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Man, I don't know what that guy's trying to pull--describing himself as a conservative when he's such an obvious raving liberal.
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Jan 2003
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"But at a time when unemployment is very, very low, and the kinds of jobs that are being exported are, to put it mildly, fairly lousy jobs..."
OSC has this part wrong, unfortunately. While it's true that, in the past, the jobs exported to other countries were indeed "fairly lousy jobs," the majority of jobs being exported since the last downturn have been middle-class programming and manufacturing jobs -- exactly the kind of jobs that used to make up the backbone of the blue-collar economy and the first stage on the tech job ladder.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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What I mostly agreed with in this weeks's essay is the concept of moderation. I don't know why moderates get a bad name in this country. Just because we won't take a radical position, or get rabid about any position, doesn't mean we don't have a real opinion, or that we don't feel strongly about it.
Extremes are almost always dangerous and foolish. The best course isn't always in the very middle, but it is often nearby.
Of course, a moderate is still allowed to have relatively extreme views on a few topics, but if it becomes more than a few, he's not really a moderate, is he?
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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OSC obviously hasn't endured a call to an offshore tech support center. Not that I have, but...
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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UofUlawguy, I dunno...I hold extreme points of view on many different issues, but they are not at the same extreme. Maybe I [I]am[/I} a moderate? If only to have something to call myself...
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote: What I mostly agreed with in this weeks's essay is the concept of moderation.
The problem is that 'moderation' is very personal and subjective. You might think you're a moderate, but to someone else you might be some fringe character.
There are no conservatives who want no taxes. I've never seen any conservative, anywhere, that has ever said that. What they'll say is that they want something along the lines of a so-called constitutional government where the federal government basically just gets taxes for maintaining the army and national defense, and then the issue of further taxes and programs are left up to the states.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I have supported the tax cuts because of my hope that if taxes were cut, budgets would also have to follow eventually. Makes sense, doesn't it? But maybe it's just wishful thinking. Unfortunately republicans don't seem to curtail spending any more than democrats do. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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"I have supported the tax cuts because of my hope that if taxes were cut, budgets would also have to follow eventually."
I, too, have often observed people refusing to pay their credit card bills on the principle that they'll spend less if they have more debt. It's generally a remarkably bad idea.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Gee, that's a good way of putting it. For human beings, it's incredibly stupid. Why is it any different for the government?
Actually, what those people did isn't smart, but I have a different analogy. If I wanted to limit my spending, all I would have to do is limit the amount of money that comes in. But that's because I live debt-free, except for my mortgage. Obviously, the government doesn't even try to live debt-free, and that's where my analogy breaks down.
So, if taxes are lowered, eventually there will be a crisis and either budgets will be cut or the taxes will be raised. I guess there's a part of me that figures that a 50-50 chance of budgets going down is better than none at all...
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Unfortunately, we mere mortals can't easily keep track of, or ally ourselves consistently on, the huge number of spending bills rattling around in the empty heads of free-spending Congresspeople. Each of us has some particular need or desire for one expense or another, and we each support our own but want someone else's cut.
The only way that we can have one thing we all get together and focus on is taxation--virtually no one wants more taxes of any kind. (Except where the tax is not really there to make money, but to act as a restriction--eg, a cigarette tax.) So we call for reduced taxes and hope that the government isn't totally devoid of sense and will cut spending as well.
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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