Comments on: Unemployment-Smoothing, Krugman, and Quackery

By: John Tedder

John Tedder — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:38:00 +0000

The point is to keep the money here in the United States rather than sending it to the middle east. The “we” is the same “we” that just bailed out the banks and criminals on wall street.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:36:00 +0000

Love the intimation of Krugman as a “quack.” Can’t stop laughing. I know it’s not substantive laughter, but it sure feels good…..

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:57:00 +0000

” Labels are just words”

Astoundingly deep.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:55:00 +0000

Every dollar “we” spend on drafty houses? Who is this “we”? Do you really want to spend federal taxes on fixing up houses?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:22:00 +0000

The main point of my post is that when you call for a government solution to a problem you are often invoking the very entity that caused much of the problem to begin with. How can you expect the government which puts so many impediments in the way of those who wish to create jobs to be effective or efficient in creating jobs.

Don’s point about Krugman is that he is calling for more impediments to hiring as a way to reduce unemployment. It makes no sense. If we want to lower unemployment we should start by reducing government interference. Reducing the forms, regulations, and taxes.

When you say “We need to…” or “Why can’t we spend…” you are calling for a collectivist, centrally planned solution that is doomed to failure or at least tremendous inefficiency. That is why I said you need to lose the “we.”

A great explanation of this is by Arnold Kling at:
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=101007A

By: John Tedder

John Tedder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:55:00 +0000

Where am I? The Twilight Zone?

By: John Tedder

John Tedder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:54:00 +0000

This isn’t the government that I voted for. Not in any way, shape or form. Don’t say that. My government has been taken over by creepy senators who try to pick up people in airport bathrooms and by the other senators who won’t even kick him out of office and take away his benefits. My government has been taken over by lobbyists who bribe congressman to do what’s in their best interest, not mine.
My government has been taken over by people who pardoned Scooter Libby who was convicted in a court of law and never spent a day in jail when the reporter who told the story sat in a cell for months.

This isn’t the government that I voted for.

By: John Tedder

John Tedder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:44:00 +0000

There is no thumb sucking go on around here. I don’t agree with what all of the people you mentioned said. I don’t agree with you either. By the way, I have a job.

There is no need to be crude. Would you like a bar of Lifebouy soap to wash that mouth out?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:38:00 +0000

No, it’s: “We need LESS government” than what we got. It needs to be trimmed away at like an overgrown hedge.

By: John Tedder

John Tedder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:37:00 +0000

From what I see, there are plenty of roads, shoulders of roads, bridges and leaking pipes around here that need to be fixed that nobody should be out of work. There are also a lot of old houses and buildings in NY state that could be insulated. Every dollar we spend here doesn’t go to the middle east.

By: John Tedder

John Tedder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:33:00 +0000

I commented on this particular post. I have not read everything on this blog. This is the second time I have visited. I was surprised at how many emails I got about replies to my comment. I have been in business for my self in both NJ and NY. New York is absolutely ridiculous with forms, regulations and so on. They say they are business friendly! What a joke. I guess they think if they say it, it must be true.

I’d like to see a lot of things too, but government isn’t going away anytime soon. We do need a better government than we’ve got. We the people can’t even get the NY state legislature to pass a reasonable ethics law to police themselves. Even thought the public wants it, they politicians won’t pass it. This should be easy and it isn’t.

By: John Tedder

John Tedder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:25:00 +0000

“We need a better government than we’ve got” should be a statement that everyone can agree on, except for maybe some Libertarians.

What do you mean “the position to which he obviously feels so entitled?”

By: Justin P

Justin P — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:57:00 +0000

Then maybe people would realize how shitty our tax code is as well.

By: Justin P

Justin P — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:51:00 +0000

OH I agree, I only got interested in Economics thanks to Obama’s stimulus. Everything I’ve read and learned about Econ has been over the last 11 months, but there wasn’t anything in particular that personally affected me, that got me interested. Very badly worded sentence I know. It’s really not that hard to learn about Econ though, or history.
I put most of the blame on the State, especially state run education.
Just think about all the incentives the State has to keep people economically ignorant? Think about what would happen to the dollar if the masses knew how bogus CPI is as a measure of inflation…hell think about how fucked the Feds would be if people even understood prices, and how they work and the information they convey. In my view, the State wants to keep the people fat, dumb and happy. So far they have succeeded, most of the country has no clue what is going on and doesn’t care to learn.
That goes back to my previous thoughts about the college kid, is it ignorance or do they willfully put blinders on their eyes?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:27:00 +0000

>>Most of the world is in “the middle” precisely because they can see value in both sides of an argument.<<

See, taking an internally consistent ideological position that man is born free and has inalienable rights is too extreme for Dan. No. To balance that and make his position more accepted by the ivory tower "intellectuals" he must also see the value in some people being able to use other people for their own purposes. Slavery, is morally wrong, of course. But, partial slavery….now, that's the intellectual middle ground the Daniel Kuehns of the world advocate. Can't really call it slavery because you're not picking cotton on a plantation, but you can't really say you're all that free either. Keep messing with that recipe until it's exactly to your liking.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:32:00 +0000

Perhaps the best way is to get everyone to own a business. Whole Foods founder John Mackey was a self-professed “democratic socialist” as a collegian. He turned libertarian when he opened his first store and was barely making any money while being accused by employees of paying too little and by customers of charging too much.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:23:00 +0000

I think you take for granted just how much you think about economics, capitalism, and just plain thinking in general. What I find are a lot of people who are quite good thinkers, they just haven’t thought much at all about this issue. Anybody, no matter who you are, will not know much nor care much about a topic if they haven’t had an experience to cause them to care and then start to research it further. Our job is to continually educate people and to ask good questions that get them to think and not assume.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Alright Daniel, this is your shot. Unleash the dogs of war!

By: JohnK

JohnK — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0000

You’ve got a point. It’s as if they want it both ways. They want markets as long as they win. Then when someone else wins they want the government to step in and make things “fair”.
These are usually the same people who like to say “We are government”, and they believe that empowering the government empowers the people.
They just need a little deprogramming. For some it takes the form of having a family, for others it takes the form of being mugged.

By: Justin P

Justin P — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Maybe but for some reason I just can’t understand it, even if it is all for power. I mean take a typical college kid that says they hate corporations and greed and capitalism….but is going to college in order to make alot of money. Or the same kid that hates capitalism but loves ebay. Is it just plain ignorance?