Mike Rosen
(Populists equalize poverty, Jan. 19, 2007). Close down all the food banks and homeless shelters - we don’t need them!
When trying to justify the unjust, Mr. Rosen tries to marginalize those who do not think like he does. He likes to label people to equate them with something bad ("progressives” equals “socialists"). He presents weak excuses, such as income inequality being a “result of the concentration of abilities in a minority of men". Last time I checked, there were a lot more people with abilities than just the top 1-2% of the population.
Mr. Rosen also likes to present the “straw man” argument to justify his position. In this case, the “only” alternative to policies of progressive taxation is “absolute income and wealth equality". Really?
There are NO other alternatives? Why do we send politicians to Washington? We could have Mr. Rosen solve all our problems!
Then, Mr. Rosen tells us to be wary of misleading economic statistics “glibly tossed around by populist politicians", and then he “glibly”
throws out a misleading statistic of his own - one that he really loves, since he uses it ALL the time. “[T]he top 2 percent of Americans pay two-thirds of all income taxes". That is using a small number versus a large number to mislead the reader. How about this statistic: the richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth. Or, in the years 1983 through 1998, the average household wealth of the top 1% in the U.S. increased by 42.2%, while the bottom 40% DECREASED by 76.3%.
My hard work just results in the guys at the top getting insanely wealthy, while I get a token raise, or lose my job to outsourcing. With those odds, where is the incentive to work harder?
Larkspur
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Although Rosen uses Straw Man arguments frequently, I think passage you cite here is more of a False Dilemma argument, i.e., suggesting one must chose between only two options, when there actually are myriad options.
Rosen has cornered the market on a specific kind of rightist politics: anti-populism. Listening to his program, he often advocates special treatment for the wealthy because they are, well, wealthy, and therefore better than you or me. The funny thing is, he tries to convince us to go along with this. - J
I can't wait for the Bokanovsky process personally.
Posted by on January 30, 2007 02:54 AMHey Mark take your hard work and start a business and then you will be one of the guys at the top. If it makes you mad that there are people out there with more than you, do something about it and go get yours. Now of course this requires a huge commitment from you to to start a business and be a producer and not just a taker and complainer.
Why sit there and whine about your job being outsourced or if you do lose it create your own. Its very easy and only requires a lot of hard work and long hours to get it going, but in the end you will be very happy knowing that you are at the top of the pile looking down instead of looking up waiting for what the other guy has.
Please do the rest of us a big favor the next time you make any economic states such as '1983 through 1998, the average household wealth of the top 1% in the U.S. increased by 42.2%, while the bottom 40% DECREASED by 76.3%.' If that would have happened we as a country would have been in deep dodo.
Please let us know what your new business is going to be and I for one will use your service to help you get moving on a positive note.
Mike Rosen is on target and correct in his opinions on economics, free markets, taxation, demand economies vs. command economies, labor/capital, and why wealth tends to congregate. Milton Friedman was also of this caliber and is my hero - as a BA Econ grad from CU in 81. God rest his soul. How the left can look out onto the world and see the ashes of a failed command economy state like the USSR, Cuba, N Korea, and the stifled and uncreative socialist sisters in western Europe who would kill for our growth and unemployment rates and our unrivaled entrepreneurial system - baffles me to no end. Yet they contunue to do so, over and over again.
Posted by Michael on January 30, 2007 07:30 AM