More False Arguments For Taxing The Rich

Democrats, Economy, Government, Socialism, Taxation

Shepard Smith of Fox News encapsulated what to him was the counter argument for taxes on the person earning $20 million annually: “He’ll be $1 million the poorer. Is that going to impact his life style, asked Smith? Will he fire the chauffeur? Not really.”

That’s also not really the right, utilitarian, economic argument for letting a man keep what is his. One million in the hands of government is one million dollars circulating the drain. As soon as you transfer private property into communal ownership, it’s as good as squandered. Left as private property, that money could be saved, invested in productive endeavors, or spent on consumer goods, which will generate work for producers.

How do you think the government collective will allocate $1million it has stolen, and has never worked to generate?

To the moral side of the matter:

From “The 2 Parties’ Question: How Much To Steal”: Taxes are private property plundered. The government has several ways to pay for its obligations, one of which is to seize private property in the form of taxes. The particular portion of the ‘stim’ and bailouts that was not borrowed or counterfeited by the Fed once belonged to individual Americans. Thus, a tax cut for high-income earners, who also pay most of the taxes, is tantamount to a return of stolen goods.
With a tax cut, the plundering class simply agrees to pilfer less. The notion that you must ‘pay for tax cuts’… is akin to a burglar promising to return the television he stole just as soon as he is in a better financial position.”

Meanwhile, “Democrats in the House and the Senate moved Thursday to limit the reductions, in full, only for families making $250,000 a year or less.”

Beck’s Left The Building

Glenn Beck, Media, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist, Uncategorized

Glenn Beck believes that the blackboard has made him a philosopher king, a teacher. Most of the Glenn Beck Show, unfortunately, is now devoid of useful information. it wasn’t always so. I was, as you recall, a big Beck fan. Since I require information—news, data—I opt for Hardball. A horrible prospect, I know, but Chris Matthews’ currency, however debauched, is the news of the day. The same cannot be said for the Beck hour. Hardball also gets me the progressive perspective. I have to keep abreast of Left-liberal thinking on the issues, since it is never intuitive.

From Beck you get the following:

Sighs.
Nods.
Lots of self-affirmation (Glenn said this and that years ago).
More ego announcements and exhortations to TiVo upcoming segments
Mention of George Soros (who also recognizes Glenn for the threat he is)

Today Beck was pushing for an answer his rapt audience was unable to give him because, mercifully, they do not “think outside the box” like he does (he kept trying to get them to be as “creative”). Beck asked those present in the studio what could transpire when Germany, forced to bailout out Europe, felt backed to the wall. Of course, knowing how he thinks (and he has maligned the Europeans in the past), I knew that what Glenn wanted to hear was this: given their history, the productive and pedantic Germans could well turn to fascism if forced into an economic corner.

In the past, Beck has attempted to provide historical information. Now he only alludes to the need to know history so as not to repeat it, study it, buy books about it (his).

Other repetitive themes:

Dark times are ahead (well, dah!)
Help your neighbors.
Pray
Be true to yourself.
Be honorable
Sign up for my …

I don’t watch Oprah. Why would I watch her conservative, male counterpart? I want the old Beck back but that bloke has left the building and is levitating high above it.

I guess Judge Napolitano, on at 5:00PM at Fox Business, makes up for it all.

"The 'Lebanonisation' of Iraq"

Foreign Policy, Iraq, Journalism, Propaganda, War

“With a sectarian power-sharing agreement and interfering neighbours, Iraq is looking a lot like Lebanon,” writes Lamis Andoni at Al Jazeera.

Where else? Now that the Left is as invested in all Obama’s wars as the “Right,” sober assessment of regions made more backward and benighted for our interventions is hard to come by in American media. There is nothing new about the silence of collaborators in this country, Left and Right.

ANDONI AGAIN:

“The power-sharing framework agreed in Iraq has so far failed to end the eight month deadlock over the structure of a new cabinet. The stalemate, due to haggling over key posts, is reflective of how post-invasion Iraq has succumbed to ethnic and sectarian rivalry, which, in turn, has further obstructed its economic and political recovery. It is also indicative of how the country has become a playground for different regional and international powers who are competing for influence and the country’s oil resources.”

The agreement reached earlier this month would allow Nuri al-Maliki, the incumbent prime minister, to form a new government – even though the Iraqiya coalition took two more seats than his State of Law alliance in the parliamentary elections.

The accord would establish a Lebanon-style sectarian and ethnic formula – which might prove to be more of a recipe for constant instability than a guarantor of national reconciliation. It is ironic that we are witnessing the ‘Lebanonisation’ of Iraq at the exact moment when this type of power-sharing formula may be causing the ‘Iraqisation’ of Lebanon – as many fear that Lebanon is on the verge of inter-sectarian strife. …

Iraq’s emerging political system is a direct product of the US invasion and Iran’s complicity in both the invasion and the ensuing occupation. And Iran has, so far, come out of it with the strongest hand – as the prime minister is the main authoritative power. Neighbouring ‘Sunni’ Arab countries have also played a role in consolidating divisions within Iraq – either by directly helping the US forces or by failing to help Iraq maintain its unity.”

[SNIP]

Where there was once oppression and order, now there is just chaos and daily danger. What always gets me is the terror on the faces of children trying to survive in “liberated” Iraq.

UPDATED: 'THE Ben Bernanke' For Babies

Debt, Fascism, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation, Political Economy

“The printing money is the last refuge of failed economic empires and banana republics and the Fed doesn’t want to admit that this is their only idea. … The plumber is clearly smarter than The Ben Bernank. … The Fed thinks prices are going down [deflation] when in fact they are going up [inflation]. And they think that during a recession with The High Unemployment that it is better if the things people need to buy cost more money. …”

Out of the mouths of babes engaged in a Socratic debate about the Federal Reserve Bank and “The Bernank” comes this delightfully simple, but cerebral, YouTube explanation of the workings of the Fed.

But, change “The Fed has been wrong about every major economic development for the past 20 years” to almost 100 years. For that is the duration of the error that is the Fed. 1913 is when The Fed was founded.

Especially adorable is the “THE”: The Bernanke, The printing of The money, The Deflation, The Inflation, The Goldman Sachs (“they make their living ripping-off The American People”). The Quantitative Easing. The Change.

UPDATE: The creative genius behind the above is also author of the “iPhone4 vs HTC Evo” wonderful clip: