The Left and my theory as to why they love the government

Given you cant craft a mature response, I'll bid you good day. Thanks again for proving my point.

 

Huh? What market failure? Private schools and homeschools do better than public schools at less cost. Why do prominent Canadians come to the US for treatment instead of using their socialized medicine?

 

Already said (and it's simple right wing economics). As there are positive externalities from education and health care, social benefits exceed private benefits. Utility maximization therefore predicts underconsumption/underinvestment.

 

Yeah just like Chile.

Oh wait, no.

Chile is a capitalist nation. Venezuela is a socialist shithole with free healthcare.

 

No, you should have bought healthcare before you got sick.

And no, we don't all depend on government.

The only thing I need the government to do is take care of the roads and make sure water gets to my house, but I pay for that too.

 

Right wing economy = prop up old dying industries
Left wing economy = invest in new dynamic technology

 

Market failure isn't political at all. Where did you get this nonsense?

 

I think government lovers value safety over freedom and government skeptics value freedom over safety.

 

It's based on neoclassical economics, the spine of right wing analysis. The left of course will typically be in favour of heterodox schools of thought.

 

Whatever.

 

No problem. Happy to help you.

 

I don't think there is a unified theory of the left. Some do see the government as the solution to all your life problems that should be depended on. Others see the government as simply a fix the many problems with the free market with the goal of maximizing prosperity for working people.

 

You cons sure do love government when your Wall Street masters need bailouts. You sure do love it when you're ready to tell a woman what to do with her pregnancy. You love it when you want to propose laws telling who can marry who. You love it when you use it to force Christianity down school children's throats. You love it when it's time to go start a war with dem Muslims cause they don't believe Jesus is the son of gaawwd.

Hallelujah!

 

I'm not really certain on what right-wing and left-wing economy is.

I support capitalism. I don't support government picking winners and losers to invest in or not invest in based on how much they support their campaign.

And why didn't you answer the question about why Portland has so many fascists in it? Why did they all go to Portland? What's wrong with your city?

 

Getting a job, working hard, and raising a family isn't easy. It seems like a monumental task when you're younger because it is. As you get older, as I am now, the years of getting out of bed every day and doing those things appear more in the rearview mirror than ahead of you, and you start seeing the end of the tunnel. There's certainly an institutionalized aspect to that, as well as the alternative. I know people who retired, and the first thing they did was go look for a job! Hell, I know one guy who made millions by playing the currency exchange game. He's 80 years old and works part-time as a carpenter's assistant.

People who love the flag see things differently from those who don't. It's a love of simpler things like a love for where you grew up, your neighbors, the girl you married, and your children. "Patriotism" is not a love for the government, but rather for what you think of as home. The king or president or emperor are merely symbolic of "home".

I would add another type of person to that list. They are successful, hard working taxpayers who see the government as insurance against some possible cataclysmic future where they have lost their job, their pension went to prison with Bernie Madoff, and that's a very real worry.

I would completely disagree with the lack of empathy. People who have genuinely tried to help people know that "help" can very easily end up facilitating the reason they need help. I've tried helping many people in the past, but usually what happened is that I incorrectly identified the problem of being poor with a lack of money.

When I see some homeless guy sleeping on a sidewalk, I genuinely would love to see him sitting in rush hour traffic commuting to work, just like I'm doing. He'd be happier, and contributing to making things just a bit nicer for everybody else. I'm sure that sidewalk is about as uncomfortable to sleep on as it looks. The problem is how to help him? What caused him to end up sleeping on that sidewalk? Did he lose his job and just couldn't find another one? If so, then there are several options.

1. Get another job, ya bum!
2. Go to where another job is, ya bum!
3. Learn a valuable skill, ya bum!

These are 3 things that I've personally done. If things take a turn for the worse, there are several good paying jobs that I could do. I learned how to operate heavy machinery in my 30s. I can type about 50 wpm, I could probably even do a bit of busking (although I'm terribly rusty these days). I know how to frame a house, paint it, and roof it.

The idea that government can correctly identify his problem better than he can himself is suspect or his friends and family, but that is exactly what I constantly hear being thrown around as a cure for his homelessness. This is why places where there are so many programs and services for those in need tend to achieve the opposite of their stated goals of helping people get back on their feet. They just end up with more people who need help getting back on their feet.

Who doesn't have empathy here? I have enough to know that his problems run far deeper than a lack of money, and I don't want to facilitate his condition. I want him off that street and into a job. Giving him the ability to sleep on the sidewalk isn't getting him back in the workforce.

 

It's certainly possible that my only recourse will be to look to the government for help. However, I have a very strong aversion to the very concept of government. It is, at its core, violence. It is not a moral institution, and should be regarded as such. It's akin to sleeping with a gun that has no safety. It might prove valuable if somebody breaks into your house and you find yourself really wishing that you can just kill that dude. The problem is that it's inherently immoral. The state is a loaded gun, and the ability to tax points it at me.

You might want to consider my idea since you seem to value the government more than you are wary of the possibility that it could turn against you. You don't seem to be the least bit concerned with the moral and safety implications of "government".

Surely you are aware that there are and have been many very evil governments throughout the years. What are the reasons you value having a government? Is it to provide for you in a time of need? For me, the government is evil, but sometimes evil can be used to combat evil. It's like a bomb. You can drop one on an enemy, but it can also be dropped on you. Keeping it safely locked up nice and tight until evil is needed is imperative. Thinking it's capable of doing good is dangerous.

 

But there's the irony. Many of those on "the left" are the best defenders of capitalism. Someone on here, for example, moaned about Keynesianism. It was FDR's conservatism that led to further collapse of the economy. Keynes' motivation was focused on avoiding such problems. You see the same focus today. For example, Keynesian demand management is used to avoid hysteresis in unemployment such that government dependence is minimised.

I'll put it bluntly. Without 'the left' that the American right continually whinge over, US capitalism would no longer. Perhaps they should stop with the whinge and just say thank you?

 

I'll put it bluntly. Without 'the left' that the American right continually whinge over, US capitalism would no longer exist. Perhaps they should stop with the whinge and just say thank you?

 

Sure that's why I try to avoid the left-right dichotomy.

Someone on here, for example, moaned about Keynesianism. It was FDR's conservatism that led to further collapse of the economy. Keynes' motivation was focused on avoiding such problems. You see the same focus today. For example, Keynesian demand management is used to avoid hysteresis in unemployment such that government dependence is minimised.

I'll put it bluntly. Without 'the left' that the American right continually whinge over, US capitalism would no longer. Perhaps they should stop with the whinge and just say thank you?[/QUOTE]I don't Disagree with that.

 

The Establishment Dems have sold out whereas the Progressive Dems have not.

The MAJOR difference is that the GOP embraced the selling out to the Wall Street Casino in the party platform and became corporate lackeys instead of representing We the People.

 

The right uses government contracts as corporate welfare in order to obtain campaign contributions but you never mentioned that in your rant above. Isn't that just as immoral and unethical? How many multigenerational corporations depend upon government welfare? All of the Defense contractors fit into the category of corporate welfare and so does Walmart which has the highest TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED payroll in the nation. The fast food industry is right up there as is Big Pharma and the Energy Cartel.

Hardworking Americans are being CHEATED out of the wages that they DESERVE to be PAID but you call them moochers while refusing to address the CORE PROBLEM which is the FAILURE of the REPUBLICANS to hold these corporations ACCOUNTABLE for pay screwing over We the People.

The GOP is NOT ON YOUR SIDE! They will kick you to the curb in a heartbeat if it means protecting corporate profits. The GOP will destroy the environment to protect corporate profits. They will destroy the middle class to protect corporate profits. They will destroy AMERICA to protect corporate profits.

 

So you approve of the left using taxpayer funds to entice people to vote Democrat?

Corporate welfare, another leftist sound bite, slick, rolls nicely off the tongue and if you say it over and over some fool will believe it. Conversely what you called a rant is grounded in facts. The corporate welfare thing is a subterfuge used by the left to cover their own shady political machinations. Look, capitalism for all it's flaws is here to stay and without it America would become some third world socialist shithole.

 

Ironic PROJECTION duly noted and ignored for obvious reasons.