Comments on: This is what I’ve been saying for a long time now

By: TB

TB — Sun, 01 May 2011 14:39:41 +0000

The most fundamental lie in the “infrastructure” argument is that it is always used to justify a bloated Federal government, and yet almost all of our standard infrastructure that is government-funded at all is done at state and local levels. Even “federal” highways (except for the Interstate) are state projects.

When I looked into it, a huge number of things that most people probably thought were government projects, aren’t. The power grid, for example.

By: Lee

Lee — Sun, 01 May 2011 04:01:12 +0000

The man is a liar.

“But America has long suffered from an under-investment in infrastructure (look at the condition of our highways and bridges, our railroads and airports), in basic research, and in education at all levels. Further cutbacks in these areas lie ahead.”

Try to build a new railroad, airport, or other large infrastructure project in this country and see how much time and money it costs simply to go through all of the lawsuits, and government redtape.

Much of the basic R&D in this country is done with private funding. Everything from medicine, genetics, computers, and rockets is researched and developed by private companies and corporations.

As for education, we spend more money per student per year than just about any other country. Where has this gotten us? Education isn’t about money, it’s about a will and desire to learn. You can’t make a horse drink if it doesn’t want to. You want kids to learn? Then do something about the toxic sludge known as pop culture.

By: TB

TB — Sun, 01 May 2011 01:49:59 +0000

The premise hits the wall in the second sentence, with the use of the word “take.” It shows the leftist view of wealth as some kind of natural resource that some people “take” more than their fair share of.

1 percent of Americans is 3 million people, Eri. They currently pay 28 percent of all Federal taxes, including 40 percent of income taxes and 57 percent of corporate taxes. Twenty-five years ago those numbers were 15, 25, and 43 percent respectively. You know, taxes? The stuff that goes to pay for “common needs” and “government investments?”

This is populism for the gullible, and the Democrats are apparently going to run with it. “These people have ‘our’ money. Put us in power and we’ll take it from them and give it to you.”

Stiglitz is counting on his audience being ignorant of most of the facts and letting emotional words roll over their brains like beads of mercury on a bowling ball.

You might want to check out the German economic propaganda of the late 1930s. See if anything looks familiar.

By the way, I didn’t see anything in the Declaration that says “whereas somebody has more money than I do, I get to loot it from them and do what I want with it.” Go through that list of complaints in the Declaration. The entire thing is about abuse of State power.