Posted on 01/03/2015 8:18:51 AM PST by Kaslin
The folks over at the New York Times are keeping up their tradition of shilling for big government spending. In a recent column, the Times suggests that a recent uptick in government spending is creating prosperity, and boosting the economy. According to the Times:
For a long stretch, government spending cutbacks at all levels were a substantial drag on economic growth. Now, finally, relief is in sight. For the first time since 2011, local, state and federal governments are providing a small but significant increase to prosperity.
Yeah… Government is taking your money, spending it on redistributive welfare programs and special interest projects, thus creating a “stimulus” effect on the economy. Correct me if I’m wrong, but couldn’t we just cut out the middle-man, and let me spend my own money? (More on this later.) The Times continued:
Since the stimulus programs approved in 2008 and 2009, Republicans in Washington have pushed to cut federal spending; even the $1.1 trillion budget bill that Congress recently passed to keep the government operating through September abides by spending caps and includes further trims.
Oh, the horror! Spending caps! (GASP!)
So… How does the NYT’s economic analysis stack up against reality?
Well, not well. First of all: they’re wrong. Government spending has actually been on the decline (as a percentage of GDP) since 2010. After the (nearly) one trillion dollar “stimulus” package (not to mention George W’s final year as a big spending Republican) it’s pretty easy to see how the growth of government spending has slowed… But that’s all that has happened. It’s only slowed.
While there has been a slight bump in government spending over the course of the last year (thanks largely to higher than predicted tax revenues) it is still far below the annual growth we saw in the first couple of years of Barack Obama’s tenure. In other words: We spent a trillion dollars on “stimulus” and got +10% unemployment… Now that we’ve adopted some spending caps (gasp!) we’re seeing a little bit of economic improvement.
But, more importantly than the numeric details of government spending (which Daniel J Mitchell covers nicely here) these Keynesian theorists seem a little confused on something:
Where exactly do these New York Times columnists imagine the government gets its money? I mean, is the term “tax dollars” really too complicated for these folks to put in context? Every cent the government spends is first confiscated from you, me, our employers, and/or our clients… Or borrowed from future taxpayers. (That’s right… We’re taxing people who aren’t even born yet.)
Government spending isn’t exactly an added benefit to economic conditions. It is merely the government spending the private sector’s money without much regard to market forces. Heck, give me a couple trillion bucks from other people, and I bet I could create a little stimulus of my own… Or, better yet, let those trillions remain in the hands of the folks who earned it, so they can spend it as the market deems necessary. You’d be surprised how far $500 billion can go when you don’t loan it out to a bankrupt solar company, or blow it on a broken website.
The economic theory that government spending is a driver of prosperity is demonstrably childish. (If it had much truth to it, why aren’t all those third-world socialist countries rolling in cash by now?) Then again: whose prosperity are we really talking about here, New York Times? After all, I guess it’s true that folks like Jonathan Gruber seem to do pretty well when the government gets carefree with our hard earned money.
So what the Slimes is saying that stealing and spending OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY is good for American prosperity? How about letting people keep their money and spend it themselves? Wouldn’t that work too?
BTTT
No, no, no. The American people are incapable of proper spending. They would spend it on things like cars, boats, and homes. We ALL know that the money is better spent on things like welfare programs, driver licenses for illegal immigrants, and free healthcare.
Pfft. The People. Bah!
Think how much better off we would all be if the government spent 10 times as much!!
Still living in Roosevelt’s thirtys along with Keynes.
Not as efficiently as our government can ... from local all the way up to the fed’s ... </sarc
According to the Marxist Times, Marxism works every time it is tried.
Pray America is waking
BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM
Socialism Is Legal Plunder - The Law; Bastiat
http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G022
Rules for Changing a Limited Republican Government into an Unlimited Hereditary One - Freneau 1784-1796
6. But the grand nostrum will be a public debt,…
11. As soon as sufficient progress in the intended change shall have been made, and the public mind duly prepared according to the rules already laid down, it will be proper to venture on another and a bolder step toward a removal of the constitutional landmarks.
http://www.constitution.org/cmt/freneau/republic2monarchy.htm
n every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
/debt slaves of socialists
All of media gets a 5 t0 10% commission on money the government takes from savers and investors and gives to spenders.
It’s in the form of advertising costs of products purchased.
That’s a very significant portion of their profits these days.
So when you here media telling you about how great government spending is- remember you’re listening to a commissioned salesman.
Government spending is creating prosperity, and boosting the economy.
Wonder if the idiots at NYT know what the debt is for all that great spending.
Oh wait socialist haven’t ran our of other peoples money yet.
Don’t forget “free” nobama phones, one of the most defrauded public programs in this country’s history.
As long as you overlook the little detail of $18tril + federal debt it does.
I've never heard of this before...WTH?
Sure you have. The cost of advertising is in any product’s cost.
The media gets nothing from investment and savings, they get the advertising money from spending.
Obviously when government takes that investment and savings money and gives it to consumers instead then the media benefit financially.
I don’t know why people find this so hard to understand but they sure do.
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