Re: OT-BUSH Breaking the Bank?

In article <12a9f1hdkf0ngb4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Hawke" <desmithe@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I thought I already told you that government spending isn't the same as real
economic growth. Any government can collect taxes and buy war materials with
it. That isn't economic growth. If it was everyone should be for higher
taxes and higher spending. It's all good for the economy, right? Hell no.
Government takes money out of the economy and spending it only is good if it
is used for capital improvements, not wars. That's a net loss.

I'm asking this question humbly, not sarcastically: Isn't it the case
that what's important in a healthy economy is the flux, not the volume,
of money? If a government taxes and spends, sure, the present taxpayer
gets bitten. But if the cash is spent in the country, it's being paid or
given to other folks who then spend it. The tax funds don't get burned,
they just get diverted to a different pipe for a while. (My posing this
question doesn't mean that I particularly _like_ paying taxes, just that
I think I understand why I ought to.)

Now, my question notwithstanding, there is a big dose of highway robbery
in federal, state, and local taxing bodies.

Someone can fill in the details of this next observation. I was reading
something historical lately (Trollope? Costain?) that described the
English "Commons." According to the book, when times got tough the
commoners could scrounge a living off the commons by hunting, farming,
what-have-you. "Enclosure" was a gambit the landowners wanted so that
they could get revenue from the Commons and to hell with the little
people. BTW, I read "The Tragedy of the Commons" when it was first
published--look it up, it's a good read. But back to the commons. Here's
a question for the rugged individualists: how is some poor bloke stuck
in an inner city supposed to hunt or farm? The "safety net" of a
wide-open continent is gone. Perhaps it's wise to have a "virtual
commons?" Sure, tighten welfare rules and so forth. Make aid equivalent
to homesteading in some sense. The "Commons" for a large technological
society is ... tax money.

Maybe in this and other threads, the various posters might separate the
"commons" and the "highway robber" facets of the question at hand?

--
"Keep your ass behind you."
.

Relevant Pages

  • Excerpt: Prepared Remarks for Speech to Lincoln Club Annual Dinner
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    (alt.politics.bush)
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  • Re: Here Comes Socialism
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    (soc.retirement)
  • Here Comes Socialism
    ... years that will permanently change our government, ... they are aligned for Obama. ... system and the economy. ... And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle ...
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  • Re: Here Comes Socialism
    ... years that will permanently change our government, ... America. ... system and the economy. ... And he will so sharply cut taxes on the middle ...
    (soc.retirement)