"The European Commission wants EU governments to jointly combat the growing economic slowdown with a €200 billion ($256.22 billion) stimulus plan to boost growth and confidence among consumers and businesses."
Look, governments do not generate revenue, okay? They don't make anything, sell anything, or create anything... (Well, except red tape and bizarre and inexplicable regulations, but those are hard to charge for when you can get them for free at your local church or bridge club.)
Any money that the government "pumps into" the economy to "boost" it had to be pumped out of the economy in the form of taxes in the first place. Why is this so hard to understand? You can't raise the water level in a swimming pool by siphoning its contents from the deep end to the shallow end, nor can you build a wall higher by removing bricks from the bottom and putting them on top. Why is this extremely simple fact so terrifically difficult for otherwise smart people to grasp?
The chOsen One has made noises about revitalizing the American economy by hiring people to dig holes and fill them back up again, and pay them with the taxes that come out of their paychecks, and apparently sane people nod their heads sagely and think this will work. Unglaublich!
15 comments:
Well said, and a pox on the EU.
Look, it's Europe, they suck, they are socialist idiots, when they get into trouble, they will run to us to bail them out, next............
Oh, I don't know. The gummint could raise some cash privateering. Which would be amusing.
And, then again, they could just crank the printing presses to plaid.
Why wouldn't they believe it?
They've been listening to 70 years worth of propaganda describing how FDR saved the world economy by nationalizing everything he could get his hands on.
"Boost" is no idle verb in this context.
It's supposedly about the velocity of money.
It's not enough for there to be money, it has to be changing hands for the economy to run. Right now everyone is rightly clutching what they have and just breathing shallowly. The dubious theory is that the government can inject not money, but motion to the money, to get things going again.
It didn't work in the '30s, but seems to have been some help since then. Worth the cost? Not a chance.
"We are living in a sick society filled with people who would not directly steal from their neighbor, but who are willing to demand that the government do it for them." William L. Comer
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
"To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors." John Stuart Mill
"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." Winston Churchill
"The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced. If the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt, people must again learn to work, instead of living on public assisstance." Marcus Tullius Cicero
And now my favorite.
"If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves." Thomas Sowell
But hey, if if the Govt. promises to stack those bricks in the backyard of people who don't have any bricks, and only keep about half of them for themselves to pay brickstackers, isn't that progress instead of a net loss?
Oh, wait, no. No, it isn't.
KsR
Big Government people have found a way to act like Small Government people, and yet make it looks like their big government ideas were that actual cause. Clever.
Instead of just giving a damn tax cut ala JFK and Ronnie Maximus, they keep the tax rate up, then issue government checks to all, to make it look like you're really getting something for nothing, when in fact you're just getting back what they took in the first place, the fruits of your efforts.
Then they can say, "see, we in Big Government know more than you, and know when to *let* you have some of *our* money to play with."
wf: exeeplef. Yeah, expletive, indeed.
If we're tossing quotes around here is one of my favorites:
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. - Henry Lewis Mencken
Screw this, I'm emigrating to Ireland!
TBeck,
If they changed their gun laws and got rid of that idiotic socialized medicine I would happily return to the land of my ancestors. Well, the land of some of my ancestors anyway.
Kick the Queen's ass as she leaves.
Inbred bastards.
Codeword BROOT.
I really get the good ones!
"hiring people to dig holes and fill them back up again, and pay them with the taxes that come out of their paychecks"
As apt an analogy of communism as I have ever read. It's going to be a long 4 years.
See you at the WPA camp! :)
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