Right-wing idiocy

[teddywolf]

Once again, the New York Times has handed over money to a right-wing columnist who slices and dices his economic facts, then presents the hacked-up mess as a whole pie. Or a whole philosophy.

The man's a menace. He hasn't even looked at the tax policies in place during each time period where he compares growth. They were, in short, highest on the wealthy during the high-growth times and low during the low-groth times. And he says that for the economy to grow... we need to keep our tax rates on the wealthy at the same low rates that we've had for nearly a dozen years now, so they can start making the jobs they haven't been making over the last nearly dozen years.

NYTimes, pay me to write for you!

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Sure, they've created plenty of jobs ... in China.

[herince-emyn.livejournal.com]

Want me to ask my Dad if he knows someone to email submissions to?

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I will welcome any help I can get.

bikergeek also had a point on the cherry-picking of particular countries. Saying that Spain and Greece are the biggest European welfare states (and also the ones that are failing) completely ignores the Scandinavian states, France, England, all of whom have plenty of welfare (or even more) and all of which are in better shape.

[herince-emyn.livejournal.com]

Dad says to try this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/content/help/site/editorial/op-ed/op-ed.html

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Also, in claiming that the European-style welfare states are near collapse, he cites Greece and Spain, while ignoring the successes of Germany, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. Even Great Britain has pulled itself out of the seemingly inescapable economic doldrums it was in in the 1970s through the early 80s.

Greece's big problems, for instance, are lack of an industrial base compared to many other European nations and rampant tax evasion at all levels of society.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if the Grecians paid their taxes they'd be in considerably better shape as a country. I would not be surprised if they picked up their modern tax evading ways from the US.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I couldn't find any statistics on tax evasion in industrialized countries in a quick google search, but IIRC tax *compliance* in the U.S. is pretty darn good, on par with most other industrialized countries. Our biggest problem is the tax *laws*, which are structured to favor the wealthy, and which are sufficiently byzantine that ordinary working-stiff taxpayers have difficulty figuring out the forms and often need to retain professional help.

Tax evasion is a sport that's as old as taxes. :-/

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Well, he does seem to have laid his finger on it as accurately as I can see: There is a resurgence of the political faction that does not like the idea of the welfare state at all. Some of them are terrified that current financial problems will get out of hand (and admittedly, some of the fiscal problems are quite bad), a lot of them are small-business owners and other types who aren't in a position to benefit from the welfare state much (and so don't like it), and a bunch are rabidly individualistic types (the sort who would rather defend their property with a private arsenal than be obliged to obey a State that provides a calm, prosperous, and well-policed community). As far as I can tell, this faction has gained control of the Republican party by being very motivated and turning out heavily in the primaries. By the numbers, you only need about 20% of the population in a dedicated faction to gain control of one party, and if its senators are willing to work the filibuster mercilessly, they can have a great influence at the federal level.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

NYTimes, pay me to write for you!

Brooks spent years, maybe decades, building up his personal brand before the NYT hired him. You'll need to sharpen your marketing a great deal to be able to play in that league.