…from Paul Ryan. I really, really wish he was running.
[Late afternoon update]
How to make it in America.
[Update Thursday morning]
More math lessons for the political class in general: why Washington will collapse. When something can’t go on, eventually it doesn’t.
[Update a while later]
Seven reasons Obama is wrong on income inequality.
[Bumped]
Ryan’s argument is that European-style tax rates will kill our exceptional, uniquely American income mobility. He seems utterly ignorant of the fact that income mobility is much higher in Europe, something that even Rick Santorum knows. Ryan is so clueless about economic reality that he doesn’t even realize what he doesn’t know.
Bullshit. There’s a reason America is called the land of opportunity and why people from all over the world want to live here. The welfare state destroys mobility where ever it’s tried. You can lie with all the statistics you like (your selectivity is corrupt.)
Not that you don’t want to make it so by destroying the capital that makes capitalism possible. We could unite and go after the real criminals in this society but you’d rather support them. It’s disgusting Jim.
You want to burn the house down and tell us the tea party did it. Once the house is raised you’ll make a graph showing it’s anybodies fault but your own.
Nobody lies better than a guy with a graph or table of phony statistics (or aren’t you aware that all the numbers can be real but be presented in a lie. You should, as you do it constantly as in this case by ignoring contrary evidence.)
Did you even read the article? That BS is exactly what it addressed!
His comment was pre-update.
…things that aren’t true. Bad congressman!
Absolutely not. Ryan is far more valuable in congress where he can stay for decades and be a major force for limited, fiscally same government.
Agreed.
Here’s another math lesson from Obama based on his announced plan to restructure student loan debt. Basically, he announced that debt repayment will be capped at 10% of income for 20 years. After 20 years, the debt is forgiven.
Some kids are graduating with huge student loan debts, often exceeding $100,000 and I’ve read of cases topping $250,000 for law and medical school graduates. That’s the price of a good home in many parts of the country.
Now, imagine we were talking about home mortgages instead of student loans. Suppose Obama offered home buyers the same deal – you can run up whatever debt you want and your payments will be limited to no more than 10% of your income for 20 years. Any mortgage balance after 20 years gets forgiven – meaning it’ll be picked up by the taxpayers. What do you suppose the outcome would be? Instead of trying to buy a home people coule afford, everyone would try to get a mansion. Instead of trying to build homes people could afford, every house would be priced like a mansion. There would be no incentive to control costs and prices would skyrocket.
If Obama’s plan goes through, the same thing will happen in education. Kids will stay in school longer and run up ever higher debt. Since the payments are capped, it doesn’t matter if they have $100,000 in debt or a million dollars in debt for that double doctorate in Womyn’s Studies/Basketweaving – they aren’t going to pay for it. Colleges will continue their massive increases in prices because there is no incentive to control costs (even worse than today). The taxpayers get stuck with the bill, the academics prosper, and society gets more graduates with worthless degrees. How this benefits socieity is a proof left to the reader.
Obama is once again trying to buy votes for next year and setting up the taxpayers for a massive debt after he has left office. I don’t know if he’s just a moron at financial matters, plain evil, or an evil moron.
Cloward–Piven
And over that time period the interest will keep ticking so the taxpayer will have to shell out more money in the long run than if they just payed the tuition while the person was in school.
OTOH, if that goes through, I might consider an MA in Afro-Lesbian Studies. Awww-yeah! 🙂
The “Seven Reasons” article tries to keep the focus on median income, much like the magician tries to keep you looking at his assistant.
Whenever you look at a statistical analysis, you look at median and average. If the median is lower than the average, (which it is when we talk income) then the sample is skewed high, which is exactly what we’re seeing here.
Now, you can argue that this is not a problem or not fixable, but arguing that income inequality isn’t real and growing is like arguing that gravity doesn’t exist.
Quoting a comment from the linked site:
Mike says:
October 27, 2011 at 10:30 am
The cost of prosperity for all is that some people will become rich. Deal with it!!
Conversely, there will always be a bottom 10% of people who will never succeed– often because of a toxic mix of drug problems, personality problems, lack of motivation, and bad luck. There is NO social or economic order that would allow such people to keep pace with the most gifted, most motivated, most successful money-makers in the country.
It’s like saying that there is a problem because the world record for the 100 yard dash keeps getting faster, but people in wheelchairs are not making similar gains.
“It’s like saying that there is a problem because the world record for the 100 yard dash keeps getting faster, but people in wheelchairs are not making similar gains.”
Eric for the win
I believe a fairly good size of the poor class are new entrants into the economy: immigrants and young people. After all you got to start somewhere. When you learn to walk it is all about just putting one foot in front of the other. But once you master than then you can run like the wind. So, these new entrants usually move on fairly quickly in to higher classes of economic prosperity. In other words, they’s just passin’ through.
It is pretty easy for the rich to get richer. All they have to do is invest in low risk investments like municipal bonds. There are any number of ways to make money if you already have money to make your ideas a reality. But why start a business when you will be demonized for its success?
There isn’t some Beckian conspiracy theory to keep poor people poor or prevent them from taking advantage of the numerous avenues available to poor people to improve their situation in life. However, there is a Beckian conspiracy theory to destroy capitalism and our political system.
So, since 1979, a period that included four Republican presidents, we’ve been embarked on a process to “destroy capitalism?”
Do you seriously believe that?
So, since 1979, a period that included four Republican presidents, we’ve been embarked on a process to “destroy capitalism?”
Certainly many of “us” have. Particularly the ones that didn’t vote Republican (though many of the ones that did are the problem as well).
I was referring to the OWS movement that seeks to topple the government and replace the economic system.
There is an active conspiracy working behind the scenes to achieve this goal. They claim to be leaderless but there is a network of organizers working together for a common goal, just like the journOlist.
Is that a joke? There are no low-risk investments anymore. Not any that beat inflation.
Let’s not forget other big ones: high-fecundity, low IQ and a culture of failure (“You actin’ white!”). Really, that last one is perhaps the most insidious, infecting even those possessing the requisite admixture to make in the USA: passion and talent.