Comments on: Thoughts on the Stimulus

By: Reid Luzzader

Reid Luzzader — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:48:38 +0000

Some contructive criticism for my friends. Oscar Wilde joked that he chose his enemies for their intelligence and there’s something in that. Hank is something of a real-life straw man and doesn’t represent any of the more thoughtful strains of conservative thought. Perhaps you could find a harder target to debate with. It would be better practice, if nothing else.

By: Reid Luzzader

Reid Luzzader — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:40:33 +0000

Chris, if you or your co-writer are on Facebook, please look me up there.

I hope you are doing well. I recently finished an internship at the annual Utah legislative session with a Democratic State Senator and will be graduating with a Political Science BA at the end of summer semester.

By: elfasbrynja

elfasbrynja — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:32:15 +0000

Hank needs to enjoy some ‘free education’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgmTuTMs1-c

By: dumpendebat

dumpendebat — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:20:52 +0000

Poor Hank Dagny — his eyes started to glaze over as soon as he started trying to read. He didn’t read the original post, as it was too long and contained too many big words, so he just assumed that Elfasbrynja was coming out in favor of “socialism.” Then his silly comment was favored with a thoughtful response, and his reply was again, “Duh… SOCIALISM.” That seems to be the best he can do.

By: Hank Dagny

Hank Dagny — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:34:25 +0000

I agree with you Bush/McCain would not have done a better job. They just would not be trying to make us a socialist / communist country immediately.
They would have continued the slow slide, taking the slings and arrows from liberals like you – and all the way to Comrade Krugman and the rest.
Democrats are now targeting private citizens. That ought to scare you.

By: elfasbrynja

elfasbrynja — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:54:24 +0000

Well Hank I honestly don’t believe John McBush would have done a better job.

The crux of my disagreement with the stimulus bill is that it’s full of lots of short-term fiscal policy that is just going to put us into lots of debt. I would prefer a mixture of monetary policy (the Fed stimulating demand) and long-term fiscal-policy.

Would McBush have done a better job? Probably not. Bush himself tried to administer a similar fiscal crack high through tax rebates and it didn’t work. These kinds of things are very populist, used by both major parties, but there’s no strong evidence to show that they are effective.

There are some who would argue that more of Obama’s tax rebates will be targeted at those with the lowest incomes—something I have yet to see hard numbers for—which will arguably make it superior. I don’t buy that. For a historical perspective, every laborer in America—AFAIK—shouldered a 10% personal and corporate tax surcharges in 1968 during the Second Indochina War. However the permanent income hypothesis held up here.

So, Hank, I’m not claiming that Obama and the Congress have formed a socialist dictatorship. I’m an economics student. I don’t believe in Marxism-Leninism. I don’t even believe in Stockholm school economics. On the Political Compass test, I just barely register as left-wing in economic terms, at something like -1.3. That’s mainly because I believe that abusive monopolies should be broken up and that the fine arts should be supported. Hardly what you’d call a Sandinista, huh?

I’ll bet Adam Smith would be too left-wing for you, Hank.

By: Hank Dagny

Hank Dagny — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:00:36 +0000

Excellent post???
You useful idiots voted for this dictator.
You voted for the socialization of the nation.
Live with it – and die with it.

By: dumpendebat

dumpendebat — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:06:13 +0000

Thanks for coming back as a co-blogger, and please post more stuff here if/when you get the urge.

Excellent post.