Fight on the right
https://www.bing.com/amp/s/siouxcityjournal.com/george-will-marco-rubio-joins-anti-capitalist-conservatives/article_4fea47f7-27a3-5e6e-9112-9bca689c0878.amp.html
Today's Post has an interesting op-ed by the notably anti-Trump conservative George Will. But NOT about impeachment or his disdain for The Donald; rather, his column takes to task Repub Senator Marco Rubio for his recent speech critical of capitalism's failings.
"Rubio said America has 'neglected the rights of workers to share in the benefits they create for their employer.' Careless language -- workers are not sharing America's bounty? -- serves Rubio's economic determinism, which postulates a recent economic cause for complex and decades-long social changes."
"...The efficient allocation of scarce resources -- i.e., all resources [nice distinction!] -- should be subordinated to communitarian concerns, including 'the obligation of businesses to reinvest in America.' The flow of Rubio's rhetoric is unimpeded by data... perhaps because data do not demonstrate the neglect he asserts.
"If he thinks the $147 billion invested in r&d in 2018 by the 190 large corporations represented on the Business Roundtable (half as much as was distributed in dividends to the corporations' owners, the shareholders) is insufficient, by what metric does he determine this?"
Will's most telling criticism is: "Rubio serves in a legislature whose constant resort to funding the government with continuing resolutions testifies to its incompetence concerning even its most elemental function: budgeting.
"Yet he expects this government to wisely define the 'common good' and deftly allocate wealth and opportunities accordingly."
And Will scores points with a quote from, of all people, "the Commander" in novelist Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale": "Better never means better for everyone ... It always means worse, for some."
We used to argue such theoretical economics back in college. It's good to see abstruse philosophic maundering still feels needful in the infuriating Age of Trump.
Today's Post has an interesting op-ed by the notably anti-Trump conservative George Will. But NOT about impeachment or his disdain for The Donald; rather, his column takes to task Repub Senator Marco Rubio for his recent speech critical of capitalism's failings.
"Rubio said America has 'neglected the rights of workers to share in the benefits they create for their employer.' Careless language -- workers are not sharing America's bounty? -- serves Rubio's economic determinism, which postulates a recent economic cause for complex and decades-long social changes."
"...The efficient allocation of scarce resources -- i.e., all resources [nice distinction!] -- should be subordinated to communitarian concerns, including 'the obligation of businesses to reinvest in America.' The flow of Rubio's rhetoric is unimpeded by data... perhaps because data do not demonstrate the neglect he asserts.
"If he thinks the $147 billion invested in r&d in 2018 by the 190 large corporations represented on the Business Roundtable (half as much as was distributed in dividends to the corporations' owners, the shareholders) is insufficient, by what metric does he determine this?"
Will's most telling criticism is: "Rubio serves in a legislature whose constant resort to funding the government with continuing resolutions testifies to its incompetence concerning even its most elemental function: budgeting.
"Yet he expects this government to wisely define the 'common good' and deftly allocate wealth and opportunities accordingly."
And Will scores points with a quote from, of all people, "the Commander" in novelist Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale": "Better never means better for everyone ... It always means worse, for some."
We used to argue such theoretical economics back in college. It's good to see abstruse philosophic maundering still feels needful in the infuriating Age of Trump.