It's evident that "Free Market" economics have not worked for the U.S. economy as a whole. There is no such thing as "trickle down economics".
Bonus compensation for American executives have killed blue collar dreams... can't say that I'm sorry for them... they at least made their buck while it was there. Time to get in line with the rest of the world as far as management compensation is conerned.
Now we have to go after private government contracts. Trim the fat wherever it is. Hard choices but a fact of life.
Posted by Seven of Six at January 9, 2009 06:01 PMTrickle-down (supply side) economics and deregulation hasn't existed since the 1980's.
The folks who want to inject even more government regulation (”read interference”) into your life insist that the wheels have fallen off the economy because of too little government regulation over the past three decades. Wrong.
Just a few benchmarks to put the lie to their claim:
The federal government averaged 72,844 pages of new regulations a year from 1977 to 1980, aka the Carter years. Reagan reduced that to 54,335. Deregulation.
But Bush One saw it increase to 59,527. More regulations equals deregulation?
The Clinton years saw it increase to 71,590, not surprisingly back into the Carter-era neighborhood. How about that notorious deregulator Bush Two? A whopping 75,526 per year, putting even Carter to shame (and we might add, putting himself to shame too).
Then there’s the 63 percent increase in the number of full-time federal government employees from 1980 to 2007, while the nation’s population rose only 33 percent. Do you think they were hired to stay out of your life? And then there’s government spending on regulation (which we alluded to recently) that tripled during that period. Tripled! And there was a 35 percent increase in government spending as a portion of GDP.
That’s not exactly a picture of the hands-off government some now complain has deregulated too much, huh?
Posted by Thuy at January 9, 2009 11:46 PMChrist muck, just sign your name muck!
Posted by Seven of Six at January 10, 2009 06:52 AMIf trickle down does not work, someone better tell President Obama. Every part of his stimulas plan depends on trickle down. He is going to build new roads and bridges. So he is going to give money to the states which is supposed to trickle to the contractors which is supposed to trickle to the workers which is supposed to trickle to the stores etc. Then there are the tax cuts that make up about half of the stimulas. All seem to aimed at business taxes. More trickle.
Oh yeah, he is going to give tax cuts equal to $500 for an individual and $1000 for a couple hoping they will trickle this minute amount into the economy by buying a flat screen TV.
If you want to prove that trickle up works, you should drop $100 dollar bills from helicopters.
Posted by manapp99 at January 10, 2009 08:45 AMIf trickle down does not work, someone better tell President Obama.
I guess you missed the governmental intervention, the part about regulation and transparency for the stimulus package. OMG, things republi-cons hate the most... we know it must be good for America if republi-cons hate it!!
Fucking trolls, figures they would be republi-con obstructionists... they think that battling Obama on the stimulus package is going to work for America... you assholes are the reason we are in this mess... please, remove your head from your ass and either come up with something new that works or STFU... it's obvious that your leadership in economics for the last 28 years has been an abject failure.
Since Ray-gun took office, America has gone from being the largest exporter of manufactured goods, the biggest importer of raw materials and the largest creditor Nation to the largest importer of manufactured goods, the biggest exporter of raw materials and the largest debtor Nation.
Keep up the good work republi-cons, your destruction of America is almost complete.
Posted by Seven of Six at January 10, 2009 10:51 AMSeven, Thuy is muck... Really?? (although based on what was posted I wouldn't be surprised)
I mean just based on the whole simplistic kindergarten/first grade level comparison of the total number of pages of regulation therefore equal to the actual number of total regulation statement. I mean I was laughing so hard at that very pathetic meaningless statistic and theory, I couldn't believe some wingnut posted that here and also thought that we were all so stupid to agree with or believe it. I even went so far to type a comment (that I later deleted because it wasn't very good) explaining to said wingnut just a couple of thoughts and key points as to why that comparison was rather lame on it's face but then just deleted it. I figured the that the person was most likely not intelligent enough to understand or follow the logic of it. ( You know it dealt in less concrete terms such as the false premise that more also equals better, or that it even meant more, or that it's not how many pages it what is written in the pages and what the regulation(s) might actually say. And more important issues like if the regulations would get enforced, the intelligence/qualification level of the enforcer (like Heckuva job Brownie), etc....but figured it was way too complex and over this person's cognitive skill level.
Hey but I figure I might be able to convince the person that s/he is wealthier than me too because he might have a 100 coins (pennies) and well I only have 75 coins (dimes). I mean 100 > 75 and so therefore s/he has more money too. Plus, well we all know that pennies take up more physical space than dimes too....(hello kindergarten first grade math concepts. again, I almost tried to inject some reason into the commentary but I figured that it wasn't even worth it.
If the delusions are necessary for their survival ...well who am I to stop them. They just look so stupid posting here. I almost feel sorry for them, almost...but if it's self centered and money wor$hipping muck$ter, I definitely have no sympathy.
Posted by emal at January 10, 2009 11:17 AMYeah, it's muckdog... he posts under the same "sockpuppet" name at L&L. 'Cept he uses "Thuy Lam"... the guy is obsessed with Asian women. His website is usually full of half-naked women, (mostly Asian). Actually, Phid is the first to become suspect but it became apparent the new poser was muck. I figure he morphed because he was catching a lot of flack being his own identity.
Posted by Seven of Six at January 10, 2009 12:06 PMmanapp99...you are equating spending with trickle down. Trickle down refers to policies like tax rebates that concentrate wealth in the investing class. The assumption is that they will then increase over all wealth. I think the last 20 years have shown that is crap! :) It is fair to question the wisdom and velocity of the stimulus plan but that is a very different thing.
Posted by allansfca at January 10, 2009 03:05 PM