|
||
Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Recent Entries
The Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
Daily Tech News 2 December 2023 Friday ONT: I Stick It! Dogs Gone Wild Cafe Five Years After the Nasty Race Crime Hoax That Further Divided the Country, Jussie Smollett Is Finally Going to Jail Confessions of the Libs of TikTok Is This Something? Health NEWZZZZ Quick Hits Washington Post "Workers" Brace for Layoffs Absent Friends
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
« More Byrd: Previous Case on Filling Vacancies May Support Democrats Keeping Unelected Appointee In Seat |
Main
| Secretary of State Natalie Tennant: There Will Be No Special Election; Governor's Hand-Picked Seat-Warmer Can Hold Seat Until 2012 »
June 28, 2010
Unemployment and Bastiat's "Broken Window" Parable(I don't want to steal any of Ace's daytime-posting thunder, so I'm going to keep most of this post "below the fold" for those interested.) I meant to post this as a snarky aside in one of my "Daily Financial Briefing" posts and then move on, but given how I feel about most of Megan's stuff, I think it deserves a post of its own. If only because other people (like Insty) take Megan seriously in spite of the dearth of seriousness shown in many of her posts. The item in question: Megan McArdle's (Suderman's?) heart bleeds for the unemployed. My response: Like every other liberal advocate of government largesse, she can't explain her opposition except in terms of how mean it is to take benefits away from unemployed people. Which simply tells me that she forgot her Econ 101 lessons (Bastiat's famous "Broken Window" parable). She sees Person A (the unemployed person) and Person B (the government who provides funds to Person A), but she does not see Person C -- the famous "Forgotten Man" who must pay the taxes to fund the transaction between Person A and B. Megan does make a pass at economic theory by resorting to the "if we don't give the unemployed money, then this is money they cannot spend on stuff" argument, but it totally fails the "Broken Window" test in the same way that every other dunderheaded liberal spending program fails the test. Unemployment funds do not precipitate out of thin air. They must either be borrowed (and paid back via taxation or revenue) or taken directly from the citizenry in the form of taxes. "Unemployment insurance" was never intended to be an open-ended benefit, and it has already been extended several times as the recession wears on. It was meant as a short-term benefit to cover the wage-gap between one job and the next, not as a form of premature Social Security (which, in its current form, is all it is). The current tax regime to fund unemployment benefits is totally inadequate to the long-term burden it is now being asked to address (chronic unemployment caused by a weak job market), which is why most states' unemployment coffers are empty. Hence the federal bailout. People like Megan voted for Obama knowing full well that he was a far-left ideologue. I do feel badly for the millions of people who are suffering for the idiocy of the liberal bien pensant class and the politicians they helped put in office, but the best remedy is to get rid of them and put a more pro-market administration in their place. It is not to extend the tentacles of the government still further, or to punish the private sector with still more taxes and debt. Extending unemployment benefits indefinitely will simply prolong the very pain it is meant to alleviate. Articles like this are why I say that Megan and her ilk believe in "Bigfoot": a mythical creature that exists only in their heads. This mythical creature was the "moderate, centrist" Obama, and the "fairer" economy he promised. Megan bought the lie, and she has only herself to blame for the bitter taste in her mouth now. Blaming the GOP for doing the prudent thing just shows how unserious she is. My "solution" to unemployment is to produce a more fertile ground for investors, businesses and entrepreneurs, and to reform the tax policies of municipalities, states, and the federal government to reward producers rather than to penalize them. Government is not the answer to the problem; as so often happens, it is the problem. And more government means a bigger problem. If this makes me a heartless bastard, then so be it -- a heartless bastard I shall be. [UPDATE: I've always wondered how other people answer this question: Is it the government's job to make sure that you have a job? Is full employment one of the main goals of a national government? Should it be? Or is the government's job more to "prepare the ground" for the economy as a whole, through regulation, taxation, and policy? Think of it this way: suppose that a super-efficient economy could produce twice as much with half as many workers. Unemployment would skyrocket, but our GDP would stay pretty much the same. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?] | Recent Comments
Divide by Zero [/i]:
"
They put so much salt in chicken soup it has a n ..."
Misanthropic Humanitarian Who Lives In The Frozen Tundra : "4 I sometimes wake up grumpy. But I usually jus ..." Jonah: "295. Thanks Tom. As long as GOP keeps trying to pl ..." Rufus T. Firefly: "The latest claim is that he was "stealing" from hi ..." Itinerant Alley Butcher: "But first, off to BassPro to pick up some HS-6 for ..." Tom Servo: "If I was Musk, I would set up and promote a specia ..." Count de Monet: "Willowed: A long-term canned food storage anecd ..." Itinerant Alley Butcher: "BOY needs. ..." Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere [/i] [/b]: "[i]Wolfus, you might check to see if they have an ..." Don Black: ">What they thought they could get out of making hi ..." celebrate: "I constantly emailed thiѕ website post pa ..." Itinerant Alley Butcher: "One more item and I am done with Christmas shoppin ..." Recent Entries
The Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
Daily Tech News 2 December 2023 Friday ONT: I Stick It! Dogs Gone Wild Cafe Five Years After the Nasty Race Crime Hoax That Further Divided the Country, Jussie Smollett Is Finally Going to Jail Confessions of the Libs of TikTok Is This Something? Health NEWZZZZ Quick Hits Washington Post "Workers" Brace for Layoffs Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |