Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘wealth’

Update – Rich Man Poor Man

About two years ago I wrote a post about what “poor” really means in America and what amenities many of those below the poverty line have.  I don’t want to delve back into that because you can read the original post at this link.  I was somewhat perplexed by the fact that the poverty line in the United States seems rather static in that we always have a certain percentage of folks below the line and I believe that there is political incentives to always have the poor.  The poor seem to be a handy voting block for whoever will promise them the most entitlements.  I generally stopped there in my deep thoughts, but there is more.

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Too (Tu)

The dictionary defines too as:

  1. In addition; also:
  2. More than enough; excessively:
  3. To a regrettable degree:
  4. Very; extremely; immensely

Synonyms:  devilishly, excessively, exorbitantly, inordinately, intolerably, monstrously, overly, overmuch, unacceptably, unduly

“Too bad the only people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and cutting hair”

- - George Burns

“You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.”

- – John Kenneth Galbraith

“Oh, I don’t blame Congress. If I had $600 billion at my disposal, I’d be irresponsible, too.”

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Shifty Focus

You may be please to find out that with over 9 percent unemployment (and that’s a low accounting of the real unemployment numbers), a slowing economy, inflation soaring, and greater unrest about the Obama Administration they have decided to shift their focus to the private sector to create jobs after having added over 140,000 federal jobs. Obama’s chief economist, Austan Goolsbee, appeared on CNN and made the announcement

“Corporations have become profitable again. What we need to do now is get the private sector stood up.”

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Socialism (soh-shuh-liz-uhm)

Socialism is defined as:

Socialism 2“an economic system of government which advocates state ownership of the means of production with equal distribution of goods among the people.”

  • Socialist governments own the banks, car companies, farmlands, factories, and stores, and is the only employer and consequently owns the means of production.  The government controls all investments, production, distribution, income, and prices, as well as all organizations, schools, news media and formerly private societies.
  • Socialism is the antithesis of capitalism, opposes private ownership of capital or land, and rejects the free market in favor of central planning. 
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Economic Sophisms

If you follow my posts, you probably know that I like economics.  I my travels I had heard about a French writer, Claude Frederic Bastiat who cleverly exposes economic sophisms.   I had thought that sophisms were similar to myths, but a sophism actually is meant to deceive.  I have come to believe that most of the economic drivel that we are fed is meant to fool us while allowing those in power to tinker with our future.

Tinkering is bad.

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