Pretend I'm a multi-millionaire (I know...that's a stretch).
Now let's pretend that you are the government.
Furthermore, let's pretend that my buddy, Jeff, is a "government bureaucrat."
Finally, pretend that your friend, Pete, is a "consumer."
Now you (the government) take $10,000.00 of my money and give it to Jeff to oversee some government project.
$10,000 put into the economy, right?
WRONG!!!
While Jeff gets paid, and may spend the money, it was MY money he spent, whether on himself or on the project. Jeff did not produce anything but hours worked, but that was money I could have used to buy something that had been produced by somebody, providing them with income, me with something I want and thus lifting the economy.
Let's say you (the government) did NOT take my $10,000.00.
Then I could expand my business, hire Pete and, presto!, a job created!
But you know what?
If you are a liberal/progressive, you will not get it, because you are not capable of understanding, only of knee-jerking.
The rest of you remember this: Whenever the government spends money, no matter what for, it puts nothing into the economy.
You can't take money from one person and give it to the next person and call it growth!
There has been no net gain and nothing has been produced.
In today's economy, a dollar's value is based on a product-service/hour worked.
Nothing produced, nothing earned.
When the government spends money IT'S YOUR MONEY!
That, sir, is why raising taxes will not cure our government's debt or spending problem.
19 comments:
The government does more than just take money from one person and give it to another. In the process, it absorbs much of that money to pay an army of non-producers, whose only job is to decide how the money it took from you is to be spent.
Liberals just don't understand that the government is not the economy. The government is the enemy of the economy. It is a gigantic parasite that gets bigger and fatter and more bloated feeding off its host until the host dies. And when the host dies, the parasite dies soon after.
sue: OK...but I really thought your were smarter than that. Was I wrong?
LR: Webster could, for its definitio of "Waste" just put: government.
Couple questions:
1. "Then I could expand my business, hire Pete and, presto!, a job created!"
What created the demand to make it possible to expand. The mere availability of capital is not sufficient reason. Corporations are sitting on quite a bit of cash right now.
2. "The rest of you remember this: Whenever the government spends money, no matter what for, it puts nothing into the economy."
Why is government spending necessarily any different than you and the Lone Ranger going in debt and purchasing a couple of pet rocks?
Fact is that government spending can increase overall productivity. Suppose we get smart and build high speed rail to improve our transportation network or upgrade the power grid. Both can increase business productivity but are difficult for the private sector.
What the left knows, that the fringe right does not, is that this is a complicated question that has to be understood in terms of goals and not dogma.
Now let's take an example. Joe has medicare but no private insurance. Joe has a serious "health event". Joe is not wealthy. Do we let him rot in the street or do we share his expense across the breath of the population through a single payer plan.
If Joe is true to his beliefs then if he can't afford insurance, he rots. But believe me, he'll sign up for Medicare.
Simple but true. Shame Obama and his liberal cronies don't have the brain capacity to comprehend this.
Ducky: "Why is government spending necessarily any different than you and the Lone Ranger going in debt and purchasing a couple of pet rocks?"
Productivity. Producing a product that people choose to want.
Nothing the government does produces anything...except dependancy.
Period.
In the 1960's, the Federal Government used TAX DOLLARS to fund a little DARPA project called the ARPANET.
In the 1970's, more TAX DOLLARDS were spent by DARPA to create TCP/IP.
These two developments were the result of BASIC RESEARCH done by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT using TAX DOLLARS that led to a world wide information infrastructure that generates hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and employs countless numbers of employees and entrepreneurs around the globe.
So when you say "Whenever the government spends money, no matter what for, it puts nothing into the economy...There has been no net gain and nothing has been produced.", that is a lie, sir!
It was the FEDERAL GOVERMENT spending TAX DOLLARS that directly led to your ability to have a blog on the internet complaining about the government and taxes.
You should be thanking the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and your fellow tax paying citizens for giving you this gift.
XO: "So when you say "Whenever the government spends money, no matter what for, it puts nothing into the economy...There has been no net gain and nothing has been produced.", that is a lie, sir!"
No, it is not.
They still produced nothing. It took the private sector to make sensible use of it.
If the government had had its way, you and I would not have this Internet.
I sure would miss you.
(Just as an aside, whenever you get something wrong, do you consider that you have lied? Why do you persist in calling everything that does not fit your pseudo-intellectual agenda a lie?)
"They still produced nothing. It took the private sector to make sensible use of it."
There would be no "it" for anyone to make "sensible use of" without a huge expenditure of TAX DOLLARS to build.
Is it also your contention that the Interstate Highway System, also funded by TAX DOLLARS put nothing in the economy when it hired the contractors and machine operators who built it?
Do you think that the Interstate Highway System and the Internet have no value because they were built with TAX DOLLARS?
"If the government had had its way, you and I would not have this Internet."
Excuse me? Is it your contention that The Internet was somehow forcibly pried from the grip of the government by commercial interests?
"...whenever you get something wrong, do you consider that you have lied? Why do you persist in calling everything that does not fit your pseudo-intellectual agenda a lie?)"
There is a big difference between "getting something wrong" and intentionally spreading falsehoods and misinformation in order to further a political agenda.
Investing in the economy is different than taking over the economy.
" Corporations are sitting on quite a bit of cash right now. "
Yeah they may need it for their retirement fund.
XO: "Do you think that the Interstate Highway System and the Internet have no value because they were built with TAX DOLLARS?"
Nobody ever even hinted that they have no value.
Their value was not achieved by the "government" dollars spent, but by their subsequent use by private and commercial enterprises.
That is not to evaluate whether they should have been built.
See, the trouble with liberal thinking is that it is not thinking, it is spewing what you've been indoctrinated with.
In school, you are not taught how to think, you are taught what to think.
You ae not taught to look to potential or unexpected consequences, you are taught to regurgitate the things you have been taught.
If you have socialistic teachers (including, but not restricted to, the books you read), you will lean toward socialism.
That's not thought, its indoctrination.
The main point is that the government takes our money and does what IT wants to with it, instead of using it to accomplish the will of the people.
The government thinks "the people are not smart enought to know what they want."
That is the antithesis of the American raison d'etre.
XO: "Excuse me? Is it your contention that The Internet was somehow forcibly pried from the grip of the government by commercial interests?"
Exactly.
It was the government's intention to keep it a secret.
As with most government activities, it failed.
As usual, your assertions have absolutely no basis in actual facts.
"Their value was not achieved by the "government" dollars spent, but by their subsequent use by private and commercial enterprises."
So the Interstate Highway System and the Internet are only valuable if somebody can make a buck from them? They have no intrinsic value on their own as a means of knitting people togther and allowing the free exchange of information and culture?
And please inform us, who were these intrepid individuals who forcibly pried the internet from the cold, brutal grip of the government? How did they accomplish this task? What leverage or power could they possibly exert that would force the government to give up something they didn't want to give up? Please educate us in this completely unknown chapter of American history.
"The government thinks "the people are not smart enought to know what they want."
So prior to DARPAs creation of ARPANET using TAX DOLLARDS, who were the clever entrepreneurs who had the vision and the investors to create this incredible infrastructure? Tell us the story of how we would have the Internet without government research funded by TAX DOLLARS.
I don't know what Ducky is on, and I don't wanna know.
XO: "So the Interstate Highway System and the Internet are only valuable if somebody can make a buck from them? They have no intrinsic value on their own as a means of knitting people togther and allowing the free exchange of information and culture?"
Yep. If they just sit there unused, they have no value except for the raw materials they contain.
It is precisely my arguement that their use by individuals, including trucks, busses, vacationers, and other travelers is what gives them their value, not the government.
I know you can't understand that.
I know it.
I knew it going in, and I know it now.
You have proven me right beyond any shadow of a doubt.
As for your "Please educate us in this completely unknown chapter of American history." remark, it is YOU who needs an education.
For your edification and enlightenment, I will do a well documented post on how the Internet came into being and how it became available to the public.
(Hint: It had nothing to do with Algore.)
In school, you are not taught how to think, you are taught what to think.
Love this line Joe
Joe, are you familiar with the concept of basic research.
You know, research done by our excellent government created state college system.
Government absorbs the expense and corporations rake off the profit. Surely you have seen this in action.
Stop being such a pedant.
Joe:
On the last page of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, in its issue of July 2, appeared a short notice, tucked in between advertisements and routine news items.
It read:
"This day the Continental Congress declared The United Colonies Free
and Independent States."
Such was the journalistic treatment given to the Greatest Event in American History.
-Curtis P. Nettels
You and Bonnie have a great 4th of July!
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