To each according to his need.*
Vote Stealth 2008!
Update: I mean, what’s the alternative? Trust market forces to sort things out?
The pace of new home sales in the US rose by 2.7 per cent last month – a much better figure than forecast by economists – as low prices fostered a flurry of activity in the stricken US housing market amid an intensifying financial crisis.
New home sales rose to an annualised rate of 464,000 units after dropping by a steep 12.3 per cent in August, the US commerce department said on Monday. The inventory of unsold homes also dropped, from 11.4 months’ supply in August to 10.4 months’ supply last month.
As if.
Update 2: The Constitution is “fundamentally flawed“. Oh, if there was only some mechanism to amend it!
This, combined with word today that LA Times will not release the video of Obama’s participation at the dinner for Khalid al Masour may be enough for some who still need convincing.
For those under the influence, it won’t stick. Nothing will stick. Too little, too late. I haven’t given up, but wonder in amazement at the popular vote who think this singularly dangerous demagogue represents our best hope.
Sadly, our system has promoted and offered some pretty scary candidates, from both parties.
(And fearing I was using the wrong word had to pause to check six: Demagogy: refers to a political strategy for obtaining and gaining political power by appealing to the popular prejudices, emotions, fears and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist or populist themes.” Uh, yup.
What is intriguing, is the similarity between this line of thinking, and the following:
Authors? Just some folks in the neighborhood.
I did my bit to reduce the housing backlog in September……
The missing piece of the story is that the housing inventory is still the closest it has been in recent years to the all time record rate (April of 1980).
The question is where and how did Lex stumble on to this video. Perhaps David Bernstein, a correspondent of The Volokh Conspiracy, (Center Right Legal Blog) might provide the answer in his post dated Monday, October 27, 2008 at 6:35 AM, to wit:
Frère David Bernstein’s complete post deserves a read, as he makes mincemeat out of brother Drudge’s crude attempt to twist Obama’s words into clearly what they are not. He provides a link to the whole radio interview, which the video, much to Mr. Drudges delight, scissors to alter meaning.
“Redistribution of Wealth” is down stream and an entirely separate issue from “Income Disparity” (i.e. “Income Inequality”), an issue folks seem to have a tad bit of difficulty getting their heads straight on. It is not that hard, it is a term that refers to spread, or gap between the wealthy, and middle and lower income groups. The CIA recognizes Income Disparity/Inequality as a measure of potential instability in different countries and has chosen a mathematical expression, the Gini Coefficien, as means to quantify this economic index.
The Gini indices for the United States at various times, according to the US Census Bureau are as follows:
* 1967: 39.7 (first year reported)
* 1968: 38.6 (lowest index reported)
* 1970: 39.4
* 1980: 40.3
* 1990: 42.8
* 2000: 46.2
* 2005: 46.9
* 2006: 47.0 (highest index reported)
* 2007: 46.3 [3]
It is clear that Income Disparity has been steadily increasing since 1970 and in the Wikipedia article I have linked to above, compares it to other countries. A recent study by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as reported by Yahoo goes a bit further:
Strikes me you either ignore this kind of data, or you recognize it, and ponder whether it deserves correction.
The linked “video”, with its graphic representation of “noise” over the audio of the radio interview of Obama is telling. Only at the end do we get a 2 second video of Obama and Joe the Plumber, which begins to define the exercise. Income Disparity is nothing we have to worry about, it is the “Redistribution of Wealth” (what ever that means) that is the monster that will destroy our society.
The Big Picture back in February ’08 had a nice little read on this topic. I offer as an anti-dote to the U-Tube Video that Lex is enthralled with. I am sure that some will immediately focus on the fact that the opening sentence sports a noun that I reserve for only the most inane commentaries, to wit:
My sainted mother would fully agree, if the word video was substituted for the (my) italicized word commentary in the above quote, the video would be nothing but tripe.
Yet, to put Income Disparity, and Income Redistribution, into its proper framework, the link to Big Picture deserves a read…
The question, pace our occasional visits from “Fawns Are Us” – we all have our crosses to bear, but was there ever, in the words of the immortal Yeats, any dog that praised his fleas? – is not how Lex stumbled upon this little piece of trivia. It ought to be, 1) an analysis of what the man clearly says, and 2) why so many people are so very desperate to demonstrate that he’s not saying that at all.
Questioning the provenance of your host’s discoveries is a time honored form of ad hominem and appeal to motive that gracelessly elides the content of an issue in favor of, what, exactly?
A thing cannot be true because Lex believes it to be so.
That may check the block of those that preach to the choir, but it will not bring new members to the flock.
All else, as so many of my friends so often say, is commentary.
OP, allow me the luxury of rebutting you based upon the principles, not the facts. Because I don’t see mobs tearing down Cernegie libraries because he was so much more wealthy than the working man at the time (according to my grandfather, $0.10/hr for a skilled laborer like a welder or machinist). My premise is that income inequality isn’t an issue unless laziness is involved, and I don’t wish to engage in the strawman of a Communist nation having 100% employment where that employment was not subject to the laws of supply and demand.
While it is true that income disparity is a fact of life in a calitalist system (whereas those vacation houses, dachau’s I believe they were called, in the former People’s Socialist Republic were merely compensation for their long, arduous hours in meetings and attending Glorious Tractor Factory openings…), income mobility is something that differentiates a capitalist system versus a socialist system. In short, maybe I got lucky to earn what I do, but the harder I work the luckier I get, and if I was poor last week chances are I’m not this week.
So the real question is, what is best for the country and the people?
Because I’m ready to give all this on-call time, the late nights, the heavy drinking, the barking mad women, and laying in bed reading spec sheets while eating Nescafe out of the jar with a spoon, and I’d give it up in an instant for a job cleaning up roadside trash. For $120/hr.
Show me the money, I’ll embrace Socialism with a bear-hug. Can’t show me that what I bring to the economic table isn’t worth more as those on the dole, I see no reason to be chagrined by earning more than they.
But I might be chagrined at an Administration that takes from me and mine, at the point of a gun, to give to those less productive.
You can give tax credits for secondary education, but you cannot make them learn or apply themselves. There’s money from my pocket to a college attendee, and no accountability that they even make grades.
In short, you’re taking from the productive to give to the unproductive in the hopes the latter will somehow get a boost.
My experience is that the unproductive are that way for a few reasons, and lack of my money isn’t one of them. There may be a few who benefit, there are far more who will not.
I’ve been told that liberals and such tend to like Darwin, in favor of the creationism angle. How can one claim survival of the fittest is a good idea when it comes to the species then claim the fittest need to give, at the point of a gun, the resources they garnered to the unfit because it’s socially just?
Sorry, just not seeing the logical consistency here.
– Max
Of course Obama will redistribute wealth.
He’ll redistribute it from the working professional and small businessmen to his buddies at Goldman Sachs (five million in donations to him this year, if I remember correctly). He’ll redistribute it from your doctor to some CEO’s son like Ayers. He’ll redistribute it from Americans out there busting their asses – to those who wish to bust American’s asses.
He will take money from, in Sarah Palin’s words, “real Americans” and put it in the hands of our urban elite overlords.
OP, I fear I’ve done you a disservice, in that while you’ve carefully contrived a post with links to sources and all that, I posted mine while bottling the Little Tricycle Motor. And while jokes about posting one-handed abound I fear that was my style at the time so I may have inadvertantly missed some of your points.
Not your problem, I freely admit.
But then, neither is my income, or how I spend my time, which sort of brings us back to the original point.
— Max
Income disparity…I see one of two things there. Either
a.) the rich have been working their asses off to make more money or
b.) the poor have STOPPED working their asses off to get out of the hole they were in.
Why bother working when you know the government will take care of you?
To those that seek the truth, where Lex found this matters not a whit. There is no “twisting of words” — Obama’s words speak for themselves. That is what makes them so damning, and what calls for so much diversion.
What is germane, in a significant sidebar, is who found it. As Bill Whittle observes:
Here is a humorous perspective on this issue. With my thanx to our own Miss Birdlegs.
Obama is a liar, pure and simple. We’ve seen it countless times thru this campaign; we’ve also seen him get a pass on it just about every time. It doesn’t matter where Lex found the video – it’s out there and it’s not being seen enough.
Obama’s words say it all – he is the consummate politician and I”m not saying that as a compliment.
Ought to be an interesting week………………
Most people on this list will pay the same in taxes in 2009 as they will for 2008. I know I will-no matter who wins.
The real question is whether the cost for goods and services will go up -and whether the cost for things like housing will go up. E.G. how much of your discretionary income is left back to you. More things affect that than politics.
Skippy, it is true our taxes will not change in 09, but in 2010 and beyond are you willing to make the same statement? I think not, so your point while true is nothing more than a strawman arguement. When changes in tax policy is implemented that will change the cost of goods, the health of the economy and the levels of employment and the compensation of employment. Along with a whole host of unintended consequences. Evidence suggests that raising taxes on those that have the extra wealth will not benefit those who will get a free handout as much as allowing the wealthy to invest in the economy.
Skippy — don’t be so sure that 2009 taxes will be the same as 2008. Remember 1993? Clinton’s retroactive tax increase?
But I won’t see 250K a year for a long time, if ever. So when I do the math-it ends up the same.
Plus I would submit that “wealthy invest in the economy” is a pretty big if. I mean they did so much of that in the past four years did they not?
A thing cannot be true because Lex believes it to be so.
Nothing like one of my ponderous “commentary” to bring out the best in Lex, to wit:
and…
and of course..
Mai non, mon ami, I was just trying to point out that the U-Tube clip in question had no identifiable author, and as pointed out by our brother in arms, David Bernstein, was selectively snipped and glued together to give a false impression of the Obama radio interview. That it is a clever mind bender, non would deny. That it went viral, with a little pat on the fanny from the Drudge report, is apparent. That it is being utilized by the McCain campaign to portray Obama as a (gasp, Oooh no) closet socialist is predictable. To wit, from that dreadful heinous rag:
The central question remains, why will the author of this video not step forward and take a bow? Questioning the “provenance” (def: the place of origin or earliest known history of something) of presented material is a reasonable exercise between two correspondents who pay honor to truth as they trade an occasional (cough, cough) barb.
As for Income Inequality, an issue that Obama has floated up during this Presidential Campaign, it is either a problem, or no problem at all. You either accept that the disparity has been steadily increasing over the past 30 to 40 years, or you blindly reject the data. MaxDamage (com #6) argues a variant of the rugged individual, Ann Rand philosophy to explain income disparity – if so our Hero’s are those who make money, our failed Hero’s are those who get caught in illegal activity, and the best way to level the playing field is to deregulate the economy.
William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet and nationalist, Nobel Prize Laureate, failed lover of Maud Gonne, and despiser of the Gaelic language, is there any literary hero I could possibly bring forth to match Lex’s trump card? Meanwhile, in the State of Lex’s childhood, we have further evidence that one political party has nothing but contempt for the intelligent quotient of the other.
But I will agree with MaxDamage that those socialists who dream of untold gains may be sorely disappointed.
But I won’t see 250K a year for a long time, if ever.
To quote Lee Corso, “not so fast, my friend”. You file single, right? For you, the number is $160K, taxable. And even that is a moving target — just see how Joe Biden moved the number lower today. The train wreck, which I see no evidence that he is willing to avoid, is the clash between revenues, and his committments. What happens when more money is required to deliver on his extensive promises? Where does he go get it?
For reasons that are unclear, my last link, which explores socialism (aka something for nothing), as it occurs in the animal kingdom, did not take. It can be found below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9TA4FyvZsE
Just waiting for the OPie’s keys to the Executive Bathroom to be confiscated…
You forget, I get a tax “benefit” from my alimony.
just see how Joe Biden moved the number lower today.
And this is before the clown contingent of the Pelosi and Reid Congressional Circus gets their hands on it.
I don’t understand how people can be so gullible as to think that Obama can simply wave his hands (note that I stayed away from his Dumbo-like ears, at least until this parenthetical) and make his dreams come true to his vision. Congress has a very healthy say in this, and I’m wagering that I will like their edits even less than I do Obama’s original proposal.
We will all pay the piper if we own stocks in our 401K – higher capital gains rates – or stand to gain an inheritance after 2010.
Good grief OP are you stupid? You want a man to step forward and take a bow for what you deem is an attack on the ONE. Look at what happens to those who dare merely to question Him and ask yourself what kind of idiot would invite that upon himself?
OP, while the video was rather cute, in an Ice Age sort of way, I seem to have missed the reference to socialism and something for nothing in it. Perhaps you’d do better to find a new video, perhaps a performance art rendition of The Grasshopper and The Ant?
There’s *gotta* be one out there. Believe me, I’m married to an artist. I *know*.
And while I thank you for the compliment of being a rugged individualist, I see myself as being more self-reliant than anything else. It’s a trait of where I’ve grown up. I don’t ask for charity, I ask for trade — if I need help from my neighbor for a task he knows as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow when he needs help I’ll be there. If I borrow something from him, it will be returned in better condition or it will be replaced if I’ve inadvertantly broken it.
Likewise, he knows a handshake with me means as much as a 300-page contract with my mortgage holder. We trade/barter with each other so no taxable money changes hands, I get what I wish and he does as well.
But above all my goal is to be able to provide for my family, if I constantly need help then I need to make a change.
That I can believe in. (rimshot!)
It’s a good system for a rural area. Maybe not so good for an urban one. You’ll recall my note that the trend is towards urbanization, specifically towards the coasts. Urbanites scare the bejeebus out of me. Recall Katrina and Baton Rouge. Recall the floods in Cedar Rapids, IA just last spring. Note anything of difference?
Cedar Rapids wasn’t huddled in a sports stadium waiting for FEMA to help. Cedar Rapids stayed in their homes, the Media found no story to cover there. Cedar Rapids had people filling sandbags rather than pilfering stores.
Those are the folks I call my neighbors, that is the group I’m from. We’re self-reliant. We do what we can, call for help when we need, and we repay that debt when it’s called.
And those of us who pull our weight build a credit with our neighbors, we’re called upon before those who are lazy or not interested. And we reap the rewards when it’s our time to ask for help.
If that makes me an Ayn Rand groupie, well, the days are getting shorter, I shall have to read her this winter.
And sure I won’t make $250K this year. Many of my neighbors, farmers, will. Perhaps not in profits, but they’ll see a couple of million flow in from the sale of cash crops. They also have quarter-million dollar equipment to depreciate, land taxes on a thousand acres to deduct, and it’s all on their personal income tax return. The income tax return on a small business with an employee roster of one.
$250K in income is a nice round figure. Sure to impress the folks working on a per-hour basis in one of these small businesses. The Devil, as they say, is in the details and I honestly do not trust Pelosi and Reid to adjust the tax code such that my cash-rich and wealth-poor neighbors will not be affected.
– Max