A Pragmatic Case for Romney

[Ayatollah So]

Klein is right on both counts but wrong in his verbiage. There's nothing "pragmatic" about giving ransoms to hostage takers. Unless maybe you're really old, hence won't live to see the consequences, and don't give a dang about anyone else.

Unfortunately, I think most people have forgotten. They've done a good job of deflecting blame from themselves.

This.

Hah! They'll forget in three months, maybe six if death camps are involved. Low information voters and negative ads are the entire ballgame.

And this.

One of these days, Americans are going to remember that politics and electoralism are not the same thing.

And this.

 

[Mr_Hobo]

But why would the US want to become more like Europe at a time when Europe is having to change their policies because they are untenable?

 

[Ajidica]

Well, the policies Europe that lead Europe into its current mess are the policies they adopted from America.

 

[Mr_Hobo]

Such as a shorter work week, socialized medicine, an increased public sector, higher taxes on the rich, etc.? These are the programs austerity measures are targeting (well, other than the higher taxes).

 

[Ajidica]

I was talking more about the increased privatization and decreased regulation of financial institutions.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

We didn't start the fire ...

 

[Cutlass]

But why would the US want to become more like Europe at a time when Europe is having to change their policies because they are untenable?

You have to look at the policies that are the cause of the problem. Extremely conservative monetary policy. Loose banking and finance regulations. Loose financial controls. All policies that the Republicans would fight for.

 

[Mr_Hobo]

However, poor bank investments were encouraged by the Federal banking system which guaranteed bad loans and incentivized giving as many loans as possible. It's a case of government intervention that is seen as a failure in the free market, when, in fact, the opposite is true.

EDIT: Also, the underlying financial problems that Europe is dealing with would have come to a head whether or not there was a banking crisis; any system based on one private-sector job supporting two public-sector jobs cannot sustain itself.

 

[Cutlass]

However, poor bank investments were encouraged by the Federal banking system which guaranteed bad loans and incentivized giving as many loans as possible. It's a case of government intervention that is seen as a failure in the free market, when, in fact, the opposite is true.

EDIT: Also, the underlying financial problems that Europe is dealing with would have come to a head whether or not there was a banking crisis; any system based on one private-sector job supporting two public-sector jobs cannot sustain itself.

The problem being that that is not what happened. All those bad loans were made solely on the initiative of the private sector. And to the extent that the government was involved, the private sector spent decades convincing the government to do those actions. So it was really private initiatives.

 

[GoodGame]

I'd say that regardless, the economy will adapt to social pressures caused by policies. Isn't the argument "no one controls the economy" banded around quite a lot?

We hear "The President doesn't control the economy" and then "Congress doesn't control the economy", etc...

If any party really brings about economic ruin (not just brinkmanship) then what happens? Adaption!


Alternatively, if political stalemate does cause a crash, don't we then expect the parties to vie for our attention being the ones who "saved" the economy (e.g. go back to 2008)?

If cycles of the above permanently break the economy, then honestly expect the conditions to be ripe for a new third party (page through history for examples of such).


Regardless, I'm going to vote for whoever best represents me, not for whoever threatens me harm. There is danger in gaming the behavior of others (like the OP article wants you to do), simply because that may be exactly what other people want you to do. It's best to do what you know is best.

 

[holy king]

Such as a shorter work week, socialized medicine, an increased public sector, higher taxes on the rich, etc.? These are the programs austerity measures are targeting (well, other than the higher taxes).

yeah, because they have to get the money to bail out the financial sector from somewhere.