down enough? Simpleton liberals may not understand many of the big words, you know, the ones with lots of syllables in them.

The Conservative said...

Let me get this straight, are you saying that something is easy for Dummies aks Lefties? Nothing is easy for Lefties.

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

Kid, I made no mention of the Tea Party so not sure where you are going with that?

I was speaking of elected (now serving) officials. Being not one Tea party candidate is yet serving until January I remain at a loss as to your query.

Now there is one candidate who is serving that was 'adopted' by the Tea Party, Scott Brown, that may serve as an example to my warning about RINO's, you be the judge.

Fredd said...

Right:

I get your jist. As an old army aquaintance from Brownsville, TX once said, 'they're so dumb, they couldn't pour piss out of a boot, even with instructions on the heel.'

Anonymous said...

They are children living in their own fantasy land.

Fredd said...

Trestin:

Yeah, much like Michael Jackson in his Never Land Ranch. But the difference is that there's a whole bunch more liberals living in their Never Lands, and they all expect the rest of us to heat the place for them, air condition it, and service the mortgage. And cater...it never ends.

While they play. Nuts to that.

Kid said...

Christopher, just thinking ahead is all.