Economic Populism : Biggest threat to U.S. Economy

Townhall ^ | 12/31/2007 | David Strom

[Ben Ficklin]

"Sounds like an alternative definition of socialism"

Populism is a bottom up movement and it does lean to socialism. But, if populism is implemented from the top down, it is socialism.

The dems ultimately harnessed the agrarian populist movement. FDR, the New Deal, 50 years in power, an explosion of regulatory law(aka regulatory takings). Socialism.

Eventually, the cultural populists split from the dems and went to the GOP, which the GOP rode to power and tried to roll back the New Deal.

Now, the cultural populists are dis-satisfied with the GOP and are leaning back to the dems. Many democrats say that they are on the verge of a New New Deal.

[wayoverontheright]

The biggest threat to the economy is continuing to allow the word “rich” to describe our nation’s entrepreneurs, investors, and employers.

[taildragger]

As long as there is a Democrat Party, we will have millions of economically ignorant citizens. My Dem friends, family, co-workers truly believe among other things that the rich pay no taxes, Bush tells the oil companies when to raise and lower prices, and corporations are evil.

Drift,

This is true , but I spoke up in the college setting!

Accounting class, the 1st intro chapter to taxes and how to deal with them.

Teacher quipped the rich get away bla-bla-bla.....

"Excuse me, I disagree"

I then politely relayed a story about a high net worth individual employing hundreds and when I saw the 1040 (In a business at the time that had me doing so)and did the math it was a 50% bracket.

Dead Silence, but I am sure I got some wheels spinning....

[driftless2]

"teacher quipped"

Just yesterday I was talking to my son-in-law. He graduated from a midwestern university where his economics professor told the class that people making above eighty thousand a year pay no income taxes. I was stunned (but not real stunned, I had lib profs in college too) by what he said. I told him that I strongly disagree with that statement and told him the top one percent pay almost forty percent of all income taxes.

He looked at me with disbelieving eyes. I told him I could send some economic columns from conservative websites, but he wasn 't interested. He said economic discussions bored him. By the way my son-in-law is no lib. But even non-libs get fed and ultimately believe much of the anti-free market propaganda launched at them by leftist academics.