[Rhodes22-list] Reduce your federal income tax (political humor)

[stan]

Ok, you two guys, stop the world.  I'm getting off.

ss

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 10:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Reduce your federal income tax (political 
humor)


> Stan,
>
> You guys getting serious about what this or that economist said makes me
> nervous.  Maybe it just reminds me of all those undergrad classes I 
> skipped
> to go flying.  Guns or butter?  Screw that!  Airplanes or beer!
>
> Wasn't it Ricardo who first proposed the idea of comparative advantage?
> People don't actually like to stare it in the face because it may affect
> them personally.  For example, if we could train Chinese pilots to fly
> American airplanes for ten cents on the dollar, whoa!  Forget that, we've
> already done that with American pilots.  Bad example.
>
> Here's one.  We pay billions of dollars to subsidize American cotton
> farmers.  We pay billions of dollars to help poor starving African
> countries.  Why don't we just let African farmers grow cotton, something
> they can do, and cut the subsidies to both?
>
> We're not a minute into this conversation and I'm already depressed.  No
> wonder it is called "the dismal science".
>
> What economist said "in the long run we'll all be dead?"
>
> Brad
>
>
> On 6/29/06, stan <stan at rhodes22.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dave,
>>
>> Don't want to see you get discouraged from doing what you do so well
>> because
>> of anything I say - I was just picking up on his basic point to run with
>> and
>> then putting words in Milt's mouth to make my philosophical points.
>>
>> Undoubtedly you are correct on the practical aspects and it is big 
>> problem
>> we will just have to wait until my daughter's book comes out (I think in
>> Dec.) on the Bubble
>>
>> stan/gbi
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <DCLewis1 at aol.com>
>> To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 5:31 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Reduce your federal income tax (political
>> humor)
>>
>>
>>
>> Stan,
>>
>> In my view Mr Friedman has an overwhelming handicap, he's a  tenured
>> economics professor at a renowned University.  We should not  assume his
>> deliberations
>> have much to do with the real world.
>>
>> You may be old enough to recall that Mr Friedman played an  dominant 
>> role
>> during the Nixon administration.  I believe he was on Nixon's Council  of
>> Economic Advisors, or something like that.  He claimed that by 
>> modulating
>> monetary
>> policy ($ in circulation) you could control inflation.   After attempting
>> the
>> theory for several years, with no hint of success, he left  government
>> service
>> and commented he was sure he was right but the time constant  for 
>> monetary
>> policy might be very long.  It's exactly that type of small  theoretical
>> oversight that plagues his statement in your post.
>>
>> The small theoretical oversight that appeared in his material in your 
>> post
>> is that In the real world you can't simply buy from the lowest priced
>> vendor
>> to
>> maximize your standard of living - unless you have something to sell in
>> return that generates the liquidity for your purchase.  Exactly what is
>> that
>> thing you are going to sell?  Mr Friedman posits "If you are the
>> best  body
>> parts
>> supplier...."; in fact, there is no reason at all to assume that "we" 
>> are
>> the best or uniquely capable at anything much less body parts. What
>> we  can
>> guarantee is that we have some of the highest labor costs  and strictest
>> environmental regulations in the world - but neither  are a plus.  As a
>> practical
>> matter, anything you can manufacture  in Edenton can be manufactured
>> cheaper
>> somewhere else - so what are  you going to sell back?   There's no
>> substantial
>> protection for  intellectual property in most of the world, so what are
>> you
>> going
>> to sell  back?
>>
>> >From my perspective it's not enough for Mr Friedman to speculate
>> regarding
>> ".... endless unimagined enterprises ..." that we could pursue to 
>> generate
>> the
>> liquidity to support our foreign purchases.  Friedman needs to
>> be  specific
>> as to how liquidity will be generated, and he needs to demonstrate his
>> proposal will work in the real world in a credible time frame.  Our
>> inability to
>> generate liquidity is demonstrated in the humongeous trade deficit  that
>> has
>> been
>> going on for decades - it's a big problem.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>>
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