Democratic Underground Friday Comedy Jam

We have disagreements in the threads here. Sometimes there's a little back-and-forth about what is the truly conservative position on an issue.

But it's pretty rare that we get into arguments here where many of the commenters are in denial about the nature of the world. Where one side simply does not understand, and refuses to understand, that the nuts-and-bolts pragmatic foundation for their side of the argument can not exist in objective reality.

But elsewhere, on other blogs, such is the difficulty when leftists discuss math....accounting...standard business practices....why cities run out of money...etc.

Now, we here in RealityLand know what is happening to these Democrat-run cities that are going bankrupt. Leftish policies inexorably lead to a situation where the public workforce (and welfare cases) place huge demands on a tax base that can no longer support it. Once they start going into debt just to honor old promises, the deal is done.

Fiscal insanity has a logical conclusion. Conservatives accurately predict these events, all the time. And by 'all the time,' I mean 'every time.' Every. Frickin'. Time. But these geniuses never listen, because we are dumb&mean, and they are smart&caring.

Below: It's a DU link, yes. But go on ahead and give them the traffic. They deserve it. The whole thread is hysterical, as is the next one I'll link. I have removed names and formatting just to make the discussion more compact.

PLEASE go to the links and review the rest of the conversations. The people who understand math and business are accused of being conservative trolls! That's some kind of accidental compliment.

These are the kinds of arguments you get into when encouraging expansion in the private sector is absolutely unacceptable, but yet you also want to eat their lunch forever.

So. Scranton is now paying minimum wage to its employees. Where to go from here?

1. They're flat broke. What do you suggest they do?

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2. I suggest they raise taxes -
duh.

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6. The mayor proposed that, but the people in Scranton don't want higher taxes,...
...so the City Council refused to raise them. Any other ideas?

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7. I don't care if rich people don't want to be taxed -
and yes I have plenty of other ideas. Have you ever heard of socialism?

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10. Most property owners in Scranton are not rich

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13. I'm not going to get in any fights about defining the word "rich" -
because I see plenty of that divisive, distracting behavior going on in other threads on this board and it only benefits the very rich when everyone else is fighting.

If folks are well enough off to own property and want police/firemen around to protect it they are going to have to understand they might not be buying a second home this year ...

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26. Many of these 'well off' property owners are retirees on fixed incomes

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28. Again, will not bite on that. Property owners who expect fire and police
protection had better figure out whether they can pony up some cash.

This is what it comes down to - I really don't care if Aunt Ethyl has $2 million in the bank and wants to leave it all to her favorite cat charity - I'm sure she is a very nice person.

People have families and are now being told they are going to "live" on $7.25/hour.

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21. $7.25/hour is not a living wage --do you suggest employees stop living?

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32. Oh course not
But you have to be aware of the tax structure for municipalities in PA, as well as the fact that Scranton is a largely working class town.

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38. OK so then the state or federal gov't will have to move some money from
A wealthier population to this poorer one. Easy peasy. Problem solved.

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45. Sounds easy to me. nt

Indeed! What could be simpler? Theft! Theft is the answer to all of our troubles. Works every time it's been tried.

Taxing wealth is the next logical step That way the wealthy who are sitting on the sidelines with trillions of dollars will have two choices. Invest it in creating jobs themselves or give it to the government so they can invest it to hire new workers and retain the ones we already have and pay them a fair days pay for a fair days work.

Turns into use it or lose it.

There is how to get some investment going.

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7. So you want to take cash from businesses

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9. Businesses can either invest it themselves hiring workers or the government will tax them and do it
It is the businesses choice.

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10. so to hell with their need to pay existing workers
or future obligations.

Many businesses sit on cash when the economy is slower so they're not desperate for cash, relying on receivables when the bills come due. If you've got 10 million in cash but a 1 million dollar payroll to meet every month, it's not really that outrageous

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19. You should probably go work for Romney

That last response was directed at the same guy but not the same comment that precedes it in my heavily-snipped excerpt. Again, read the whole thing, it is hilarious and also a bit sad.

There is a lot of frustration among the would-be thieves that those who have responsibly saved money will not just subvert their personal financial future to that of the public sector.

89. Why this thread scares me

My income has already been taxed once. I am self-employed, so I've also had to pay self-employment taxes over the years. And no, I don't work as a banker, I don't exploit my workers (unless you call my own long hours at the job self-exploitation) and I produce a product that actually gets exported and brings money INTO the U.S. I don't trust any safety net to protect my retirement, so I have been faithfully saving for decades, in secure investments such as municipal bonds and CDs. I have accumulated enough to help my kids out with their college educations.

And now, because I've been scrupulous about saving and a careful investor, this OP would levy an extra tax on me, for no reason except that I've socked away enough for a comfortable retirement?

She hasn't been taught that when other people confiscate the comfort that she's worked her whole life for, it is because their pure hearts are filled with compassion. She probably graduated college before that became part of the regular curriculum.

Her opponents on that thread- those are the people who fancy themselves high-functioning intellectuals. Those are the people who are always accusing conservatives of suffering from cognitive dissonance. Is it any wonder that when they're put in charge of a budget, it's like giving Lennie a puppy to play with?

They can't seem to learn a simple lesson, after the same experiment turns out the same way, time after time after time. And to see them puzzling it out in public is to know why. Ideology is a more potent motivator to them than actual results.

posted by Laura. at 11:58 AM

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