After watching Gousha's show, watching Sykes was like eating a piece of rotted fruit after a steak dinner.
It was the usual theatrics, yelling, and trying to shout over each other. Sykes et al. were whining about the tax rebate, and how it is not being more beneficial to the rich than to the poor, that MPS actually enforces its contracts with the union, and whatnot.
The bright side of the show was that for once, he didn't have McIlheran or Harris.
Conservatives, aside from not understanding supply-side econ or the Laffer Curve yet constantly citing these them, also do not understand how fiscal policy and monetary policy are different.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Fed lowers interest rates (monetary policy) they encourage risk taking, investment, etc. They make it easier for the economic drivers of society to get the capital needed to continue innovating.
Many conservatives treat fiscal policy (taxing and spending) like it's monetary policy. Giving $X00 to individuals is not the same as the Fed increasing the moeny supply. If you believe that stimulus will result from the spending of this money, you should definitely target those who are willing to spend, and the rich are no more likely to spend than are the poor. (Presumably the poor would be more likely to spend, having not had the money at all before, whereas the rich already possessed the option to spend.)
I don't want to seem like I advocate this policy. As I wrote at my place, I don't think this will do much of anything anyway, and temporary cuts like this, especially when unaccompanied by a spending cut, will actually incite saving, not spending.
However, advocating that this temporary tax rebate aimed at stimulating the economy should be targeted at the wealthy is pretty silly. There are a lot of good reasons to cut taxes on the uppers (and even better reasons to cut taxes on corporations) but this is not one of those situations.
To be simplistic, most of the top of the rich, are businessmen and women and/or heads of big corporations. They shouldd realize that most poor people will probably spend the money as soon as they get it, so the rich will get the money anyway.
ReplyDeleteI guess they just don't want to wait and would rather eliminate the middle man.