Land of Opportunism

[stewstewstewdio]

Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. - Republican Congressman Peter Sessions

There has arisen a movement to disassemble the United States government one piece at a time. It appears to be a

Comments

[johnny9fingers]

I was having a conversation on similar lines about the UK last night with one of my banker chums. Although he is now prepared to admit Stiglitz was right, and also that those nations which have higher taxes and better overall education systems (Sweden, Denmark etc) are managing to be generally more productive and make their citizens 'happier'; he opined that such could not scale up to work in a larger economy like the UK's.
He also was of the opinion that the Anglo-Saxon nations are far too decadent to ever right any of the problems which you list.
So folk like him, seeing no alternative, feather their own nests and let the rest of society fend for itself.
Checking out the Laffer curve, I wonder how much taxes could reasonably be increased on companies' profits and the top-earners to start a process of investing back into society, to begin to sort out some of these long-term problems?

I'm tempted to call for higher taxes: but I'm sure someone will disabuse me of such a scurrilous notion.

[jonathankorman]

The US economy has run pretty far from the 1930s to the present. It doesn't appear that it has been “kneecapped” to me at all.

[mrbogey]

What is seen and what is unseen. We see the progress. Now what is unseen?

[dwer]

you don't know what you don't know.

[pastorlenny]

I see you need this explained to you again. Government is crime. Society is an illusion. Self-interest is the means by which all economic productivity emerges. And economic productivity is the only quantifiable -- and therefore the only real -- good.

It's all right there in the Constitution, which was written by God.

Now stop posting! It does nothing for the Gross International Product!

[kylinrouge]

Also, The Great Depression never happened, and everyone had equal opportunity for economic freedom pre-1960s.

[pastorlenny]

Slavery was a government program, you ninny!

[stewstewstewdio]

I have approved the content of this comment.  I have proof that his post is true.....

[mrbogey]

The problem with the communist comparison is that many of them actually advocated for the USSR as a model of efficiancy and gov't equality.

[mrbogey]

You're phrasing it as looking back at the situation and not the defenders. The USSR had defenders praising it as an imperfect form of communism but superior to the West. Only after the collapse did they change their tune.

With those advocating free markets, they're critical today and back then of the steps the gov't is taking and predicting dire consequences if steps aret taken. Now they're getting their nose rubbed in something they never praises but cautioned against.

[rasilio]

"It’s time to remember whose predatory methods put us into this worldwide recession. It is also time to remember that free market advocates resisted bailouts and government interventions expecting free market solutions to resolve the crisis. These so called solutions didn’t improve the situation since mid 2007 when the recession started."

Right,it would have been so much more concise for you to type "I have no clue what a free market is"

[stewstewstewdio]

I have no clue what a free market is

Considering I link directly to the dictionary definition under the link "free market failure", I would have a pretty good idea. Unless, of course, you have another definition that you just made up.