Wow, that’s horrible. It goes to show how the republican legislators who refused to allow the government to provide more assistance to people who are hurting from the side effects of public health measures have more blood on their hands than I thought.

Republican controlled states will be willing to give over whatever amount of money Musk wants regardless of the economic climate. They’ll just cut social spending if necessary. The actual dollars and cents analysis is immaterial for republicans. They have ideological and resent based reasons give up state revenue to…

I don’t see how the “pursuit of happiness” can be an individual “right”, but the government is not supposed to do anything which helps citizens exercise that “right”. If it was instead the original Lockean version, life, liberty, and property, I don’t think anyone would say that means government is not supposed to do…

“Is there any imperative that other people are entitled to the fruits of my slaving away because they do not want to?”

But it’s not even true! Some of the people who get to keep the largest shares of the output from production don’t work at all. They’re called “owners”. In our society labor productivity has no connection to income or wealth. Our biggest government redistribution program is the government using violence to force people…

You must be fuming at people like Alice Walton. And demanding that we implement a wealth tax and drastically increase capital gains taxes. Or maybe you’re behind the push for a Sovereign Wealth Fund where the government owns all non-housing capital and pays every American a dividend?

“However, it’s not the government’s job to make you happy. It’s the government’s job to help you make yourself a productive member of society, if possible.”

I like how you quietly slide in “take risks” next to “work” in order to imply both actions are equally valid ways to determine who has a claim on output from production. Sneaky. But just like the amount of “work” one does, the “amount” or “level” of risks one takes has no connection to how wealthy the person will…

“The main theory why UBIs might not work is that costs will just increase that much. Landlords will overnight raise rents $1000 / mo, knowing that everyone is now getting an “extra” 1500 a month.”

Everybody is “subsidized by the government”. Our entire society is only possible because of a government that provides services individuals can not provide on their own. No one pays the full “cost” of government because as a person gathers more wealth has, basic government services like the rule of law and private…

Really? I wonder why there all those people throwing money at the government begging to buy T-bills for less than 1% interest. They must not have heard about your theory of fiscal policy.

No. Your individual feelings are completely immaterial. This is a public health emergency. It’s not like waking up in the morning with a slight headache and sore throat so you have to decide whether to go to work.

The virus kills people because we don’t have a vaccine or any sort of treatment beyond supporting the patient’s vital systems until their immune system takes care of the virus.

Ok. That’s an “opinion”. “The real survival rate is 99.9%” is not an opinion, it’s a claim of fact. The reason you felt the need to make a factual claim along with your opinion is you must understand deep down that normal people think your opinion is monstrous. Unless you can “prove” the government is making us…

The USD doesn’t have value because of some society wide folie a deux. The dollar has “value” because it is almost impossible to live in America without having access to some baseline amount of US dollars. If only because the government has made US dollars the only acceptable form of payment for federal taxes. The…

So you’re admitting that there is nothing from recent US economic history to support your “just so story” about the inevitable disaster caused by government spending? I just want to make sure we’re on the same page.

When people keep making predictions which don’t come to pass, at what point is it reasonable to ignore (or at least take with a massive grain of salt) the exact same predictions as last time?

It’s pretty incredible that someone who clearly has no knowledge of macroeconomic theory, monetary theory, or just a basics idea of how a fiat currency works would tell other people to “take a couple of econ courses”.

She was very clear on how the magic of “free enterprise” would make all the businesses do everything they could to prevent people from dying of COVID-19 the person caught at their establishment.

No it doesn’t. You can only come away with that conclusion if you assume the only way for people to receive money is through exchanging their labor in “the market”. But that’s not true. It’s purely ideological.