From Tom Sullivan at Hullabaloo:
He goes on. His comments on conservative ideas of how to control health-care costs are particularly revealing.
The bottom line is that conservatives don't understand economics -- but those of us who actually thought about it have known that since Reagan and his "trickle-down" economics. As I observed to a friend at the time, the real driving force behind that idea is that they -- those in control of the wealth -- can stop the trickle whenever they want to.
Which leads inevitably to the conclusion that conservatives -- especially the libertarian branch -- are ideologically opposed to the American system.
Sidebar: This ties in to my conviction that morality -- real morality, not the tribal taboos espoused by the "religious" right -- is part and parcel of our psychological make-up as social animals: we take care of each other because it benefits the group and us as individuals. Which is why I've been known to classify libertarianism as morally bankrupt. (See Paul Ryan.)
This month, Washington Monthly looked at a libertarian economist Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University's Mercatus Center. Tabarrok went looking for the effects of federal regulation on "economic dynamism" expecting to find support for the conservative dogma that government regulation harms the economy. He found none. What is remarkable is he published the paper anyway.
He goes on. His comments on conservative ideas of how to control health-care costs are particularly revealing.
The bottom line is that conservatives don't understand economics -- but those of us who actually thought about it have known that since Reagan and his "trickle-down" economics. As I observed to a friend at the time, the real driving force behind that idea is that they -- those in control of the wealth -- can stop the trickle whenever they want to.
Which leads inevitably to the conclusion that conservatives -- especially the libertarian branch -- are ideologically opposed to the American system.
Sidebar: This ties in to my conviction that morality -- real morality, not the tribal taboos espoused by the "religious" right -- is part and parcel of our psychological make-up as social animals: we take care of each other because it benefits the group and us as individuals. Which is why I've been known to classify libertarianism as morally bankrupt. (See Paul Ryan.)
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