montecarlo wrote
at 1:11 PM, Wednesday January 11, 2012 CST
im naive insomuch that i treat macroeconomics just like i treat my personal finances. if i have run up massive credit, i dont argue that i should increase the budget for next year. i cut back on what im spending on. if people come along and say that its economically smart to increase our budget during these trying times, i want to know who is paying these people.



I think you're on to something here monte, we should call all the universities in the united states and ask them real quick why they offer microeconomics and macroeconomics?!!?!!?!?!?! its like the same thing lol!

and then you talk to the professors after hours and they tell you both are loads of bullshit that they tell freshmen just so everyone involved is happy.

glad you support us spending our way into greater debt. imagine how terribly screwed our country would be if we hadnt been doing this for the past decade! wed probably be conquered by canada by now.

so you're part of the cult now huh?

didn't reagan peddle this same bullshit, and bush 1 and 2?

how exactly did that shit play out again?

What Veta means is that Obama's stimulus > Bush's stimulus.

Spending is spending...


By the way, you voting for Obama this year Veta? I'm assuming yes, but I thought I'd ask anyways.

bush had no stimulus bro, his tax breaks were disproportionately in favor of the wealthy, his TARP act which everyone hated wasn't paid for and we'll never see a dime of that money.

so suggesting that bush had a stimulus is tantamount to suggesting that reagan's gigantic tax cuts to the super wealthy were also a stimulus (i'm sure milton friedman would've frowned on that). and if those tax cuts were indeed meant to spur the economy, then why were these conservative presidents doling out disposable income to those who are least likely to spend each marginal dollar. if they actually wanted to boost the economy wouldn't they be more concerned with the multiplier and MPC of their different types of tax breaks?


but if you're interested in the actual statistics on the subject and objectivity then you can check it all out here brah: http://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/Stimulus-Impact-2008.pdf

notice how the top tax brackets and corporate tax brackets are at historical lows and they also correspond to extremely poor returns per marginal dollar of government money returned.

deadcode once asked me (paraphrasing) if we'd be better off giving all that stimulus/tax break money to the poor or some shit instead. from a humanist perspective of course we would but from an economic perspective... of course we would.

i think i answered with something like i see no problem allocating more resources to types of spending with very high multipliers (e.g. food stamps, construction projects, infrastructure projections, etc).

also i learned in my government class that 1 vote doesnt count for anything so you shouldn't bother - so no i don't vote.

Works for me. Glad your Prof is un-American like that. Maybe he can convince more people like you not to vote.

Very lazy of you Veta....I'm disappointed.

high school government teacher was a poli-sci graduate at notre dame. his wife was a teacher too - actually pretty hot but like in a milf way.

anyway he was shooting the shit with the class one time and was like "as someone with a masters in political science i probably shouldnt tell you this but your vote really doesn't mean much"

this was back during the 2008 primaries and all that when everybody in texas was for paul or obama

Suddenly it all makes sense

well i gotta sorta agree with your professor from a literal perspective. if you live in a completely red state and want to vote blue, then, if the polls are showing a landslide, yah your vote probably wont matter. which is why people want to abolish the electoral college, because we dont need it any more.

BUT if you want to vote with your passion, you vote anyways, who the fuck cares. especially if you live in iowa or new hampshire early in a primary, because every vote counts there. its amazing how much later states are swayed by earlier states results.

and if youre a proponent of ideals, then you should always vote.