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Five Completely Absurd Economic Ideas That Keep Winning Votes For Democrats
Townhall.com ^ | August 12, 2019 | Scott Morefield

Posted on 08/12/2019 3:38:58 AM PDT by Kaslin

Liberals fall short in many critical areas, but they ARE full of one thing (OK, one OTHER thing besides what I know you’re thinking) … ideas. ‘Big’ ideas. ‘Bold’ ideas. Ideas all over the place, most of which in some form or another were on grotesque display during the last two series of Democratic 2020 presidential candidate debates. 

Of course, it’s one thing to have an idea, but how many are actually realistic or even theoretically possible? Sadly, such is the fate of pretty much every ‘big, bold’ idea Democrats manage to projectile-vomit out of their mouths, especially when it comes to how to spend YOUR money. The sad part is, they almost always sound so good in theory that a significant percentage of voters are completely duped, thus enabling Democrats to win national and statewide elections.

After the latest round of debates, even a seemingly frustrated Washington Post editorial board asked: “Why go to the trouble of running for president to promote ideas that can’t work?”

To get elected, that’s why ... Based on silly economic ideas like these:

Healthcare should be ‘free’

The idea that everyone is entitled to get treated for ‘free’ when they are sick sounds great, at least on the surface. Everybody gets sick, right? So why should anyone have to pay for good healthcare? The obvious problem is, if someone isn’t paying for it, that means someone has to be forced to provide that “free” healthcare for, well, free.

Democrats will say that’s not their argument, that a taxpayer-funded program like Medicare-For-All would fix everything. Except, when you introduce socialism into the equation you’re bound to get things like insane tax rates (because again, nothing is really ‘free’), deadly inefficiencies (because government) and absurd price and wage controls that stifle innovation and drive anyone and everyone with a lick of smarts who don’t want to work for less than they are worth out of the industry. See Canada and virtually everywhere else socialized medicine is practiced. Which means that eventually, if you want to have people to provide all that “free” healthcare, you’re going to have to force them. Did we abolish slavery over a century and a half ago?

Everyone should make all the money

Who doesn’t want to make more money? What if you could vote for your pay raise? Push a button for the person with a D beside their name, and watch that cash start rolling in. Yes, Bernie started it. But now, everyone with a D beside their name thinks it’s a good idea to force employers to pay $15 an hour and up, no matter what work their employees perform. Because nevermind economic laws like supply and demand, everyone should make all the money! And while not even Bernie Sanders wants to live to his lofty wage standards when it comes to paying his own campaign workers, that doesn’t stop him and all the other Democratic candidates from promising the world to lower-skilled workers, at someone else’s expense. 

Hey, while we’re giving away ‘all the money,’ why not make the minimum wage $25 per hour? How about $100 per hour? Hell, why not go for broke and make everyone multi-billionaires. Then, everyone can live in giant mansions with their sportscar of choice parked in their beautiful, long, concrete driveways. Sure, it’ll probably take a wheelbarrow full of cash to buy a loaf of bread or pay someone to do a simple home repair, but hyperinflation is a small price to pay for ‘equality,’ right?

Laws will solve the “gender pay gap”

“Equal pay!” they shout as if U.S. companies actually make a habit of paying women less than men doing the exact same work, with the exact same qualifications, at the exact same performance level for the exact same amount of time. This is, of course, ludicrous on its face. There is no such thing as a “gender pay gap.” It is a myth, a fantasy borne out of the twisted minds of warped social justice engineers who, incidentally, aren’t nearly as smart as real engineers. And yet, Democrats think they can somehow legislate this mythical “gender pay gap” out of existence. How exactly would that work, Senator Gillibrand? Do you mandate that a newly hired female earn as much as a male who has been on the job, say, 20 years? Do you mandate that teachers make as much as engineers? Do you equalize the pay between, say, nurses and doctors? Do you force more women to become doctors or vice versa? And what sort of god-awful government bureaucracy do you invent and impose on American businesses to sort all this out?

If any sort of “gender pay gap” existed, the free market would sort it out really quick. For example, there is currently a shortage of qualified workers in many key fields. If the “gender pay gap” were true, companies would be falling over themselves trying to find and hire the women currently working somewhere else for less than they are worth. It’s not rocket science, just basic economics … but still sadly beyond the intellectual grasp of most liberals.

Excessively raising taxes or overtaxing the rich will bring in more tax revenue

This is an old one, but despite being continually debunked it continues to come up as if government budgets were a zero-sum game. Meanwhile, in the real world, overtaxing depresses economic activity, leading to less revenue in the long term. And the idea that the “rich” can pay it all is absurd as well. As John Stossel pointed out in this 2012 Forbes piece, taxing all those who make $1 million or more at 100 percent would result in 600 billion or so, not nearly enough to even begin to chip away at the nation’s massive debt. And going forward, why would anyone who’s getting taxed at 100 percent or anywhere close to that continue to produce? No matter how you slice it, entitlements and spending have to go down to make ends meet. The problem is, politicians on both sides of the aisle don’t have the political stomach for it, so the debt and deficit continue to balloon. 

These five are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to completely unworkable liberal ideas that keep hanging around because they sound just good enough to get the votes they need to seize power.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: democrats; economy; healthcare; taxes; wages
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1 posted on 08/12/2019 3:38:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The Free Crap Caucus disagrees.


2 posted on 08/12/2019 3:48:42 AM PDT by Libloather (END CLIMATE CHANGE!)
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To: Kaslin

The Democrats promote idiotic talking points to explain away the problems.

idiotic talking point #1. The rich have lots of money. You cannot believe the statistics. They lie all the time.

idiotic talking point #2. The rich don’t work. So it is ok to take all their stuff.

idiotic talking point #3. The poor people really built this country, so they deserve all the money. It was stolen from them!

idiotic talking point #4. Reality is optional!

The left isn’t interested in facts or logic. It is interested in obtaining and keeping power.


3 posted on 08/12/2019 4:01:24 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: marktwain

Precisely.

‘Pod


4 posted on 08/12/2019 4:23:31 AM PDT by sauropod (I am His and He is Mine)
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To: Kaslin
What wins votes for any politician is stupid, lazy and unoriginal constituents.

I don't blame politicians. They are career grifters. They pimp whatever message that enables them to continue in jobs that produce ........ nothing.

(Well, maybe I blame them, but you get the point.)

Mostly it's the fault of stupid voters. Not all voters are stupid, but every RAT voter is not too bright.

5 posted on 08/12/2019 4:27:11 AM PDT by LouAvul
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To: marktwain

None of their crap would fool voters if the worthless pubic schools were forced to teach something useful!


6 posted on 08/12/2019 4:34:54 AM PDT by Beagle8U (It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame.)
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To: Kaslin
Hey, while we’re giving away ‘all the money,’ why not make the minimum wage $25 per hour? How about $100 per hour?

I wish the Republicans would stop sounding like Simon Legree and go ALL IN for at least a $12/hr min wage. Stop falling into the trap. Everyone that lives in Realville knows the current $7.25/hr min wage is joke and being for the status quo on this makes Republicans sound out of touch.

7 posted on 08/12/2019 4:49:44 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Kaslin

Free Shit wins all the time


8 posted on 08/12/2019 5:01:34 AM PDT by Hyman Roth
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To: central_va
Everyone that lives in Realville knows the current $7.25/hr min wage is joke

How many people make minimum wage and what is their average age, time on the job, etc?

9 posted on 08/12/2019 5:19:12 AM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: palmer
How many people make minimum wage and what is their average age, time on the job, etc?

We are never to old to be able to research on line something like this yourself.

Regardless, I don't care. This is a political issue as well as an economic one.

If nobody is making min wage then Republicans get behind codifying the $12/hr and stop looking like Simon Legree.

10 posted on 08/12/2019 5:24:50 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Those questions need to be answered even for the political domain. The Simon Legree argument is abstract. Abstract arguments are what got us Great Society, Obamacare, etc. When the abstract arguments met up with reality it turns out that reality wins.


11 posted on 08/12/2019 5:37:56 AM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
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To: central_va

You forgot the /s tag.

Republican Congress critters are already doing enough economic damage.


12 posted on 08/12/2019 5:41:29 AM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: palmer

Give me a break. The minimum wage issue is a winner. If the Republicans went all in for $12.00/h min wage it would lock the election for team R.


13 posted on 08/12/2019 5:42:04 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: MV=PY

No sarcasm. The Republican Party needs to broaden its appeal beyond the coalition of globalist corporations, big donors, K street cartel, the 8 million small business that use cheap labor and big agriculture. It always surprises me when they often do get close to majority when their main street appeal is so limited.


14 posted on 08/12/2019 5:46:43 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Kaslin

The problem isn’t that Democrats believe this stuff,
it’s that something approaching a majority of voters do.


15 posted on 08/12/2019 5:53:28 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: central_va

I don’t believe enacting a minimum wage is the way to do that.

I respectfully disagree.


16 posted on 08/12/2019 5:55:05 AM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: central_va
The Republican Party needs to broaden its appeal beyond the coalition of globalist corporations, big donors, K street cartel, the 8 million small business that use cheap labor and big agriculture. It always surprises me when they often do get close to majority when their main street appeal is so limited.

Bingo. You absolutely NAILED it there!

This is the argument I keep having with my NeverTrump relatives. The constituency of voters who support the stuff outlined in your paragraph is now far too small to win elections.


17 posted on 08/12/2019 5:55:25 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: MV=PY
I don’t believe enacting a minimum wage is the way to do that. I respectfully disagree.

This is an argument that was lost 60+ years ago. You are never going to get a majority to agree that there should not be a minimum wage. Hence the argument becomes all about how much that wage should be.


18 posted on 08/12/2019 5:56:58 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Is there a federal minimum wage now?

Should there be?


19 posted on 08/12/2019 6:01:44 AM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

The Republican Party primary policy appeal is aimed at such a tiny sliver of US society. You could say it is less than 10 million.


20 posted on 08/12/2019 6:06:16 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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