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

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Brad,
 
I guess it was Keynes that  originated "in the long run  we're all dead", I 
could be wrong. 
 
Regarding Ricardo and comparative advantage, I think you're right, he's the  
guy.  As I recall the principal fairy tail attributed to him had  England 
trading with Portugal.   I think England traded  textiles for Portugal's olives or 
something, each provided what they could  best.  But it's important to note 
that in Ricardos model each party  generated the liquidity needed to support 
trade with the other from reciprocal  trade.  With the US, as our chronic and 
humongeous trade deficit will  attest, there is substantially inadequate 
reciprocal trade to offset our  purchases abroad - we're not generating liquidity, 
the Ricardo model does not  apply and hasn't applied for maybe 30 or 40 years.  
The US side of the  trade has been financed by debt.  Only a Republican 
"conservative" or a  WalMart executive, would be comfortable with the level of debt 
that has  been accumulated importing all the stuff we've bought abroad.  Our  
kids are going to spend their lives servicing our debt.
 
Regarding subsidies to American cotton farmers vice aid to African  cotton 
farmers - what you've overlooked is that we have an implicit  obligation to look 
after our fellow citizens.  We are a nation of 300  million people with a 
common destiny, to some extent we (you, I, and the  rest) are all in this 
together.  That is not the case for  foreigners, we have no obligation at all to look 
after African cotton farmers,  Sudanese bird breeders, etc - if we can help 
them swell, but there is no  obligation.  The notion of playing hard ball 
economics with American  citizens so that we can fund warm and fuzzy developmental 
projects in the 3rd  world seems a stretch to me.  That's not to say US cotton 
subsidies  are a good thing, better to get those guys doing something that 
doesn't need  subsidies and use that money for something better - like balancing 
the  budget. 
 
Enough, I'm going sailing!
 
Dave