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Farewell to the Spectator
December 16, 2011 | 8 comments
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Tentative Praise for Ryan’s New Bipartisan Medicare Plan
December 15, 2011 | 3 comments
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The Day Ahead: Thursday, December 15
December 15, 2011 | 0 comments
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Examiner for Romney, National Review Against Gingrich
December 14, 2011 | 39 comments
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Paul Ryan to Introduce New Medicare Plan with Democrat Ron Wyden
December 14, 2011 | 4 comments
The Spectacle Blog
David Brooks’s New York Times column today more or less reinforces my view of the problem with social and economic mobility in the U.S. today:
The zooming wealth of the top 1 percent is a problem, but it’s not nearly as big a problem as the tens of millions of Americans who have dropped out of high school or college. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the 40 percent of children who are born out of wedlock. It’s not nearly as big a problem as the nation’s stagnant human capital, its stagnant social mobility and the disorganized social fabric for the bottom 50 percent.
If your ultimate goal is to reduce inequality, then you should be furious at the doctors, bankers and C.E.O.’s. If your goal is to expand opportunity, then you have a much bigger and different agenda.
Brooks doesn’t go into what’s happening with the inequality and income mobility data. But he’s cut through to the core issues.
View all comments (7) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/11/01/poor-people-are-the-real-econo
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Derek Leaberry| 11.1.11 @ 12:56PM
In this case, Brooks is absolutely right. Social dysfunction afflicts tens of millions of Americans. Not only do these Americans lack skills and intelligence, they have bad attitudes and are poorly formed morally.
PattyMor| 11.1.11 @ 1:27PM
The biggest failures in public schools are in the big cities which are all dominated by Democrat mayors.
They don't want the kids to be successful. Failure = more Democrat voters. And the cycle continues on and on.
btims| 11.1.11 @ 5:04PM
Income inequality, if you accept the premise, which I basically do not, is mainly a function of high immigration. Reduce mass immigration (legal and illegal) and you'll reduce "income inequality" in the USA.
Guest1776| 11.2.11 @ 3:00AM
Isn't this laissez-faire approach exactly what we tried from 1979 to
2007, when inequality shot through the roof, according to the CBO?
NO! What we had is government interference into free markets and when government interferes it distorts the market and bubbles are created and popped. Take Fannie and Freddie with all their just sign here and own a home loans for instance. It created a boom as homes were in demand and put a lot of people to work building them but it was a bubble bound to pop because it was created by government forcing banks out of time tested loan standards the community organizers like Obama called racist. You know its racist for a bank to require good credit, 10-15% down and ability to pay loan with one week's pay etc...
Many people want to blame Wall St and the removal of Glass-Steagall but the fact is if that never happened there is still a banking crisis because of sub primes loans banks were forced to come up with by government that were based on the economy.
And another thing to consider is that if all those loans that were packed and sold were time tested loan standards before the government interfered then the Glass-Steagall thing wouldn't have mattered much because they would have been responsible loans where mortgages were paid regardless of slowing economy.
Pols like to have it both ways. For example Democrats are demonizing banks for not making small business loans yet require banks to have more cash on hand before making them. Dodd/Frank did that and did not address the F&F problem. Another example of government interfering into free markets is the Durbin Tax banks are now charging for debit card use. Example: Walmart and banks willfully agreed that Walmart will pay pennies per purchases using debit cards so banks didn't charge you the customer to cover their processing cost. The Durbin Tax removed that and now banks have to charge you $5.00 a month for your debit card whether you use it or not to cover the cost while Dick Durbin demonizes banks for charging that fee he forced them into charging.
Pols love to have both ways and its the same thing with the 70,000+ pages of tax code where pols are demonizing companies they tax for raising the cost of their product or service after pols raise their cost through higher taxes. Pols know those cost are always passed onto the consumer but its a win/win for them because they can then demonize the companies.
Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan gets rid of all those hidden taxes and loopholes within the 70,000+ pages of tax code lobbyist lobby them to change etc... and when implemented 9-9-9 will result in an economic boom with cheaper products because companies will evaluate their bottom line with the money they save and lower cost trying to steal consumers from their competition. Competition is always good for the consumer and this is exactly why big corps lobby for taxes and loopholes that'll hurt their small business counterparts and exactly the reason we need a Main St President not a Wall St POTUS like Obama has been or Romney will be.
Basically at the root of the problem with the mortgage crisis is this noble but misguided idea that everyone deserves to own a home. Its not true! You deserve to ow a home when you can meet the free market standards for getting a loan. To pretend as pols do that banks want to loose money on their loans and need a bailout is nonsensical.
Guest1776| 11.2.11 @ 3:01AM
9-9-9
It's a multifaceted solution addressing many issues at once in its simplicity. I can remember another man with a bold plan that was simple "We win they lose!" and went about putting the policies in place to do just that. Herman Cain has that same sort of bold plan to solve big problems and end class warfare envy politicking as we know it.
9-9-9 encourages working poor to save which is typically the reason working poor are still WP after a decade of working. See immigrants who come with nothing and barely speak the language and live the American Dream through hard work, savings and make it.
The 9-9-9 plan encourages job growth, lowers cost for the employer which has direct correlation to pricing -good for the consumer. Also, gives people more money on their paychecks to spend/save.
If One gets $200.00 EXTRA a on their paycheck each week and the same bag of groceries One paid $200.00 for under 70,000 pages of tax code - One pays an extra $18.00 but still has $182.00 to put into savings that week or offset other taxable goods they might purchase that week. Many will see much more on their chacks that $200.00 and even the working poor will have more funds available each week.
When people are putting their money into savings accounts then banks don't need TARP bailouts the Federal Reserve printing money to supply them therefore devaluing savings accounts of the elderly and hurting the poor with inflation.
When perpetual working poor are saving they won't be perpetual working poor and they won't need government forcing banks to change time tested loan standards or F&F distorting the housing market creating bubbles.
9-9-9 takes away the catalyst for most if not all the divisive bickering ie envy politicking and class ware rhetoric as it treats everybody fairly, the same. The rich spend more because they can so they will pay their fair share.
9-9-9 allows Michael Moore or the frugal Warren Buffet to stimulate the economy and pay more taxes until their hearts content. True patriots! Moore can film a documentary of him and Buffet going around the country spending their money until they're blue in the face paying taxes. Moore can call his documentary "Warren and Me."
When we pass 9-9-9 pols will not be able to raise taxes because it will be easier for the opposition to explain how that “directly affects your life” to the consumer/voter. You’ll have a lot more people voting when you try raising their taxes. Good luck with that tax loving Democrats or even the "read my lips crowd" within the GOP establishment.
Herman Cain one simple plan addressing many problems directly at the roots and SOLVING THEM. Romney 59 of them just tweaking around the edges.
Millionaires like Romney and billionaires will be getting a tax break too and instead of hiding their money in the loopholes of 70,000+ pages of tax code, they will spend it and pay plenty of taxes. Why? How? - Because the so called “rich” spend more money by default.
Cain's plan sends the taxes to the government through the economy which means free markets will decide the winners and losers - not the government!
gearjammer| 11.2.11 @ 8:02AM
Why should they be mad at just doctors and bankers and CEOs. Why not be mad at certain trial lawyers, movie stars and execs, other media stars,some athletes and others. I mean are doctors really overpaid in your world ? What about the massive book advances to the Obamas or Clintons etc.
Do the books ever cover their payout. No. The favors the pols give to the media conglomerates that own publishing however pay off and then some.
vb| 11.2.11 @ 9:46AM
gearjammer,
To take your comment one step further, haven't the second group you mentioned done more to harm the poor by undermining the social fabric Brooks talks about? How many CEOs told black kids that learning to read was acting white? How many pushed the idea that a stable marriage was unimportant in raising children?