Tag Archives: Alexander Fraser Tytler

The Joe Biden Economic Proposals

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The Joe Biden economic proposals most strongly resemble:

A. A teenager with a new credit card

B. A drunken sailor

C. Someone implementing the Cloward-Piven strategy

D. Someone with no knowledge of economics creating the policy

E. All of the above

Take your pick.

Yesterday Breitbart posted an article that included a statement by Biden administration’s White House Council of Economic Advisers Heather Boushey.

The article reports:

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” incoming member of the Biden administration’s White House Council of Economic Advisers Heather Boushey stated that deficit spending can cover Biden’s coronavirus relief package, so how to pay for Biden’s economic agenda is “not tonight’s problem, but it’s certainly something that we’re going to be talking about in the weeks and months to come.” And there are many different options.

Host Judy Woodruff asked, “And, finally, in a nutshell, what is it going to take in the way of higher taxes, higher revenues, in order to pay for some of these things that you’ve been describing? What income level is going to be hit and what kind of tax?”

Boushey responded, “Well, that is certainly a very important question. So, for right now, we can afford to spend this package through deficit financing. But you’re right. Moving forward, we’re going to have to think about the fiscal situation. During the campaign, the president-elect outlined a whole series of tax increases focused primarily on those at the very top.

I would like to remind everyone that the luxury tax put on by the first Bush administration was only supposed to impact those at the very top. Because of the extra burden it put on those at the very top, those people employed in the industries supplying goods to those at the very top were laid off and the layoffs echoed throughout all levels. For whatever reason, it is always the middle class that shoulders the burden of any tax hike. Hold on to your wallet.

One final thought (from goodreads.com):

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler

Alexander Fraser Tytler lived from October 15, 1747 to January 5, 1813. His observations were well ahead of their time.

Our Ancestors Understood Human Nature A Lot Better Than We Do

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From Vox June 23:

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s proposal to make college free in the United States just got bigger: He wants to erase all student debt too. All $1.6 trillion of it.

The Vermont senator will unveil the most ambitious higher education plan in the Democratic 2020 presidential primary so far on Monday. The proposal would make two- and four-year public and tribal colleges and universities tuition-free and debt-free, and erase the roughly $1.6 trillion in student loan debt currently owed in the US, paid for by a tax on Wall Street.

Currently, about 45 million Americans have student loans. This would cancel debt for all of them — regardless of their income or assets. That’s a notable difference from Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s free college proposal, which also provides broad debt relief but caps it for households with incomes over $250,000.

Sanders is proposing funding streams to states, tribes, and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to allow them to eliminate undergraduate tuition and fees. The bill would also increase spending on work-study programs and build up federal grant programs for low-income students for additional costs related to getting an education, from housing and transportation to buying books.

The proposal would cost $2.2 trillion over 10 years, which Sanders says would be paid for with his Wall Street tax. He proposed a Wall Street speculation tax in 2016, which would raise small levies on buying and selling stocks, bonds, and derivatives; many experts estimate it could raise hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Sanders’s office cited progressive economist Robert Pollin’s projection that the tax would bring in $2.4 trillion in revenues over 10 years.

From The New York Post February 22nd:

Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren said they both support reparations for African-Americans affected by slavery.

Asked about the matter last week on the 105.1 FM show “Breakfast Club,” Harris agreed with the host that reparations are necessary to address problems of “inequities.”

“America has a history of 200 years of slavery. We had Jim Crow. We had legal segregation in America for a very long time,” she said on the radio show. “We have got to recognize, back to that earlier point, people aren’t starting out on the same base in terms of their ability to succeed and so we have got to recognize that and give people a lift up.”

From Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (15 October 1747 – 5 January 1813), who obviously understood a lot more than all three of these Democrat candidates for President:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler
We have a choice of where we will be on that timeline.