September 2008 seemed like a lifetime ago: 2 months before the elections and nobody was entirely sure who was going to win. The two teams being the Democrats who always batted with the left when it came up to the plate and the Republicans who couldn't decide if they wanted to bat with the right or just stand in the middle and be smacked in the face with the ball.
Anyways, a liberal friend of mine had posted a note on Facebook about a piece of legislation that congress was trying to pass and Bush to sign to bail out the banks that were apparently too big to fail. Thinking about the massive amount of spending that Obama has been doing lately, I figured I'd look back on this discussion that I had with my friend about the bill that marked the beginning of this spending spree that Obama and congress has been having. Since then, some of my views towards government and taxation as well as my understanding of the economy have changed: for instance, I no longer think that the banks should have been bailed out and that they should have been allowed to fail so they could rebuild and reorganize. Also, I no longer think that the rich should be taxed like I had flopped around on the idea of half a year ago.
Below is my friend's Facebook Mobile Note along with the series of long-winded comments that followed in which I only used the initials of the people that they belong to for privacy reasons. And yes, I do notice that I was being a little arrogant in my response to JW's comment.
Mobile Note
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 9:41am
It's interesting. Political analysts recently have been complaining about the candidates proposals almost as if they were equal. McCain's plan costs 300 billion, and obama's more comprehensive plan costs 14. why? Becuase he wants to tax people who have 250,000 /yr income. This makes SENSE. Why are people so narrowminded to think that taxes are bad? and what do middle class people have to complain about? 14 bil is a strain on the deficit but not like 300 bil or 700bil like earlier this week. What does everyone else think?
-Ty
JG at 4:11pm September 24
Now the problem with taxing the rich like Obama proposes is that the rich know how to better spend their money than people on welfare and the such. They're typically more educated, so they are smarter about what they invest in. And the problem still is the fact that the money that we'll be paying to help out these companies is money that we can be investing into the failing economy. The government is taking our hard-earned money to do whatever they want with it. True, most of the time it is for a good cause, but a lot of times it's all pork barreled and wasted. So in that sense, taxes ARE bad.
TU at 5:21pm September 24
TAXES aren't bad. A road to nowhere and a 700 bil bail IS bad. And the rich know how to spend their money, but some taxing will give us enough without taxing people who WOULD have to change their lifestyle if taxes got higher. Middle class can't afford more taxing, the richer people can with enough left over to invest. Rich people dont give poor people healthcare and roads, the government does.
JG at 5:38pm September 24
True. I fully agree with having the rich taxed, but targeting JUST the people with higher income and not distributing a good portion of that weight to the lower and middle class like Obama suggests doesn't work all too well in the long run.
BM at 3:05pm September 25
I believe... the rich should be taxed. One of the reasons we're in this situation is because the rich were given tax breaks. The top 1% of America's wealthiest people are getting 20% of the profits. Its unproportional and doesn't make sense. Maybe to Republicans it does, but I think its dumb.
I'm backing Obama on this one.
JG at 5:09pm September 25
Like I said before, you can't force all the taxes on the rich. The one's that receive a higher income than most are generally more smarter about what to invest in. And I mean things that will greatly benefit the economy. So good comes out of it. But when you start loading them with taxes and giving the people who are generally more likely to spend ... Read Moremoney on things that the economy won't benefit from a break, it doesn't work too well in the long run. And you also have to remember that the rich aren't the only ones benefitting from tax breaks. Illegal immigrants, retired citizens, and people on welfare are also fortunate to not have their money taken away away from them by the government, and not only that, a lot of our taxes are actually going towards them. So remember, the next time you pay your taxes, you're buying some illegal alien or some person below the poverty line a free lunch.
BM at 6:34pm September 25
Just because they recieve a higher income, doesn't make them smarter. My IQ is 150 and I get paid minimum wage.
I still firmly stand by my opinion. You won't be able to sway me.
I live below the poverty line. I appreciate getting a free lunch. And I'll gladly share it with an illegal alien. GLADLY.
JW at 7:56pm September 25
the whole reason we're in this mess is because of left winged democrats, and it goes back for 25 years or so starting with carter and clinton
TU at 8:38pm September 25
John, thank you. Sweeping generalizations is exactly what we need.
Bush's tax breaks for the rich had nothing to do with it obviously ;)
TU at 8:40pm September 25
oh, and gordito has a point. Intellegence doesn't mean you have money smarts. And your point could be valid gordito, but only if you think we should tax large corporations more. Thats where the rich's money goes and ends up benefiting most. Remember the 1800's and the trust crap. We want to eliminate holes in the economy that money is sitting in ... Read Morewith taxing, and if thats huge corps then tax them. The reserve needs, well, a RESERVE. no man in america is as proportionally in debt as the country is.
JG at 11:07pm September 25
I'm glad to know that you're as generous as you are, Bonnie, but seeing that they're illegal, illegal aliens have no right to be in this country, especially if they're give not going to give a little back after taking a little.
And to clear up what I said earlier, I'm not prejudice towards those who are having to take in welfare checks. As long as you're trying to make the commitment to succeed in life and not taking in the welfare checks as if the nation owes you that money, I'm perfectly fine with that. But there are many out there though that are like that, generally blacks and latinos, who DO think they're special and DO think the nation owes them the money, so they're robbing us.
Now when I say generally, I don't mean by EVERYONE. I'm fully aware of the fact that there are corporations out there that are corrupt and there are wealthy people out there that wouldn't give anyone a single dime to anyone unless if they had to. And earlier I said that I do agree with taxing the rich, but only to an extent. And you could tax the big corporate businesses, but that would only mean higher prices, like gas for an example. So basically you've accomplished nothing. And if you put the full load on the corporations, prices would skyrocket, making it impossible for us to buy and them to sell. And you know what happens after that.... Read More
And Bonnie, I said they're smarter in what they INVEST in. Not IQ smarts. GENERALLY, the wealthy are people who are more educated in how to better spend their money. That is usually why they become so successful in the first place. I'm not saying this is always the case, but usually it is.
JG at 11:07pm September 25
John, I would back up your statement all the way if you gave more of a valid reason as to why liberals solely to blame. If you're just going to blurt something out and not explain yourself, you're more likely to get a better response from your conservative friends (if you have any that are interested in politics) than in a political debate. So it would probably be a good idea if you were to keep the bias to a minimum. I'm not shutting you out of our discussion, I'm just trying to help.
BM at 10:50am September 26
This is a good debate. Thank you, Ty.
One question.
Gordito?
O.o
... Read More
And thank you, Justin. I just wanted you to explain yourself a bit more. Trying to get you to prove more of a point.
:D
JG at 9:22pm September 26
Gordito was my nickname in Polk County High
BM at 1:21am September 27
Ah. Makes sense.
JW at 8:03pm October 4
yea i just threw that out there
Of course, we've come a long way from this: 2.897 Trillion in fact when you include the 700 Billion dollar bailout that was debated here as well as the 787 Billion stimulus bill, 410 billion omnibus bill, and the 1 Trillion in toxic assets. We're now trillions more in debt due to this massive spending and since all we're doing is just printing money without having something there to back it up, we're just trashing our dollar.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
