Spencer on Global Warming Elitism, Tomorrow’s Election, and The Future

What a pity that your clever caroonist still thinks (a) that telescopes have lenses on the end, and (b) that they ever project outside the dome, as if they were naval guns in turrets!

Hear, hear!
Why is it that politicians are, in the main, so incredibly thick when it comes to such simple concepts as these?

Dr. Spencer,
I must admit, I haven’t read your books. I comment here often, but not because I’ve some unnatural obsession about global temps or CO2, but rather the implications of policy. I’ve a new, profound, appreciation for the work of which you’re engaged. The sentiments you’ve so eloquently related, have been echoed by myself and many others here and elsewhere, only, in my case, not nearly as clear and concise.
My thanks.
James Sexton

That line about Reagan cutting taxes and tax revenue soaring has been disproven time and again. People who cite this claim forget population growth and inflation during his presidency. Here are the annual rates of growth of real revenue per capita over several decades:
1973-1979: 2.7%
1979-1990: 1.8%
1990-2000: 3.2%
2000-2007: ~0.0%
These figures are compliments of Prof. Paul Krugman, 2009 Nobel prize winner in economics. As you can see, real revenue growth as a result of Reagan’s tax cuts was poor.

As soon as the Chinese start to dump their US treasuries, they can afford to let the Renminbi appreciate. Not before. It is the pegging of the Renminbi to the USD that kept the USD more or less stable since mid 2008. When this pegging stops, the USD will lose value and the Krugman vision will play out; taxation through inflation.

Dirk H,
Wouldn’t our exports increase if the dollar lost value relative to other currencies? Wouldn’t that also make imports from China more expensive, thus decreasing our trade deficit?

Ross Barton says:
November 1, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Krugman is a crackpot. Watching his public meltdown is embarrassing and painful, even for those of us who lean conservative. Was your post meant to be sarcastic?

If only things could be boiled down to simple truisms, then who would need to vote? Unfortunately you cannot, and your simple minded expression of a truism, is well, a bit silly. Are you against a combined defense? Should we do away with the Army? Are you against gov programs? Have you been consistent and burned your Medicaid and Social Security cards and have no plans to depend on them? Should we do away with roads building and make it paygo? Should we do away with all regulation of Waal Street and your medicine? What would you have go away? Have you consistently not used gov help?
It is simple to throw out crap truisms, it is harder to govern. I pay alot of taxes, much more than the average American as I am luccky enough to be well off, and getting better. Does that mean I need to keep it all and not pay? Does it mean I should small mindedly resent those who make less and pay less, or not at all? No, I think I get a pretty good deal for my high taxes. Great roads, a great defense, a stable society – and that is more than rich folks have most places on this planet. Your taxes are a great deal, pay them and get over your own importance and judgment.
I wouldn’t presume to know who God hates or judge for him, I leave that to him.

Malcolm Miller, those telescopes look like what I think are called Schmidt-Cassegrain, like the famous C8. They are reflectors with a central secondary mirror in a glass correcting plate at the front end. The secondary mirror sends the light back down to the eyepieces through a hole in the primary mirror. You can even see a spot that’s supposed to be the back of the secondary mirror, I think. Nothing wrong with any of that. I’ll grant you they are unlikely to project out of their respective observatories, but ok, to me that’s acceptable artistic license in a cartoon. The reader has to be able to see them, after all :).

Near term future will be defined by Gridlock and Law Suits. 5 states are ready to sue California for violation of intra-state commerce if we pass AB32 into law.
Other States are already in suits related to Constitutional violations in the HealthCare Bill and attempting to put a leash on the EPA’s latest lunacy.
“Tomorrow’s election is widely viewed as a referendum on the proper role of government in people’s lives. There is no question that the founders of our country intended there to be maximum of freedom on the part of individuals and the states, while placing strong limits on the role of the federal government.”
Its going to take 2 or more elections to do this but its a good start.
Great Post!

You’re correct of course, re: the “elite” point of view. But it is not a new phenomenon. “What is best for Caesar is also best for Rome.” Or words to that effect.
In some respects our species does seem to be slow learners.

From Wiki………”Paul Robin Krugman ……….is an American economist, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times.”
Woodrow Wilson and NY times………says all I need to know. You might just as well bring up a study from Algore. He’s a Nobel laureate too.
Further, population growth? If one is to include population growth in regard revenue, then one has to include population growth in unproductive areas, such as welfare recipients. Not in regard to the drag on expenditures, but rather in regards to the fact that they don’t work, ergo, not producing any tax revenues!

Curious George-
Great point : “You’re correct of course, re: the “elite” point of view. But it is not a new phenomenon. “What is best for Caesar is also best for Rome.” Or words to that effect.”
The problem is the Caesar here is the Koch Brothers, the folks funding Rove, and the rest of the billionaires behind the tea party and Fox News. Ever wonder why the tea party positions are exactly the ones the billionaires want? Read the agenda, follow the money – the elites are where you do not expect to find them…
Murdoch is arguably more powerful than any president, he is Fox News…

Brad,
I don’t resent those who pay less taxes than I do. I do resent people saying that because I’m successful I don’t pay my fair share.
That being said, I think our government spends too much. I’d start by eliminating the Speaker of the House’s airplane, cutting a bunch of congressional staff and expenses and then start looking at reducing government subsidies and entitlements of all sorts.
I don’t mind paying my fair share in taxes, I just think it’s the governments responsibility to spend the taxpayers’ Monet wisely.

“And since the only demonstrated (and sustainable)way to accomplish this is to grow the economy, it requires personal economic freedom.”
Distributed wealth is driven by CHEAP RELIABLE ENERGY.
The US and Europe too is moving away from this economic model while China & India embrace it. Cheap Reliable Energy creates real wealth and opportunity. The Industrial Revolution to modern day was built on cheap reliable energy. Now the world wide recession is hitting deep in the US & EU as we destroy jobs & manufacturing by adding huge fake environmental financial skimming subsidies to energy costs. Our only hope is Science, thorium reactors maybe, but the idea of wind turbines and solar panels being the future is liking going back to the Stone Age.
Cheap reliable energy. Why do politicians and scientists not get this?????????????

Brad
Ever wonder why the tea party positions are exactly the ones the billionaires want?
———–
Billionaires like Soros?

@ brad says:
November 1, 2010 at 4:41 pm
RE: Koch Brothers, the folks funding Rove, and the rest of the billionaires behind the tea party and Fox News. Ever wonder why the tea party positions are exactly the ones the billionaires want? Read the agenda, follow the money – the elites are where you do not expect to find them…
Caesar also had his coterie of hangers on and court jesters. Where there are coat tails there will be riders. And challengers, of course. The age old game of King of the Hill. Such has been the way of the world forever.

Michaeljgardner says:
November 1, 2010 at 4:12 pm
“Wouldn’t our exports increase if the dollar lost value relative to other currencies? Wouldn’t that also make imports from China more expensive, thus decreasing our trade deficit?”
The US needs huge amounts of inflation – not to make its products competitive but to bring down the real value of the debt (leaving the creditors empty-handed). Yes, in the process American products would become more competitive, and China would have to rely more on their own consumption and maybe on European and emerging markets for their products, but they absolutely need to find a way out of their dollar dependency – because at the moment, they form a de facto currency union with the US and can’t stop the US from printing money, bringing the Renminbi down together with the Dollar.
If the inflation process can be controlled, it’s the easy way out of the public debt problem, reducing the value of dollar based assets in the process. That’s what i meant with “taxation through inflation” – your assets lose value, an effect equivalent to a tax.
It’s one of the usual ways to get out of the public debt trap for a state. It will of course be a global power shift because of the size and importance of the US economy.

George E. Smith-
Ca house prices went up in the late 80’s, and then they crashed and dropped for about a decade. Kinda like the lack of regulation under Bush nationally…who needs that?
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqrguz/housingbubble/los_angeles.html

brad says:
November 1, 2010 at 4:34 pm
latitude-
What are talking about? [snip]
==================================
Calling people, that disagree with him, names, brad.
and our stupid president did it again right before another election

“”””” Here are the annual rates of growth of real revenue per capita over several decades:
1973-1979: 2.7%
1979-1990: 1.8%
1990-2000: 3.2%
2000-2007: ~0.0% “””””
So why did you stop the most recent decade way back in 2007; this is nearly the end of 2010; so where’s the current data.
Everybody agrees that Reagan spent massive amounts of money rebuilding the US military from basically a junkyard; to where it finally had some credibility; and that turns out to be the very first task assigned tot he US Government (National Defense; actually the providing for).
Did uber economic genius Krugman factor out the economic drag on the US economy caused by the new age of terrorism ushered in by 9-11-2001, and the economic consequences of dealing with that; and I’m not even including the two wars that the Congress declared; just the new pains endured by industry; like the travel inductry for example.
By the way; since we are concerned more about climate than weather, What would your expert economists say is the average (real) long term growth rate of the economy since say 1900 ?
Just asking; a number that comes to mind; well a number I heard from a Stanford Economist circa 1975 for that long term annual growth rate was 2.5%.

Damn, Roy! That’s a decent piece of writing.

latitude-
Where did he do that? Not saying he didn’t, but I did not see it…need context.

Ross Barton complains that Reagan’s tax cuts failed to spur growth from 1979 through 1982 when they took effect. I suppose the economy should have known the tax cuts were coming and expanded under Carter?

Michael-
Sure, add domestically drilled oil, but be careful as oil sands may soon become truly viable and then even more oil will come from Canada and not the Middle East.

It is not just public debt that is our enemy. Total credit market debt now stands at 350% of GDP (about 90% public and 260% private). This is a historically high level and cannot be sustained, for comparison, the total debt as a percent of GDP was only about 250% prior to the great depression. It then exploded during the great depression as GDP collapsed. Whether we like it or not the bank bail out saved us from another great depression…….if Hoover had it to do over again I think he would have done the same thing.
We still have to climb down off this ledge (cliff?) we are standing on. Fall off in one direction and we suffer runaway inflation and a worthless dollar as others become unwilling to finance our rapidly growing public debt. Fall off in the other direction and we suffer another great depression and massive defaults on private debt as the money supply collapses. Both situations would cause a reversion to the mean of the debt/GDP ratio, but both would also be very painful to us as a society.
There remains a lot to do and we need real leaders. So far I have seen few on either side of the aisle.

DirkH says:
November 1, 2010 at 4:58 pm
“If the inflation process can be controlled,[…]”
I’d like to add that i see it as inevitable – my personal interest is finding out when it will start, what its effects will be, and whether it will stay in control.

Brad
Does your doing what you consider to be the “morally” corrrect thing do do depend on other people doing the same? I ask, but do not need your answer. If you write a check to the goverment each year based on what you think should be paid, then my hat is off to you, if not your answer to my question is in the affirmitive.
BTW, you have already called one feloow poster selfish when you know nothing about him.

A major statement from an ‘insider’ who personally knows many of the scientists who are the main advocates of AGWH.
A strong political element to his comments which, of course, is the essence of the current obsession with CO2.
IMVHO I think the division between Left and Right politics is unhelpful.
Governments should spend no more than they raise in taxation; equality of opportunity is an essential aim but equality of achievement is impossible given the inevitable Gaussian distribution of intelligence and motivation.
Population control can only be obtained by emancipating women from the control of male dominated religions – Spain and Italy are excellent examples of falling birthrates – and raising their standard of living and opportunity.
The success of AGWH is partly the result of educational systems that fail to instil numeracy and the fundamental principals of the scientific method. Many of those failed pupils become politicians and thus are unable to understand the difficulties with AGW and the ignorant energy policies which they follow.
Hopefully, serious US investigations will follow the coming elections.
Ultimately, the honesty and integrity of Anthony, Steve and so many other contributors will prevail, best before too much economic damage is done.

Sorry, I meant November 2, 2010 in the first line.
PS
That video I posted was made by internet people.

BTW Brad, for a long time now Wall Syreet had given more money, by far, to democrats, three of the largest recipients were #1 Barack Obama, number two Chriss Dodd ((head of the Senate Finance committe) and of course Barney.

Doc Spencer writes:

There are many new, young scientists now joining the ranks. They are being mentored by the older scientists who helped spread the alarm concerning manmade global warming. And they will be rewarded for playing the game.

Maybe these many new young scientists will have fresh viewpoints that will better utilize the data from the wonderful satellites that you describe. It sure would have been interesting to give a questionnaire to all of those young scientists at the meeting to find out what they know and believe about manmade global warming. I would have been very interested in the answer to this question:
“Do you think that the viewpoint of Dr. Roy Spencer: that the majority of what we now view as “climate change” is just part of a natural cycle in the climate system — is supported by the data which is being collected by NASA’s A-Train satellites?”
I sure would like to see where the numbers fell on that one.

A most excellent article Dr Spencer. Direct, to the point, utterly logical, and only by citing controversial half truths as have already been showing up in this thread can an argument be made against what you have said.
I note also that the elitists paint their opposition as bible thumping bigots forcing their belief system on everyone else, while carefully explaining in short sentences using simple words that anyone who doesn’t understand their point of view lacks the intellect to do so, and must be protected from themselves. I note that there are believers and nonbelievers on both sides of the political divide, but consider for a moment if the broad brush stereotype was true. Those bible thumping right wingers are taught responsibility for one’s actions as well as self reliance, while it is the supposedly atheistic eltists who are certain of their superior intellect and out of responsibility for humanity, seek to impose their belief system on everyone else. Odd that they believe themselves immune from history’s lessons while those they seek to control in the best interests of humanity are under no such illusion. Believers in a deity or not, the right knows that history and climate are cyclical. We’re hostage to the climate’s cycles, but also potentially hostage to those who ignore history’s lessons and seek to repeat them while dragging the rest of humanity along for the ride. We can’t do that much about the climate, but on the rest of it, all we need do is speak up, be clear as Dr Spencer has, and vote.

During the Reagan administration, the American economy went from a GDP growth of -0.3% in 1980 to 4.1% in 1988 (in constant 2005 dollars),[10] which reduced the unemployment rate by 1.6pp, from 7.1% in 1980 to 5.5% in 1988…The inflation rate, 13.5% in 1980, fell to 4.1% in 1988,…During the Reagan Administration, federal receipts grew at an average rate of 8.2% (2.5% attributed to higher Social Security receipts), and federal outlays grew at an annual rate of 7.1%.[28][29] Most of that revenue growth occurred after the tax reductions. On 8 of the 10 key economic variables examined, the American economy performed better during the Reagan years than during the pre- and post-Reagan years.
Real median family income grew by $4,000 during the Reagan period after experiencing no growth in the pre-Reagan years; it experienced a loss of almost $1,500 in the post-Reagan years.
Now Brad if you subtract the very expensive military programs from these numbers, then from a purely economic perspective freeing people to produce unencumbered was very positive and large tax cuts were very successful. You stated that Dr Spencer’s post was simple and not nuanced. Actually your post about the Reagan years was very misleading and not nuanced.
Interest rates, inflation, and unemployment fell faster under Reagan than they did immediately before or after his presidency.

Ross Barton says:
November 1, 2010 at 3:54 pm
“These figures are compliments of Prof. Paul Krugman, 2009 Nobel prize winner in economics.”
There is no Nobel prize in economics. It’s a myth. Google and see.

“”””” brad says:
November 1, 2010 at 5:14 pm
CuriousGeorge-
When has Bill Gates been into politics? Most of his money goes for childhood vaccinations and mosquito nets… Well even quite recently. Bill Gates put up $700,000 to help defeat California’s Prop 23; which would do nothing but delay the implementation of California’s punitive carbon taxing scheme on EVERONE in the State which goes into effect in 2012; and will simply drive bsusinesses out of California to more enlightened States.
Gates along with Kleiner Perkins aka Al Gore stand to reap billions in tax payer funds for their corporate welfare parasite operations in the “green” energy field. The green is in their pockets if prop 23 fails tomorrow. If that “Green” energy creates ANY jobs; they will be in communist red China, and India/Pakistan/Bangladesh; the one place they won’t be, will be in California.
Personally, I don’t begrudge Gates/Jobs/Ellison a brass razoo of their huge fortunes; more power to them; they have provided jobs for tens of millions of people world wide. That doesn’t mean they are all altruistic.
There are more filthy rich Liberals by far than there are filthy rich Conservatives; or any other kind of filthy rich; and the filth tends to stick to people who hang around them; much more than does the rich.
Once helped found a Si Valley startup; 8 of us plus our wives. We had a business plan that called for $780,000 funding (1970). Venture capitalists wanted a piece of us, in the worst possible way; but wanted to give us $1meg in exchange for 80% of the company; with us keeping 20%.
We said thanks, but no thanks; so we cut the plan in half and dug the $390 k out of our pockets and a handful of friends. Started manufacturing on the President’s wife’s Kitchen table. Opened Apr 1st. Shipped first product in July ($10 I hand carried shipment to customer). Did $80k total for year. $1.4 meg first full year, $14meg second full year, $26meg third full year.
When we eventually let the VCs in it was on our terms; not theirs. Became the largest company in that business in the world at one point; twice as big as the second guy. Reached a $50meg per year shipping rate before basic misteaks that our expensive outside Board Directors failed to prevent us from making; and ended up selling it off in a CH-11 situation.
That industry is now in the multi billions. Maybe we got in too early; the money bags were no great help; we grew mostly from bank loans. Never raised any public financing related somewhat to a CA government operator making sure we didn’t end around his political friends. It was a blast; yes a few people got hurt in the foldup; but most escaped with not too much damage.
The skeletal remains still exist as part of a large successful multinational well run company.
I didn’t make a dime; but didn’t lose either. If you get the chance DO it !

Smokey, good point
But you missed the overall
Big money Leftists like big government because they can control people.
Controlling conservatives is like herding cats.
TEA party, a perfect example of that.
People that say the TEA party is ‘controlled’ or ‘influenced’ have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

Damn it!!!! Got into a few protracted phone conversations and all the butt hurt has already been dealt! So, just for fun, let’s recap!
Dr. Spencer is speaking from knowledge and truth. (To power!)
George Soros didn’t really sit this one out.
The Koch brothers are conservative.
Krugman is a dolt not worth mentioning.
The Nobel prize is nothing but a “hate on western civilization” prize.
We all figured that out when they handed Arafat the Nobel PEACE prize but some dolts were slow and couldn’t figure that out until Gore won his.
Housing prices were and are overinflated. It sucks if you spent $1/2 mil on a house that the materials and labor didn’t cost $100,000, but its overinflated. Take a bath and learn from your mistake!
And finally, being educated doesn’t exempt you from idiocy.
Oh, and I almost forgot! Most importantly!
Rich people add to, rather than take away from our economy! In American society, class envy is nothing more than an excuse for laziness and self defeatism. Engaging in such a venture sickens me. I don’t have much, nor do I require much in as far as tangible wealth. What I do require, is that I be allowed to retain my earned wealth. And if, by God’s grace, I have an ability to earn great wealth, I’d like to think I’d be able to keep some of it without someone thinking I shouldn’t posses it. For if that’s the case, why try to get ahead at all? Why innovate? Why manage? Why be frugal? Why attempt to accumulate? It would all be for naught if some would have their way.
REPLY – Yes. Class envy is the worst poison prevalent in American society. Almost all social ills and stupidity derive from it. Horribly self-destructive, mindbendingly stupid. (And, for that matter, sinful.) ~ Evan

Owen says:
November 1, 2010 at 6:13 pm
===============================
Owen, didn’t you guys start out with kings and monarchs?
I can see how socialism could be a step up for you guys.
Our country was started out differently.
We started out with people trying to escape from all that,
and our country was founded on individual freedoms.
Socialism would be a step down for us.

evanmjones says:
November 1, 2010 at 6:36 pm
“If the better-educated (far more homogeneous) Western Europe reduced taxes to American levels, they would blow America into the dust.”
Perhaps they aren’t interested in maintaining a superheated economy and working day and night.

They got one last punch in. They managed to take my Four Locos away here in SW Florida. I can’t find my favorite nector on any of the store shelves right now. Goddamn nanny state.

Owen says:
November 1, 2010 at 6:13 pm
“My relatives in Norway live under a government that is far closer to socialism than the USA has ever been. Ditto for Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, etc. These countries are ahead of the US in fundamental quality of life – free medical care for all and excellent medical care by the way, free education, generous leaves for childbirth, etc. ……”
Yes, well, sis, it all depends on how one defines “quality of life”. If it is defined as you say, it seems to me you define it as mandated mediocrity. Thanks, you can keep that. I define “quality of life” as to the ability to determine ones destiny. I find it interesting that you bring up Norway first. Let us compare how each nation was able to react to equivalents. Arnold and Quisling. One nation survived and drew strength from the act, another succumbed. Oh, wait, now I’m talking about more nations than just Norway! Sis, take your quality of compliance and put it where northern Norway is in the winter. Who else wants to play the “I’ll be as successful as my country European Union allows me to be? That’s quality?

Of course the main argument against this view is “sustainability”. Can the Earth sustain even more people consuming natural resources?
Interesting how those who ask the question have already gotten theirs, and now want to prevent others from doing the same.
Also interesting that they use a reason for ‘going green’ that they say we should be worried ‘fossil’ fuels will be used up. But they want to stop them from being used now before they can even be used up. They contradict themselves. They would get what they want if they would let all fossil fuels be used up (if that’s possible) then everyone would be forced to use alternatives. What a dream that would be for them!

A vibrant economy is what maximizes the tax revenue collected by the government. The two largest periods of growth in tax revenue collected by the government occurred after two major tax-CUTTING initiatives: JFK’s in the early 1960’s, and Reagan’s in the early 1980’s.
There was also the large tax/spending cuts that brought on The Roaring 20’s.

Re evanmjones says:
November 1, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Good post Evan. Additionaly how quality of life should be measured is a can of worms.
As for longevity, in the US if you make it past youth to any decent maturity you will live longer , an indication that the US health care, as burdened and flawed as it was, was better for the elderly.

activist scientists who have used global warming as an excuse to accomplish policy goals that would have never been accomplished on their own merits.
Richard Lindzen on that:
0:19 second video

People mix up different elites. The folks who run the oil companies are an elite. Famous actors and actresses are another elite. Top tier scientists are yet another elite. The latter two may be annoying or amusing, but their fundamental self interests are not in conflict with needs of society and the extent of their power is minimal.
Spenser fails to address why the few scientists sceptical of the extent of AGW seem to keep their jobs and even continue to receive government grants. And he utterly fails to explain why NSF funded research continued to support AGW under Bush. Since Spenser’s own idealogical motivations are now clear perhaps they explain why he is so out of sink with his colleagues whose political views are diverse.

Owen says:
November 1, 2010 at 6:13 pm
My relatives in Norway live under a government that is far closer to socialism than the USA has ever been. Ditto for Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, etc. These countries are ahead of the US in fundamental quality of life – free medical care for all and excellent medical care by the way, free education, generous leaves for childbirth, etc. The average lifespan reflects the good healthcare and education. All of these countries tax gasoline and energy heavily and drive energy efficient cars (not American guzzlers). Denmark is on its way to being oil independent. Germany has beat America every year in this decade in the amount of exports to the rest of the world. European socialism simply means providing for your people, insuring health, education, and a decent life. The ultrasocialist Scandanavian countries annually are ranked as the top countries in the world for quality of life.
Mr. racookpe1978 seems to be obsessed with his pathological fear of socialism. I would suggest he spend some time in Norway and talk perhaps to my relatives: teacher, engineer, physician, and a farmer’s wife – all robust, healthy, and happy. Travel is a great cure for bucholic parochialism and festering ideology.
I worked with Ericsson for 2 years, some in Sweden, later I worked with SAAB. I have a lot of respect for the scandinavian countries and what they have achieved by making the most of their human resources – they don’t have much in the way of land and minerals (Norwegian Oil is the exception).
However – the northern european cultures have a strong work ethic and a respect for the usefulness of technology – to which I credit their success. I wonder if what you say will still be relevant in 2 years time, given the general indebtedness of the Eurozone on the scandinavian doorstep.
Denmarks flirtation with wind power still has to prove itself as a cost effective option – time will tell. Denmark progressing towards independence of oil – I find that difficult to believe.
Ultrasocialist seems a very strong term to use for countries that have companies such as Nokia, Volvo, Saab, Ericsson, Ikea, etc, that competitively build and sell products on a commercial basis to the world – sounds more like capitalism.

evanmjones says:
November 1, 2010 at 7:17 pm
You can’t do it with stimulus. Keynes and his “aggregate demand” theory is out to lunch. If you simply hand out money you have produced nothing. You eat for a day, then starve. The people you buy from get a one-time profit and then nothing. Wealth is “multiplied” by one or even less than one, since it is costly and inefficient to redistribute.
With supply-side, you free up capital that is used to hire people (invest, etc.) and pay them wages as those people produce valuable goods/services. That is self-sustaining and then some. Wealth is genuinely multiplied.
Maybe this speaks poorly for human nature. But that is the way it works. Socialism works about as well for humans as free-market capitalism works for termites. It’s not a liberal-conservative thing. It’s a human-nature thing.
I assume that Keynes’ theories gained traction because they provide a justificational framework for Government intervention into the market/economy. Not on whether they were right or wrong – current experience is rapidly illustrating that Keynes was drastically wrong. However it will take a lot for the zealots to reconsider their dogma.

Owen says:
November 1, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Perhaps they aren’t interested in maintaining a superheated economy and working day and night.
===============================================
And perhaps we’re not interested in giving our money to the government, and then having the government dictate what we can do. Again, a step up for you guys, you started out with that and were used to it, a form of Roman law. Socialism is a step up from kings and monarchs.
Our country was founded on totally different principals. We are innocent until proven guilty, and we as citizens give rights to our government. Not the other way around.
Again – for you guys, it was a step up.
For us, it is a step down.

Wow! A full blown political discussion on WUWT. Gotta be a first!
Dr Roy Says: “Yet, many Americans believe that government can more equitably distribute the wealth generated by a country.”
Socialist Governments can, for a while at least, bribe many low income voters with the taxes of the rich. Usually a while later the people wake up and realise that the greater harm is hurting them personally.
evanmjones says: “I never earned a penny that wasn’t trickled down from someone richer than me.”
The only trickle down effect I have ever felt is from the sibling in the bunk above me when I was a very young child.

The belief that a better-educated few should be allowed power over the less educated masses. That government knows better than the people do.
Richard Lindzen on this same point, how masses are manipulated with propaganda,
1:18 video

Just read the Declaration of Independence if you want to see how pi$!ed off the settlers of the original colonies became at the King of England over his intrusion into their personal affairs.
Vaclav Klaus on environmentalism- the greatest threat to freedom:

whatever criticisms are made of the Tea Party (Parties), the fact is they have shaken up the political “elites”. if it were not for the Tea Parties campaigning against cap’n’tax, the GOP would still be on the carbon-taxing fence:
1 Nov: WSJ: Scott Rasmussen: A Vote Against Dems, Not for the GOP
Voters don’t want to be governed from the left, right or center. They want Washington to recognize that Americans want to govern themselves
More precisely, it is a rejection of a bipartisan political elite that’s lost touch with the people they are supposed to serve. Based on our polling, 51% now see Democrats as the party of big government and nearly as many see Republicans as the party of big business. That leaves no party left to represent the American people…
But most have come to recognize that if we have to rely on politicians for the change, there is no hope. At the same time, Americans instinctively understand that if we can unleash the collective wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, there are no limits to what we can accomplish…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703708404575586063725870380.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Please note that in the ’80’s Henry Kendall, the Founder of the “Union of Concerned Scientists” was given a Nobel Prize for his work on Quarks during the ’70s.
From everything I’ve read, his contribution was MINIMAL and of MINIMAL impact.
Yet, the N.P. ? What gives? This was just about the time the Swedes were riding their ANTI-NUCLEAR “high horse”, and had put forth a plan to “eliminate” their 12 nuclear power plants, which generate about 45% of their electrical base.
Kendall was their poster boy. (Yes, I know the a Nobel “Peace Prize” is awarded by a Norweigen committee! But the Science prizes are still strictly Swedish..) Thus to BOLSTER CREDIBILITY of the U.C.S., the Swedes managed to find H.K.’s “trivial” work “significant”. Thus my trust in the “integrity” of the N.P.’s in areas such as the sciences, or economics, or “Peace” has been about ZERO for 20 years. It’s a “political beauty contest” where the most politically correct venues have been awarded for years. ALAS, quite the pity that!

attempts to restrict personal choice in energy use will end up killing people.
‘Global warming’ is also killing people through biofuel programs,
Lord Monckton, 5:12 video

Most people can’t see the obvious. Anything that contradicts their deep seated convictions is ignored.
I am a liberal. I believe in the maximum freedom for each individual. I believe that unfettered freedom for corporations is just as bad as bureaucracy for subjugating people.
Being Canadian, I would far rather have universal health care than have to deal with an HMO. You Americans do have death panels already, they are called HMOs.
It distresses me that, when the state purports that it is protecting the little guy, what we mostly get is oppression by bureaucracy.
The truth is neither entirely on the right or on the left. That which works is a moving target. Something that raises up people one day oppresses them the next. Any system can be corrupted, fester and die. Clinging tenaciously to laissez faire capitalism or to socialism is not going to work in the long term.
Dr. Spencer, knock off the rant on elitists. It makes you look like just as much of a meat head as you apparently think they look like. Name calling is for children. Your specialty is science. You are an expert on science. You are not an expert on political science or economics or anything else like that. There are good and bad people on both sides of the issue but you should accept the basic human decency of most of the people on both sides. Your best contribution is as a scientist talking about science. Advocacy for what looks like a political position only has the effect of diminishing your credibility.

When governments make energy more expensive, or environmental organizations pressure foreign countries to not build hydroelectric dams, poor people die.
John Christy on moral issues of ‘global warming’, on better, and longer life because of fossil fuels,
1:26 video

evanmjones says:
November 1, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Taxes can be too low. Taxes can be too high.
Let’s try to make them too low and deal with it then.

Ross Barton says:
November 1, 2010 at 3:54 pm
That line about Reagan cutting taxes and tax revenue soaring has been disproven time and again. People who cite this claim forget population growth and inflation during his presidency. Here are the annual rates of growth of real revenue per capita over several decades:
1973-1979: 2.7%
1979-1990: 1.8%
1990-2000: 3.2%
2000-2007: ~0.0%
These figures are compliments of Prof. Paul Krugman, 2009 Nobel prize winner in economics. As you can see, real revenue growth as a result of Reagan’s tax cuts was poor.
Ummm…. don’t think so. Here are the raw numbers, compliments US Dept of Commerce and other US Govt Agencies.
1980, the year Reagan took office, GDP was $2,788.1B, and tax receipts $885.62B
1988, the year Reagan left office, GDP was $5,100.5B, and tax receipts $1,676.22B
The inflation impact on the 1988 dollar compared to the 1980 dollar was .699301
In constant dollar terms the tax collections were $1167.284B.
This rounds neatly to a growth rate of 3.5% p.a., higher than the GDP growth rate.
Pretty significant in economic terms as it proved that lower actual rates does not mean lower actual collections. The first 2 years of Reagan’s administration was a pretty vicious recession (worse than the current one in several respects) that played havoc with the numbers, and which was necessary to tame a terrible inflation. Absent that two years (which occurred BEFORE the tax cuts) and the numbers look considerably better. But then, all of us on this blog know how we can cherry pick the years to prove anything. Not to mention fool around with numbers. Particularly when we are “Nobel” prize laureates.
Just the facts.

“But I would ask, can the world sustain the poverty-stricken? Poor countries have had most of their trees cut down. Imagine if global society collapsed and billions of people had to make do on their own with what they could scavenge from nature.”
The answer has already been written, and that answer is no. Bare knuckle agriculture cannot support 9 billion people, it might make 3, but not 9.
No need to imagine global society collapsing and the scavenging. What is described is the actual conditions at the start of the first Solar Grand Minimum after the MWP…. in Europe. The woods were depleted (little heating fuel available) and the marginal agricultural lands were abandoned as the harvest yields declined.
By the luck of the draw, some lands will be in a better condition upon a natural climate downturn.
The biggest danger in an energy-starved world is the weaponry that now exists and has proliferated.

pat says:
November 1, 2010 at 7:53 pm
the collective wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, there are no limits to what we can accomplish
Milton Friedman would appear to agree with you:

This is the best post I’ve seen on the internet in a while. Thank you Roy Spencer. And thank you Anthony Watts.

rbateman says: wrote
November 1, 2010 at 8:43 pm
“The biggest danger in an energy-starved world is the weaponry that now exists and has proliferated.”
“Imagine if global society collapsed and billions of people had to make do on their own with what they could scavenge from nature.”
Amazing the things we are randomly thinking these nowadays.
May I introduce u to Renaissance 2.0 in order to fix the problem, you need to know how it got to be a problem first before you can fix it.

commieBob says:
November 1, 2010 at 8:11 pm
re; Canadian Health Care vs. HMO
My doctor will order an MRI in a heartbeat on the least suspicion it might reveal something, I can get it done the same day I see my doctor, and my HMO pays for it.
Is that how it works in Canada too?
That’s a rhetorical question, eh. Hosers have to wait an average of over two months for an MRI. If you’re happy with that more power to ya but when I need medical care I expect to get it the same day.

@Owen
I spent enough time in Oslo on business 20 years ago to know it’s an interesting place to visit and about the last place I’d ever want to live. Three weeks out of the year when it’s barely warm enough for brass monkeys to go the beach is bad enough but anyplace where a six-pack of weak beer in a supermarket costs USD $20 that’s just ridiculous. What’s the matter, can’t Norwegians control their alcohol intake without the government taxing it so much that ordinary folks can’t afford it? I’ve travelled all over Europe and Asia on business and Norway takes the prize for the most anal-retentitive society I’ve seen.
And talk about hypocritical when it comes to AGW – most of Norway’s GDP comes from oil.

You don’t even know who is running against Nanci Pelosi in San Fransisco. That’s because the MSM kept that information from you.
There was supposed to be a double tag team smackdown match between Sharon Angle and Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and John Dennis. We didn’t get the second half of that match. They deprived it from us. That is the power they have.
Yes, John Dennis was running against Nancy Pelosi.

For Owen
(and the rest of the American bashers)
Before I say anything else, let it be known that I am not an American. I’m from Canada, the first major democracy in the world to establish socialized medicine. In fact, I grew up in the province of Saskatchewan, the first province in the country to have socialized medicine and my grandfather was a founding member of the CCF party who won power and brought it in. As Dave Springer alluded to, our system has challenges, and I don’t think what we have today is what the founders of the CCF envisioned. Every time someone proposes a change, the opposition comes out of the woodwork screaming that we don’t want to be “like the Americans”. Well I second that. As one comic quipped, Americans die from lack of health coverage and Canadians die standing in line. At least the Americans get to lie down first. Point being both systems have lots of room for improvement. Now… onto America vs Norway etc.
Good on those European countries who are shipping goods world wide, beating the Americans at their own game. Been a long time since any of those ships hit an iceberg and sank, thanks to regular tracking and reporting world wide at substantial cost. You guys recover that cost in the goods you sell right? No? Oh yeah, the USA provides that as a free service to the whole world. Perhaps you should stand up in a forum like the United Nations and thank them. You pay for your membership, it costs you a lot of money, may as well use it. Well, not as much as Americans since they cover 50% of the costs by themselves, silly selfish buggers. Then there’s all that money they spent over the years on their military. You know the one I’m talking about. Aircraft carriers, missile systems, submarines, you know, all that stuff they got that kept the USSR from wandering into your countries and bringing you the really really nasty kind of socialism because those war mongering Americans made it clear they were prepared to defend you. The people of North Korea live on four ounces of rice per day, mostly donated by the free world. North Korea would gladly export their standard of living to South Korea except those ignorant Americans have a few tens of thousands of troops there to prevent it. Tell me, how many Norwegian troops are there in South Korea helping out? Swedish? Danish? German? Well, you probably help out in other trouble spots in the world instead like Afghanistan. Oh wait, that’s almost all Americans plus some Canadians. There’s other countries there too of course, happy to help out… as long as there’s no fighting, they only send small numbers of troops for non combat roles. Someone mentioned Scandinavian countries being leaders in high tech. Take cell phones for example, Nokia is spanking Motorola in that market. You know the market I mean, the one that runs mostly on American satellites? I bought a Japanese made GPS recently, really like it. Gets its position for free from American satellites.
I could go on for a very long time. Are the Americans lilly white? Of course not. They screw up like everyone else and sometimes spectacularly so. But the fact is that they have shouldered far more than their fair share of the world’s problems these past few decades, paid for them with both blood and money, and there isn’t a single democracy on the planet that does not owe America an historical debt. That they are today led by a president who is more interested in apologies for what America has done wrong than in pride for what they have done right is sad. That Owen and others vaunt the accomplishments of other countries who are glad to brag of their better way of life while conveniently forgetting that it is paid for in part, in blood and money, by the country they criticize is even sadder.
God bless America. May she soon find her way back to the path she has walked for so many years, and done again the mantle she once wore so proudly. Leader of the free world. I see no one else stepping up to that responsibility, just complainers yammering away while getting a free ride.

Is Spencer an elitist-turned-libertarian?
I look forward to a Democrat bloodbath on Tuesday. I’ll have the beer and popcorn ready for the TV entertainment as the MSM has a collective dump in their drawers over the unfavourable election results.

Davidmhoffer
Believers in a deity or not, the right knows that history and climate are cyclical.
They do? What about the man they last trotted out to be president?
An open letter from The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley to Senator John McCain about Climate Science and Policy
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/an_open_letter_from_the_viscou_1.html
Dear Senator McCain, Sir,
YOU CHOSE a visit to a wind-farm in early summer 2008 to devote an entire campaign speech to the reassertion of your belief in the apocalyptic vision of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change – a lurid and fanciful account of imagined future events that was always baseless, was briefly exciting among the less thoughtful species of news commentators and politicians, but is now scientifically discredited. …
(good read on the discredited part)

Ross Barton says:
November 1, 2010 at 3:54 pm
“These figures are compliments of Prof. Paul Krugman, 2009 Nobel prize winner in economics.”
FYI: There is no such thing as a ‘Nobel prize in economics’.
Correct is: ‘The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economy in Memory of Alfred Nobel’.
Brgds/TJ

Oh and one last point I neglected in my previous tirade.
Owen, I’m glad to learn that your relatives are doing well. Educated, working, happy employees. There is the fundamental difference between your socialist dream state and a nation fixated on creating a super heated economy. Employees. In one you can earn as good a living as your government sees fit for the education you have and the profession you choose. You can start your own business of course, provided that it does not compete with those sectors of the economy that are socialized and run by government. Your options are limited as a consequence. In the other, you are not burdened by the cost of a social safety net, and have a far broader range of choices in regard to controlling your own destiny and being responsible for the outcome, good or bad. Be critical all you want of the mindset, but consider that it is that self reliance and drive toward a super heated economy that produced the telephone, the television, the electric light bulb, automobiles, airplanes, computers, and oh yes… that clever medium that you are using right now to tell us how much better socialism is, the internet.

savethesharks says:
November 1, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Not even an oligarchy. We are going back towards feudalism.
Note the political families to the front, and the old money behind banks.
Every now and then a maverick may appear and slay a dragon or so, like Soros and Bill Gates, and since dowries are not in fashion they get their rewards direct in status.
I think free markets have a “date by” and we are presently in a time loop where nothing is settled. I will prophecy:
a) Either there will be an expressed WWIII( the US and allies are waging continuous wars). In this case we will be back to square number one, black markets to free markets as WWII showed us in Europe
b) Or the robots will take over all production, fusion and thorium reactors will give plenty of free energy. The analogue are the feudal times when the elite amused themselves with science and art and smart enterprises and the labor was carried by the serfs.
Robots will be the serfs and a new value system will have to be found for the hoi polloi. Pay attention to what is happening with nanotechnology and robots.
Already the dole is one expression of the lack of real jobs and the need to support people somehow, though it is due to the outsourcing of manufacture to China. In this second future, everybody will be on the dole 🙂 and smart people will have to compete for the interesting jobs.

“Yet, many Americans believe that government can more equitably distribute the wealth generated by a country. This is a laudable goal on the face of it.”
No, from everone according to their ability, to everyone according to their needs, is pure evil. How will you motivate people to provide according to their ability when you cannot give them material incentives? By force, which is why every socialist country have been such horrid experiences with labour camps and severly restricted personal freedoms. Wealth distribution anywhere but on the margin is evil.

For those upthread who were asking about the “C” in CAGW: CAGW used to stand for Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. It now stands for Citizens Against Government Waste.

Pablo an ex Pat [November 1, 2010 at 7:49 pm] says:
“As an immigrant to the US I believe I have a perspective that a lot of Americans do not have and certainly those who haven’t lived here cannot have.
I believe that the US is the best place in the world for people to achieve personal growth. It is that way because by and large people here do not like being told what to do and prefer to do it for themselves.
I love it here and would not choose to live anywhere else. I was offered the chance to relocate back to my homeland by my current employer a couple of years ago. It took me less than half a second to say no, and that included thinking time.
God Bless America – it sounds corny to some maybe but I mean it most sincerely.”

James Sexton [November 1, 2010 at 7:57 pm] says:
“Thank you Pablo. It is people like you that keep this nation great. Welcome and God bless.”

I wholeheartedly second that motion. Welcome and thanks for the reminder of what many natural-born folks take for granted.
Well it’s way too late to get into this thread (158 comments already). Besides, the polls open here soon, and I will be first in the door.
Just a reminder to everyone, it has taken 100 years for the progressives/socialists to turn America from the home of the brave to a welfare state where close to 50% of the voters are feeding off the other 50%.
This election cannot fix everything, it will take at least a generation. And although we can expect a political tidal wave and we can afford to revel in it a bit, we must turn our attention to those Congressional seats we failed to gain, and those Senate and Governorships that come up in future cycles. Even if we miss a few Senate seats, six years is not that long and we’ll get them next time. I just suggest one thing, only voting for people that intend on respecting the Constitution.
So let’s go take out the trash!

davidmhoffer says:
November 1, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Tell me, how many Norwegian troops are there in South Korea helping out? Swedish? Danish? German? Well, you probably help out in other trouble spots in the world instead like Afghanistan. Oh wait, that’s almost all Americans plus some Canadians. There’s other countries there too of course, happy to help out… as long as there’s no fighting, they only send small numbers of troops for non combat roles.
=============================================================
I trust you aren’t including the British in your rant. The latest figures from the MoD state that there have been 342 British fatalities in Afghanistan against the number quoted by the CBC website which gives the number of Canadian fatalities as 152.
Apologies if this sounds as though it’s a kind of macho league table of deaths; it’s not meant to be that, it’s just making the point that your criticism of non-US participants in Afghanistan is somewhat misplaced, at least in some respects.
I love the US and visit it every year, mainly because of the NFL. One live game per year is not enough for me. Go Raiders!

DaveF 3:49 am
Yeh Dave, thanks for the clarity, but I was responding to this comment,“My relatives in Norway live under a government that is far closer to socialism than the USA has ever been. Ditto for Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, etc. These countries are ahead of the US …..blather, blather, …” I hope you can see how I was been inclusive rather than errantly selective.

davidmhoffer says:
November 1, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Thank you.

davidmhoffer says:
November 1, 2010 at 10:32 pm
For Owen
(and the rest of the American bashers)
Great post David…
But the problem is that everyone and his brother wants the USA to help out in times of trouble, but commence US-bashing once the troubles are over…1st world war, 2nd world war, cold war..islamic terrorism…tsunamis… earthquakes.. famines….. you name it, everyone wants the US’s help but nobody really helps out in international conflicts, save maybe, for the UK.
But consider this.. The UN is considering accepting IRAN on some UN committee for the advancment of woman….we might just as well put in a wild tiger in the penn to protect the sheep. The UN is Man’s enemy no. 1 and unfortunately the US is financing it big..

Well said! – bravo Dr Spencer!

@”Anton says:
November 1, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Who does the quality of life rankings? The U.N.? Do you see millions of people around the world trying to immigrate to Scandinavia?”
Uh… yes. Yes, that is exactly what millions of people around the world is trying to do.
@”evanmjones says:
November 1, 2010 at 7:57 pm
The only trickle down effect I have ever felt is from the sibling in the bunk above me when I was a very young child.
If you ever worked for a boss, then, by definition, you experienced it again even if you failed to feel it.”
If this is true, then by definition no boss or company owner with an employee would be able to make money. You don’t hire an employee to ‘trickle’ your wealth away at him. You hire him so that his wealth (defined by his work) flows into your company, and you trickle back the equivalent value (more or less) in the form of pay.

Dr Spencer, thank you for that beautifully clear, cogent, rational and well-argued statement. I haven’t yet read your book but it’s definitely now on my reading list. I wish you every success in continuing to try and get that message across – and against those who will go on doing their utmost to denigrate, distort and deny the truth of what you’re saying. I wish you could come over here and beat some sense into the heads of the UK politicians who are, almost without exception, hell-bent on driving this country into the ground on the back of the CAGW mantra.

Mr Green Genes;
I trust you aren’t including the British in your rant.>>
Error of omission on my part. To add to that, Britain stepped up in Iraq. WMD’s or not, it was British and American fighter bombers that, for ten years prior to invading Iraq, flew daily missions to prevent Sadam Hussein from exterminating the Kurds. DAILY for TEN YEARS. In the same vein, Britain showed up, as did Canada and others, to put an end to the attempted extermination of the Muslim Albanians in Bosnia. Number of Saudi troops there to support their Muslim brothers? 0. Egyptian? 0. Syrian? 0. Norway, Sweden, etc? Don’t recall but insignificant at best.
Sad however that in the recent flare up between Britain and Argentina re the Falklands, the president of the “new” USA took a neutral position.

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.
~ H.L.Mencken

From Each According to His Ability to Each According to His Need
Student; Uhm, I got every question on this exam correct. Why is my mark 67%?
Professor; We needed your marks for something else.
Student; And my lab partner hardly got any right at all, be he got 67% too.
Professor; Yes, that’s what we needed your marks for, we gave some of them to him.
Student; Why him?
Professor; Because he needed them.
Student; Why take them from me?
Professor; Because you have the ability.
Student; So, if I don’t study at all, don’t learn the material, I’ll get 67% anyway?
Professor; No, you will go to jail for shirking your responsibility to the State.
Student; If you put me in jail, who will build that nuclear reactor you need so bad?
Professor; Your lab partner.
Student; Are you insane? He’s a moron. He doesn’t have a clue what he is doing.
Professor; Not true. Look at his last exam paper. 67%, just like you. Suggesting you are smarter than him is elitist, and threatening to not study makes you a traitor. I’m confiscating the rest of your marks and giving them to your lab partner. You will go to jail and he will be a genius with a mark of 200%.
20 Years Later
Scientist – hey, we can’t run this experiment in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor because it exceeds design limits and the safety systems trigger a shut down.
Genius – Well, turn the safety systems off then.
Scientist – is that safe?
Genius – Of course. I looked at the numbers and decided it is safe. After all, I’m a genius.

Oops, I was sleepy, groggy, and dozing off. Sorry.
Well, I’m off to vote for people who can remember how many cars and houses they own.
not filthy rich old coots coaxing a ton of mileage off doing his duty

Ed Murphy says:
November 2, 2010 at 9:03 am
Oops, I was sleepy, groggy, and dozing off. Sorry.
Well, I’m off to vote for people who can remember how many cars and houses they own.
not filthy rich old coots coaxing a ton of mileage off doing his duty
=======================================================
Go get ’em tiger! Maybe if we try hard enough we can make sure none of our representatives were ever financially successful or served in our nation’s military. I’m sure that’d be a big help! Maybe if we found a very effective community organizer……….

latitude;
YW
It may be appropriate to repeat the words of one of the most famed journalists in Canadian history, Gordon Sinclair. He had enough of the American bashing and said so on his radio talk show. If you read through the following transcript, you will see his firm support for the role of the United States in the world, and his unwavering belief that the Americans would put the recent market crash behind them, get their act together, and once more lead the free world on all fronts. Keep in mind as you read it that market crash in question was in 1973, and came during a much maligned United States withdrawl from Vietnam:
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help… Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I’d like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on… let’s hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don’t they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times … and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them … unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind … as they will… who could blame them if they said ‘the hell with the rest of the world’. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won’t shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don’t think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year’s disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody…but nobody… has helped.
Gordon Sinclair
1973
Since read into the Congressional Record multiple times
a couple of tiny tweaks, and he could be speaking of today.
and he would be right (again)

“Maybe if we found a very effective community organizer……….”
LOL – Like Gore, Cameron or Mann 😉

“”””” Peter Taylor says:
November 2, 2010 at 5:15 am
I have recently completed a review on international development – investments from the private sector and official aid run to $250 billion per annum, with about equal amounts in the two sectors. Most official aid goes to help national budgets. Less than 10% of that aid or investment reaches the poorest 2 billion people without adequate food and water, with impoverished soils, poor sanitation, poor health and virtually no role in the wider economy. “””””
Well Peter; if we had just all stayed in Africa, then we all could be living like President Barack Hussein Obama’s destitute half brother in his native Kenya; which the First Lady describes as Barack’s Country. Well then there wouldn’t be so many of us; and there wouldn’t be any of those “indigenous ” peoples to come to the new world, and figure out how to drive a herd of buffalo over a cliff; to get a steak dinner.
Left to their own ends some peoples in every region of this planet, have created wonderful things; from Cambodia to the jungles of Guatemala. But most of the worlds people have accomplished exactly nothing; but their own disease ridden subsistence.
And it wasn’t central planners who created those wonders, and provided for the betterment of a large segment of the world community.
I once attended a lecture by an esteemed Stanford Economist Professor; and he declared that we could completely bankrupt all the economies of the developed world; and sitll never solve the problems of Africa. Those people have to want to do it themselves; and surprisingly a great many of them have; and done it in the face of genocidal wars among themselves. We can help them; we can encourage them; we can help educate them; but we can’t make them successful; they have to do that themselves. Same goes for lots of other places. You cannot thrust the good life on people who don’t seem to want it.

brad says:
November 1, 2010 at 4:51 pm
“Add up the things you want to cut, I bet they dont touch the deficit. We should have a higher tax rate over 250K, and another over 1 million.”
You are caught up in the Money Myth, the idea that, if poor people just had more money, they’d be rich. But, the wealth of a nation is not in the number of dollars it can print and allocate. It is in the real assets it holds, and the goods and services it can produce.
If you take all the money and real assets from the top 1% and distribute it among the poor, you will make them marginally better off for a few months at best. But, you will have “eaten the seed corn” which provides next year’s harvest.
Rich people, because of physical limits and because they are such a small portion of society, do not consume significant wealth which otherwise could be consumed by others. That is not what their possession of mere money does for them. What it does do is allow them to allocate resources and organize ventures to address needs and create new wealth to be shared by all. Either they do it, or the government does, but the government doesn’t do it even half as well, and government types have a tendency to gather wealth and perquisites themselves.
You will not raise the poor to a sustainable higher level of prosperity by ever more artful division of a static “pie”, but only by growing that pie so that there is more to go around for everyone. At some point, when one reaches maturity, one learns to accept that there will always be those who have better looks, better lives, more money, and more prestige than oneself. Some undeservedly, in one’s eyes. But, one will never pull oneself up by pulling them down. Quite the opposite, one will only make one’s own life harder, and diminish prospects for prosperity for those one loves and cares for.
Owen says:
November 1, 2010 at 6:13 pm
“My relatives in Norway live under a government that is far closer to socialism than the USA has ever been. Ditto for Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, etc.”
As others have noted, it is hardly fair to compare the US with Norway, the Saudi Arabia of the North Sea. As for the others, they are currently retreating from the Socialist model, and we outrank them in any case.

@ davidmhoffer
“Tell me, how many Norwegian troops are there in South Korea helping out? Swedish? Danish? German? Well, you probably help out in other trouble spots in the world instead like Afghanistan. Oh wait, that’s almost all Americans plus some Canadians.”
Perhaps you should have taken the trouble to find out what European countries are or have contributed to the campaign in Afghanistan. There is a list of the numbers of fatal casualties from each of the Coalition countries at the Operation Enduring Freedom website.
http://icasualties.org/oef/
Denmark has lost 38 soldiers so far. That does not sound a lot, but since the population of the country is less than 5,500,000 Denmark’s losses are more proportionately than those of Canada or the United Kingdom or the United States.
A little appreciation would not go amiss.

Roy;
Perhaps you should have taken the trouble to find out what European countries are or have contributed to the campaign in Afghanistan. Denmark has lost 38 soldiers so far. That does not sound a lot, but since the population of the country is less than 5,500,000 Denmark’s losses are more proportionately than those of Canada or the United Kingdom or the United States. >>
Again, I was making a general point, and the error of omission is mine. I’m glad to learn that Denmark is doing its part in Afghanistan, and my condolences to those families who have lost loved ones in the service of their country and humanity.
But my point, errors of omission noted, stands. Over half the casualties in Afghanistan are American. If that were the only war to talk about, your “by proportion” point would carry weight. But the Americans suffered the bulk of the casualties in Kuwait, and Bosnia and others. The bulk of the troops standing gaurd over south Korea are American. It is American air craft carriers off the coast of Taiwan that makes China think carefully about the consequences of invasion, it was the American nuclear umbrella that halted further expansion of the USSR… Glad to know Denmark is doing their part in Afghanistan. But the Americans are doing their part ALMOST EVERYWHERE and no other country can say that.

@ James Sexton
Thanks James for your considerate response to my reply to David’s message. I hope you weren’t offended by my somewhat intemperate reply to your earlier message regarding Norway. It is often tempting to assume that you need to be pretty blunt to get a point across to other people but your reply to my message, and your replies to messages from some of the other people, show that I misjudged you.
Please accept my apologies.