Why I Am Not Thrilled (Among Other Reasons)

[grendel317]

One party now controls the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.

I think I would have rather seen the McCain / Lunatic Nutjob ticket win.

Comments

[grendel317]

Well, note that I said *massive* deficit spending. If the deficit spending really had been temporary, and they had then balanced the books again, that might have been ok (or even necessary - there are alternate views on that, and I am not smart/educated/omniscient enough to have a strong position). Deficit spending on the level initiated then and continued now is almost certainly a very bad idea.

And woah. Farm subsidies. Woah. The AAA actually directed farmers to produce less food, artificially restricting the supply and raising food prices at a time when people had little food and less money. Agriculture was in trouble, but this was not the way to save them, and having done it, it should have stopped as soon as the Depression was over. Corn and wheat and soy subsidies today are wildly out of control and horrible for a lot of reasons, but I won't argue with you on the current state of things since we seem to agree that it's mismanaged.

Social security might be around for me, and it might be less of a gigantic pain in the ass by the time it's my turn, and it might not end up becoming a de facto global citizen id number (or rather, it might stop being one), but I doubt all of these things. I believe our implementation is pretty bad, and the Boomers are hitting SS now. I am skeptical that it can stand the strain, and even if it does I suspect the cost will be so high that as the Boomers die off it will be dismantled by the political backlash anyway (right as I'm about to finally get it).

At the same time, I also believe most people wouldn't (and a few couldn't) adequately prepare for their retirement if left to their own devices, and what would we do as a country then? So like I said, I could be convinced on the general idea of some sort of federal retirement fund. Ideally something optional, assuming you were making reasonable alternative arrangements.

Anyway, my overall theme here seems to be that the Depression was crazy times, and hey, FDR probably did the best he could without knowing how things were going to turn out. I don't fault him for that. But, there were a lot of programs and policies that absolutely did not work and needed to be removed or heavily revised after the crisis, and while some of that did happen, much more needed to.

[grendel317]

Yes, I am familiar with the theory and agree that action was necessary, and believe me, I am no free market economist. It is my (admittedly amateur) opinion that grants, low- or no-interest loans, or something along similar lines would have had the same end result (farms have enough money to survive for a while) without putting the burden of higher prices and reduced supplies on consumers. A loan or a grant would also have had a more concrete endpoint, rather than dragging out in to the mess that is the Farm Bill today.