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Subject: 
Re: Supply-Side Economics? The Evidence Says No!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:40:53 GMT
Viewed: 
2514 times
  
   Well, let’s be honest here. If your product is too expensive for the masses in the USA, it probably doesn’t stand much of a chance in an even MORE empoverished world market overseas, especially with foreign governments’ market-protection policies (tariffs, etc).

WE are THE market; we are THE CONSUMERS; WE fuel the world economy. This, BTW, is a blessing AND a curse IMO.

Not quite true any more. The EU is providing a balanced offset against the US nowadays (look at the strength of the Euro). From a world markets point of view the US is playing less of a role.

And I wouldn’t whinge about tariffs. Check how much of your tax goes into supporting large agri-business run farms in various protected areas of agriculture. Your sugar would be a hell of a lot cheaper if it came from Brazil or Australia and wasn’t supported.

In the “Free” trade agreement between Australia and the US there are so many loopholes for US agri-business it would make an ardent protectionist blush. To his credit President Bush has pushed (weakly) against this blatant protectionism but there’s a lot of Republicans and Democrats alike who have vested interests in preserving the status quo.

  
   But if you use that money to assist those on the lower rungs,

How specifically? Education? We do that.

Not the extent of other countries. Your undergraduate university system is innately geared towards wealth rather than intelligence and your public high school system is regarded as poor even within the US and is considered completely subpar everywhere else in the world. The only level where you excel is at postgraduate and that is to a large extent due to foreign input.

  
   they will put it back into the US economy, indirectly giving it to that same rich guy after all, but helping out a greater portion of the population along the way.

The problem is that they don’t use that help to better their situation and become productive, but to simply secure themselves to the public teet. Governmental help too often foils the motivation for improvement, as manifested in worker morale in a communist society.

You are jumping to extremes here. A free-market social democracy provides plenty of incentive for work. I would argue that a laissez fare approach discourages the poor to work and encourages them to turn to crime as there is minimal incentive to work when you know that you are never going to improve your childrens chances without more money than you can earn legally.

--SNIP--

   Well, I’m ALL for tax reform. Personally, I’d like to see the IRS abolished and a VAT installed. That way the rich get soaked, and best of all, it is by themselves-- what could be sweeter (and fairer) than that?

A VAT is the ONLY way to truly make the “rich” pay, because they have so many loopholes available to them that aren’t for the unwashed.

Actually, there’s an awful lot of impetus and evidence that flat taxes are a great way of getting the rich to pay the tax they ought. They can even work with redistributive policies by returning cash to those who need it.

  
   There’s more clarification to be made in terms of payroll vs. income tax and how the difference punishes the poor more than the rich, but that’s a bigger issue.

I really dislike discussing our tax system because it really sucks, and I wish it would all just be wiped clean and begun anew...

JOHN

Tim



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Supply-Side Economics? The Evidence Says No!
 
(...) What about all of this rubbish about the US being 5% of the world's population (300,000,000 strong now, thankyouverymuch) and yet consuming 75%-ish of the world's resources? Balance that! (...) It's a wonder we are even able to dress ourselves (...) (18 years ago, 17-Oct-06, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Supply-Side Economics? The Evidence Says No!
 
(...) Well, let's be honest here. If your product is too expensive for the masses in the USA, it probably doesn't stand much of a chance in an even MORE empoverished world market overseas, especially with foreign governments' market-protection (...) (18 years ago, 17-Oct-06, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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